Courtesy: Andrea Block
Mark Urban contributed to this report.
David Sims of Illinois Masters’ swimming broke the USMS National Record in the 200 yard fly on Sunday at the Illinois Masters Swimming Association (ILMSA) Short Course State Swimming Championships. The meet was held across the border at Munster High School in Munster, Indiana.
The 55-year old Sims finished in 2:01.67, which broke the old mark of 2:03.18 that was set by Brad Horner in 2010. Sims also holds the 50-54 record set in 2016 (when he was already well into the age group) with a 1:58.49. In 2013, he became the oldest man to break 2 minutes in the event.
Sims was a part of the group of athletes that qualified to represent the United States at the 1980 Olympic Games but didn’t get the chance when the U.S. boycotted the event; he was scheduled to swim the 1500 free. Most of his major youth exploits came as a distance freestyler, including a YMCA National Championship in the 1650 free in 1978, a Junior National championship in the 400 meter free in 1979, and a 1650 free U.S. senior National Title in 1980. He then took 2nd in the 1500 meter free at the 1980 USA National Long Course Championships that served as a replacement for the cancelled Olympic Trials.
Excellent.
I’m just impressed that a distance freestyle legend is making waves with a 200 Butterfly. As something of a distance free “hobbyist” myself back in the day, you wouldn’t catch me doing anything over a 50 yards of fly if I can help it.
Well done!
David, I’m proud of you. I am sorry you were deprived of your chance to appear on the world’s biggest stage, but I do so admire your focusing on the love of sport for ones whole lifetime, and I hope to be able to exhibit even a tiny percentage of your level of integrity in my life. Go get ’em!!
Arguably my best ever swim was in that Munster pool. Kind of cool to see it featured in Swimswam.
Congratulations, David! See you at USMS Spring Nats in a few weeks.
Wait, was that misspelling of his name at the beginning intentional? Either way, tip of the hat…..
Congratulations, Dave! In your honor, here’s an excerpt from the 1981 YMCA Nat’s meet program: Event #32: Men’s 1650; National Record: Dave Sims, 15:19:24; “This Event Sponsored By: David Sims 1980 Olympian”. All of you, I noticed that the preceding page is an advertisement from Hewlett Packard, selling a small business computer solutions, beginning at $28,100 … I paged through some more, and found the “Goggl’Cap”. Anyone remember those? I tested one of them, and thought I was going in on something big (I was promised that I would be an endorser)!
Great swim, but we’ll be looking for sub 2:00 next month at USMS Nationals in Indy!
C’mon, Kirk, don’t egg him on. We don’t need any more records out of reach!
Great swim, Mr. Sims.