Back in the Fast Lane
One Member shares how a family moment at the Sky Pool reignited his passion for competitive swimming.
Kevin Quinn never imagined he’d be ranked first in the United States at age 49, much less beat Olympic legend and former world-record holder Matt Biondi.
But that’s just what the Club Member did in 2024, when he won eight gold and two silver medals at national swim meets in the US.
The journey started unexpectedly three years ago, when his daughter Yuriya, on the verge of her first meet, turned to Dad for support. Quinn, who was urged into the pool by his parents at age 3 and was a swimmer and scholarship water polo player at the University of California, Davis, had hung up his competitive goggles years ago. While he had continued to swim for fitness after graduation, attempts to break records were a distant memory.
“She was 10 and had never competed in anything,” Quinn recalls. “She said, ‘Dad, it looks like adults can join, too. Why don’t you do it with me?’ I thought, I’m in okay shape, so I agreed. It was my first time competing in about 25 years.”
Once in the water, Quinn found that his drive came back right away.
“From the very first race, I was like, all right, where’s the next one I can sign up for? I know I can do better than that. It was just, all of a sudden, we’re doing this!”
With determination and the help of the Club facilities, he has returned to form.
“I started with a pretty notable gap, as you might imagine. But over the past three years, I’ve pulled within striking distance of my university times,” he explains.
Quinn trains at the Club every day. Three days are spent at the Sky Pool doing high-intensity race drills. “You perform how you practice is my philosophy,” he says. The other days are devoted to fast-paced runs to boost his aerobic capacity and stamina along with weightlifting in the Fitness Center.
“As we get older, we have a lot of muscle deterioration, so I lift pretty hard, targeting muscles needed to swim short distances very quickly; everything is specifically for the motions that make me swim faster,” Quinn says. “Most swimmers my age are not lifting that hard. I think that’s a big part of why I’m doing so well.”
This regimen, he adds, is very different from the approach that was common in the mid-1990s, when he left the UC Davis swim team as a sophomore to focus on water polo.
“I’ve always regretted leaving. I think that’s part of the reason that I’m kind of making up for lost time, or trying to figure out what I left on the table.”
Last year, Quinn returned to California to compete in two major meets: the US Masters Swimming Summer Nationals in Mission Viejo in August and the Short Course Meters Championships in Long Beach in December.
The intense training at the Club paid off. At the Summer Nationals, he finished first in the 45 to 49 age group in the men’s 50-meter butterfly as well as the 50- and 100-meter freestyle races. He also placed second in the 50-meter breaststroke and first in two relay events, the men’s 200-meter freestyle and the mixed 200-meter freestyle. At the Short Course Meters Championships, he won five golds and one silver, as well as the overall highest ranking for ages 45 to 49. And four of Quinn’s races were recognized as All-American, making them the fastest times recorded in the US in 2024 for his age group.
“My favorite highlight of the year, though,” Quinn notes, “was that I beat Matt Biondi twice. As a kid, he was the guy I looked up to. I remember watching him get the gold medal at the Olympics, just jumping up and down. He’s 10 years older than me, so it’s definitely not an apples-to-apples comparison, but it’s still pretty cool.”
The next stop for Quinn will be competitions in Japan during March and April, and then the World Aquatics Masters Championships in Singapore, from August 7 to 14.
“This year, I’ll move up to the 50 to 55 age group. Being among the youngest, if I’m ever going to be number one in the world—which is kind of a goal in this whole thing—then this is my big year. There’s going to be no better chance. I don’t know if it’s realistic, but I’m going to swing for it and see what happens.”
Words: C Bryan Jones
Images: (top to bottom) Kevin Quinn at races at the US Masters Swimming 2024 Summer Nationals; Quinn at the 2024 Short Course Meters Championships
March 2025
