Thomas Petersen is an active 70-year-old open water swimmer, coach and triathlete from Tampa, Florida.
The extraordinarily energetic masters athlete has traveled all over his home state of Florida and as far away as San Francisco and the Cayman Islands to compete in his chosen sports.
His speed remains mightily impressive.
He finished 370th out of 1,000 swimmers at the Flowers Sea Swim in the Cayman Islands this year. But he has also regularly competes in the Hurricane Man Rough Water Swim, the Tropical Splash, sprint triathlons and the Alcatraz crossing as well as retains his credentials as a United States Masters Swimming Level 2 Certified Coach.
He also serves as a Swim Smooth clinic coach in Florida working in cooperation with Swim Smooth co-founder Paul Newsome.
He does all this in the open water despite working full time. He is certainly thinking of no retirement from competitions anytime soon.
Southern California native, born 1962, is the creator of the WOWSA Awards, Oceans Seven, Openwaterpedia, Citrus Corps, World Open Water Swimming Association, Daily News of Open Water Swimming, Global Open Water Swimming Conference. He is Chief Executive Officer of KAATSU Global and KAATSU Research Institute. Inductee in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Swimmer, Class of 2001) and Ice Swimming Hall of Fame (Honor Contributor - Media, Class of 2019), recipient of the International Swimming Hall of Fame's Poseidon Award (2016), International Swimming Hall of Fame's Irving Davids-Captain Roger Wheeler Memorial Award (2010), USA Swimming's Glen S. Hummer Award (2007, 2010) and Harvard University's John B. Imrie Award (1984). Served on the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and as Technical Delegate with the 2011 Special Olympics World Summer Games, and 9-time USA Swimming coaching staff. Note: WOWSA only recommends products or services used or recommended by the community. WOWSA does not receive compensation for links or products mentioned on this site or in blog posts. If it does, it will be indicated clearly on that specific post. See WOWSA's privacy policy for more information.