In 2018, ZIBRIO, the balance company, profiled masters swimmer, DeEtte Sauer, and her inspirational story of how she went from being seriously overweight, unhealthy and unhappy to competing and winning medals at masters swim events and the National Senior Games. Her realization that something had to change came in her 50’s. She had never competed in sports, never done much exercise (perhaps in common with many of her generation: before Title IX and at a time when ‘feminine’ attributes were centered around domestic or decorative abilities).

Now that she’s in her 80’s, has she slowed down at all, and what have the last 3 years brought her?

The slowing down question is the easiest to answer: not a bit of it. As of March 2022, she’s ranked #1 in 200m butterfly for her age group. She still gets up early every morning for swim training, still starts every day laughing. In fact, she’s competing in the US Master’s swim event just a week before the National Senior Games this year. “It’s not ideal, but with the schedules getting messed around by COVID, I’ll just go and do my best,” she said.

ZIBRIO: What have you been doing since we last spoke?

DeEtte: Well, 2019 was the National Senior Games in Albuquerque. It was wonderful, I had a blast. I think they did the best job – as a city – to make the athletes feel welcome. Everywhere we went, people knew about the Games, they welcomed us.

I was at the top of my age group there, and I still medaled, including 1 gold medal. 

2021 was my chance to get all golds, because I’d aged up into the next category, but COVID had other ideas! Still, I’m so grateful as my club was only closed for 2 months during 2020, and the rest of the time, even if the team weren’t there training, I met with a training buddy and we were in the pool every day for most of that year. 

When I met up with other swimmers in late 2020, their gyms had been closed for a lot longer. I’m so pleased I managed to keep fit and keep training, both inside and outside the pool. When I competed in the National Championships in October 2021, I did better than I’d dreamed. I’m so grateful for that.

ZIBRIO: What did you do when you couldn’t swim?

DeEtte: I used a fit ball in my living room, I did a lot of walking – 3 miles a day –  and other exercise at home to simulate swimming. I made sure that my husband and I kept active. Even though we got COVID.

We Got COVID

ZIBRIO: Oh wow, how did you cope with that?

DeEtte: Well, my husband is 89 and only has 50% of his lungs, so I was really worried about him. We both felt awful, no-one could come check on us because of social distancing, and the doctor told us to stay separate from each other, so I’d wake up every hour to go to the other side of the house to check on him. I was terrified that his lungs would just give up on him. 

We felt so terrible at one stage that we worried we’d survive and called 911. The nicest guys from the EMS came out (they were pretty cute too), and they told us we were doing ok, and that we’d be ok at home. But they also said they’d come back if we called them – in an hour, a day, several days. That made such a difference, because suddenly we didn’t feel so alone. 

And, we survived. I made us walk around and stay active. I kept saying to my husband “We’re going to beat this thing. We have to keep moving.” I had this horrible brain fog for a while, but it’s gone now, thank goodness.

You Have to Keep Moving

ZIBRIO: So what are your plans for 2022? Has anything changed in your attitude since your experience in the pandemic?

DeEtte: You just have to get out there. I’m looking forward to competing in the National Senior Games and in the Masters swimming. 

ZIBRIO: What’s the competition like this year?

DeEtte: The women’s competition really splits in two tiers: the women who started young, who were competitive in college, did the Olympics and never stopped. Then there’s the tier of those of us who started swimming as adults. I’ve managed to break into the bottom of that top tier, and last year I would have been most competitive, sandwiched between these awesome women above me, and more awesome women coming up from the younger ranks. I’m really looking forward to meeting them in the pool this year!

ZIBRIO: What has changed in your approach for 2022?

DeEtte: Well, this year at the National Senior Games, I’m competing in the 50m, 100m, 200m butterfly and the 100m, 200m, 500m freestyle. I would usually also compete in backstroke, but it’s outdoors, and I find that, as I have Meunier’s Disease, I can’t do backstroke outside, as it messes with your sense of balance, and there’s no focal point you can use outside. Apart from that, I’m just going out to do my best, as always.

ZIBRIO: How about life outside swimming, what else has changed?

DeEtte: I knew I had to keep busy when we were stuck at home and everything was closed down. I took courses at Yale online, learned more Spanish, it was great. You have to keep moving. I’m really happy to still work with an after-school enrichment program. That all stopped for a while, but we got back into it in 2021. I love it, teaching and helping young kids to read in English. They need the help and encouragement, and I have the time to give. 

DeEtte is a ZIBRIO Sponsored Athlete at the National Senior Games in Ft Lauderdale, FL this year (May 10-23).