For 31 years, Shirley Loftus-Charley has been swimming in the Chris Greene Lake Swim in Virginia. An outstanding masters swimmer who has dominated her age group going on her fourth decade, she is a fixture in the pool and open water locally and nationally.

In addition to her numerous pool records and honors, she was the overall Chris Greene Lake Swim female winner in 1991, a 9-time national champion and a 23-time winner in her age group.

This year, Shirley finished within 6 seconds of both her son Craig (shown above) and daughter Amy in the two-mile event where she set a national record for the 60-64 age group in 45:38. As she has in the recent past, she doubled up on race day and also set a national age group record in the 1-mile race too (23:07) where she was the second finisher overall among women.

Her history in the Chris Greene Lake Swim is below.

1982 – 48:02.00 2nd (30)
1983 – 51:13.61 1st (31) Son Craig born in May
1984 – 48:08.50 1st (32)
1985 – 50:25.00 2nd (33) Daughter Amy born in May*
1986 – 47:47.00 4th (34)
1987 – 48:32.00 1st (35) National Champion*
1988 – 46:27.00 1st (36) National Champion*
1989 – 45:34.00 1st (37) career best time
1990 – 46:37.00 1st (38) National Champion*
1991 – 45:53.00 1st (39) Overall female winner
1992 – 47:19.54 1st (40)
1993 – 46:21.61 1st (41) National Champion*
1994 – 48:45.51 1st (42) National Champion*
1995 – 49:25.61 1st (43)
1996 – 48:47.08 1st (44) National Champion*
1997 – 48:19.02 1st (45) National Champion*
1998 – 47:53.07 1st (46)
1999 – 48:17.63 2nd (47)*
2000 – 47:59.15 2nd (48)*
2001 – 48:32.00 2nd (49)
2002 – 49:36.25 2nd (50)*
2003 – 50:17.02 1st (51)
2004 – 48:54.51 1st (52)
2005 – 50:05.14 1st (53)
2006 – 49:25.56 2nd (54)*
2007 – 50:16.10 1st (55)
2008 – 47:52.49 1st (56) National Champion*
2009 – 48:51.47 1st (57) Set national record in 1-mile event (24:23)
2010 – 46:37.00 1st (58) National Champion*
2011 – 45:55.10 1st (59) Set U.S. Masters Swimming records in 1-mile (22:39) and 2-mile events
2012 – 45:38.08 1st (60) Set U.S. Masters Swimming records in 1-mile (23:07) and 2-mile events

* denotes when the Chris Greene Lake Swim was a U.S. Masters Swimming national open water swimming championship event

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