Meggan Monday: 96-year-old just keeps on swimming
The Gulf Coast Swim Association just celebrated its 50th anniversary and how fitting for the group to have several competitive swimmers return last week to mark the occasion, along with the man who started it all: Coach Dana Abbott.
He flew in from Texas to reunite with some of his original swimmers and we are excited to introduce you to one of those swimmers: Miss Rose Mary Collins is 96 and still swimming strong.
“I’m so happy for her, that she is doing this. So proud of her. She is just setting an amazing example for everybody.”
“Keeps her fit. It keeps her body and her mind the best it can be.”
Rose Mary’s son Tom Collins said “She loves to swim. She swims in the mornings before work with me, hates to miss it, loves to get in the pool. If I can’t bring her, somebody brings her.”
“I think swimming is one of the sports you can do for a lifetime that doesn’t really beat you up with your joints like jogging does. So, anybody can swim.”
Rose Mary said, “Still get in the pool and do my little swim around and get out.”
“Today is our 50th anniversary of our swim team that was formed in the early 70s with Coach Dana Abbot that came over straight from Tulane and was our first coach and organized the GCSA, Gulf Coast Swim Association, here.”
Coach Abbott said, “She was my surrogate mom when I was here that first summer. I actually lived with the Collins family. We lived in two houses that were back-to-back to each other in College Park. They fed me and provided me room and I coached eight of their 10 kids and she is still swimming. She’s swimming today at 96-years-old. She is still one of the best people I know.”
“We always call my mom coach also that was her nickname. So, coach was always in the back office doing clerk work, doing all the cards, doing all the tallying up everything afterwards.”
“Makes you feel a lot younger because you see all the kids when they were little, they’re not swimmers themselves.”
Rose Mary’s daughter Martha Collins Letard said, “I think she instills courage. Just an amazing part of her life has been raising her children through swimming and now she’s actually getting to be the swimmer and we’re getting to be the cheerleaders.”
“(What is that like for you when you swim in that pool? What’s your mental state?) I’ll let you know when I finish. All I’m worried about is getting from one end of the pool to the other.”
What an inspiration as Rose Mary proves ages can’t slow her down. She has also qualified for the National Senior Games in the summer of 2025.
