95-year-old swimmer’s workouts stun experts as she defies aging, shows others how to stay strong

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A great-grandmother, age 95, is still breaking swimming world records — and the pictures alone demonstrate her remarkably fit physique and health routine.

Jane Asher recently achievedfive age group world records,adding to her already 100-strong collection.

The swimming legend from Merton Park, South London, also has a British Empire Medal for her dedication to the sport.She’s in the International Swimming Hall of Fame as well, as news agency SWNS reported.

Looking back on her long career, which includes 26 gold medals, Asher said she credits her love of the water for hergood health and long-lasting happiness.

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“It does keep you healthy,” she said.“I have taught people who just had surgery — and their doctors were amazed by how much they improved because of the swimming.”

Asher said she wants to “show people what a lot of fun you can have if you like competing andhow good you feelwhen you work hard at something.”

Jane Asher standing outside the pool wearing a jacket and towel.

Jane Asher, a great-grandmother, is still breaking swimming world records at age 95.She’s in the International Swimming Hall of Fame.(SWNS)

She acknowledged that “quite a lot” of young people nowadays “have put on weight.Swimming doesn’t help you to lose weight, but it finds the muscles.… It opened a whole new world for me.It made me happy and healthy.”

Taught by her mother, then teaches others

Born in Zambia, in southern Africa, Asher spent most of her childhood in Johannesburg, she said, where her English mother taught her to swim.Her interest in swimming only grew at boarding school, where she was allowed touse the pool on her ownin the mornings, mostly doing the backstroke.

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Today, Asher is a grandmother of 11 and a great-grandmother of six — and wherever she’s lived throughout her life, she’s always joined local swim teams, per the SWNS report.

“It opened a whole new world for me.It made me happy and healthy.”
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Once she even joined a rowing club just to be in the water.

Asher married a vet named Robbie — and when he had an accident at work, she decided to get a job teaching swimming at the local school to helppay the family bills.

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She said her mother “was taught toswim in the sea in Cornwalland was addicted to water.We spent all of our free time just jumping in and out of the water.I took to it quite quickly.”

In Asher’s very first swim race, “a girl said that I kicked like hell.It was because my mother was watching.Now every time I have a backstroke race, I think, ‘Mom is up there watching.’”

Jane Asher with her swim friends talking outside the pool.

Looking back on her long career, which includes 26 gold medals, Asher, at center, credits her love of the water for her health and happiness.(SWNS)

After transitioning to teaching adults how to swim, Asher started entering swimming competitions when she was 50 years old.She broke 100 records by age 80.

The legendary swimmer broke her first European record at a 800m race in Crystal Palace — after a wedding whereshe’d had a few drinks.

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To this day, she competes in several different races, but said her favorite swim race is the individual medley, which involves backstroke, breaststroke, front crawl and butterfly.

Said Asher, “When my husband died, I started filling the time, but it was hard because there is this big hole in your life.But swimming has given me such good friends, and they give back to me.All of my kidsare very sporty, and I am very proud of them, and I didn’t realize that they are proud of me.”

Jane Asher and her swim friends standing outside the pool.

Asher, center, with some of her swimming teammates.Her advice for the younger crowd is to keep active and swim wherever and whenever they can.(SWNS)

She noted, “Without friends, life doesn’t happen.There is always somebody pushing you on.I think that is what keeps me going — [knowing that] somebody [is] waiting for me.”

keep active and swimwherever they can in order to be healthy.