PORTRAIT OF A WORLD RECORD HOLDER: JAN JEFFREY
World Records don’t just happen. They require a great deal of talent, hard work and for Masters Swimmers, a little bit of luck with injury and illness!
Stonnington resident and Malvern Marlins swimmer, Jan Jeffrey, managed to get the balance just right on Sunday 17 May at the Victorian Long Course Championships at MSAC. Her time of 3:21.61 for the Women’s 65-69 years 200m Breaststroke eclipsed the previous World Record by more than three seconds. With the magnitude of achievement still sinking in, Jan mused; “To have been able to swim the 200m breaststroke better than anyone else in the world at my age, is hard to believe”.
Jan was born into a ‘swimming family’. She, her parents and four siblings were all active members of the Surrey Park Swimming Club in the 60s. Her mother, Joyce Lyall (94yrs) remains the club’s oldest life member and father, Jim was a veteran of the Three Mile Yarra River Swim. It was Jim who taught Jan to swim during a family holiday at Rye beach, when she was eight years old. At the time, she had difficulty mastering the breathing in freestyle, but took to backstroke and “funny, froggy breaststroke”.
Jan’s ability was quickly recognised and developed. Supported by the club, she competed in the 10 and under age group at the Victorian Championships and won all the backstroke and breaststroke events, with her father/coach proudly looking on. Unfortunately, he was to pass away only a couple of months later.
Jan continued swimming competitively, predominantly as a backstroker, under Coach Bill Atkinson.
She was undefeated in all the backstroke events of her career in Victoria. At seventeen years of age, she was unlucky to miss out on qualifying for the Mexico Olympics, finishing second in the 100m Backstroke at the 1968 Australian Championships.
Leaving junior swimming behind, Jan fulfilled her dream of becoming a teacher and spent many years at Caulfield Grammar Malvern Campus. She also married and raised two children. During this time, supporting their sporting interests became her priority. Andrew represented Australia in Junior World Pentathlon Championships and Sarah was a keen horse rider. The family were also members of Pt Leo SLSC.
At 40, Jan was diagnosed with a kidney disease, which required that she get fit in order to maintain her health. She returned to the pool, but lacked motivation when swimming on her own at HHSC.
After noticing a group of masters’ swimmers also churning up and down the black line, but having fun, she joined the Marlins in 1993 at 43 years of age.
Jan discovered that she still had the desire to race and within a couple of years was breaking records. Along with the club’s sessions, Jan’s sister Bev came on board as a coach and Andrew started swimming with her once a week. A modest, but quietly determined champion, she currently holds 45 individual State Records and twelve National Records, across five masters’ age groups and in all strokes. Her 400m Backstroke time set in 1999 still stands.
These performances are especially significant as they have been interspersed with illness and injuries. In 2013 Jan underwent cardiac ablation to counter debilitating atrial fibrillation. She also worked hard to overcome (or manage) injuries to her neck, shoulders, back, arm, legs, knees and
feet. She alternated gym sessions with her three swimming training sessions each week and began to focus on breaststroke, mainly because it was easier on her shoulders!
In the years leading up to her World Record, four of Jan’s Breaststroke times were included in the
‘All-time Best’ FINA Masters World Top 10 listings.
She has also collected a swag of awards from the club, as well as being voted MSV Coach of the Year in 2009, a finalist in the COTA Active At All Ages Awards in 2010 and winner of the Vic Sport Award (Masters) in 2011.
Jan has contributed on the Marlins committee as President and Vice President and extended her love of the sport into coaching. For more than ten years now, she has shared her knowledge and encouraged others to perform at their best during her weekly Tuesday morning sessions. This contribution was recognised when she was made a life member of the Marlins in 2014.
Jan balances her active lifestyle with a love of painting, caravanning/travelling and spending time with family. She attributes much of her success to the care and support from her training and life partner of twenty years Gerry Tucker, also an accomplished master’s swimmer.
Incidentally, Jim Lyall would have been pleased to know that his daughter did eventually master the timing for freestyle breathing and added Open Water Swimming to her repertoire. She has won her age group of the prestigious Lorne Pier to Pub an incredible nine times, as well as countless other ocean swims. Jan is also now just 0.33sec off the Women’s 65-69 years World Record for the 50m Freestyle, with four years in the age group ahead of her!
*STOP PRESS: At the Victorian Short Course Championships held on Saturday 18 July, in the last individual event of the day, Jan also broke the Short Course 200m Breaststroke World Record, with her time of 3:10.75 (subject to ratification) taking over 4 seconds off the old mark.
Jan will be competing again in August, at the 16th FINA World Masters Championships in Kazan, Russia!
