AT AGE 87, swimmer Jan Scott is already in training for her next Pan Pacific Masters Games, after bringing home three medals from this year’s event in Southport.
Jan collected gold medals for the 50m freestyle and 50m backstroke and a silver for the 50m breaststroke.
“Ha, you might say, but I have to be brutally honest and tell you quietly that there were only five women in total competing in my category,” Jan said.
But from her perspective, it is all about the competition.
“That’s what keeps me doing this – the challenge, the training and the competition, pitting yourself against other people,” she said.
Jan said she had also made friends during the Games, and had been looking forward to competing against the same people again this year, in her third Games.
“Some previous competitors weren’t there. They have either died or given up. It makes me sad,” she said.
This year’s Games were also an escape from a turbulent year for Jan, after losing her husband of 65 years.
“It nearly stopped me. I didn’t think I had it in me, what with his death and all the legal stuff you have to do after that and then I thought he would want me to do it.”
