Holding Back the Years.

This article focuses on matters related to swimming and aging. Everybody knows that as one grows older one needs to lose strength, the vital capacity and oxygen uptake declines, the body fat percentage increases, people become less flexible and, in many cases, brittle. Since then, Karlyn — now Karlyn Pipes-Neilsen and 43 years old — has continued to swim…and continued to post lifetime bests in her late 30s and even early 40s. Take the 200 yard fly, for example. Recognized as one of the three or four greatest female Masters swimmers in the world, she currently holds a total of 87 U.S. national records and 49 world records simultaneously in three age groups and in every discipline except breaststroke.