Gabrielle Rose, the oldest swimmer in the competition at 46, reaches the semi-final

US Olympic selections: Gabrielle Rose, the oldest swimmer in the competition at 46, reaches the surprise semi-final

During her career as an elite swimmer, Gabrielle Rose represented two countries at the Olympics, Brazil in 1996 and the United States in 2000. She has won international medals at events such as the World Championships, Pan Pacific Championships and Pan American Games. She thought her major competitive swimming career was over after the 2004 Olympic Trials.

But as she launched into the Masters competition, she achieved surprisingly fast results. The spark for trying to qualify for the Olympic Trials came during the Masters National Championships in Irvine, Calif., last spring.

“I achieved the best thing in my life,” Rose said. “I didn’t expect to reach my lifetime best at 45. So I say to myself, ‘Let’s see what’s possible.’ This coincides with the Olympic year and the Olympic trials. I really loved going back to my roots as a professional athlete.

That path took Rose to a semifinal at the Olympic Trials on Sunday night, sealed by finishing 11th in the 100m breaststroke preliminary round in the morning session.

Swimming last spring put Rose first in the Olympic Trials race. Previously, she focused on freestyle, butterfly and individual medley events, but breaststroke became her priority. “It was my stroke,” she said. “That’s when I knew there was something special about swimming, because of breaststroke. I set a national age group record at 12 and then lost it. It took a few decades, but I found it.

In late 2023, she made stunning progress in the 100 breaststroke, dropping her Masters world record from 1:12.34 to 1:11.68 before a November swim where she shaved the time by almost two more seconds . The mark of 1:09.82 was lower than the Olympic trials time of 1:10.29.

This gave Rose the opportunity to swim at the Olympic trials in an NFL stadium, a significant step up from the temporary stadium in Long Beach, California, in which she competed in her most recent trials, or the IUPUI Natatorium located a few blocks away. Indianapolis where she qualified for the American team in 2000. Now 46 years old, Rose would be the oldest swimmer in the competition.

With her seeding time lowered to 1:09.13, Rose swam the seventh heat of the preliminaries on Sunday, one before the circle heats. Rose made another huge leap in 1:08.43, the fastest of the session by almost half a second. The crowd inside Lucas Oil Stadium then let out its loudest cheers of the day in recognition of his improbable return. Rose called the reaction “really, really moving.”

After the next three rounds, Rose placed 11th, with her ticket to the semi-finals assured.

“That was my big goal. I was really nervous because I just wanted to swim like I can,” Rose said of her performance. “I’m just relieved that the swimming I knew I was capable of came out at that point. And I was so nervous. I was surprised how nervous I was during this competition, after experiencing that.

In the second semi-final on Sunday evening, Rose will run three lanes behind the 2016 Olympic champion and world record holder. Lilly King, who is the second oldest swimmer in the field. King was born in 1997, about six months after the conclusion of Rose’s first Olympics. No other top 16 was born in the 20th century.

But Rose isn’t worried about her age, even though she knows she won’t qualify for the Olympics. Just being part of this historic Trials event is enough, and now, with her long-term goal of qualifying and an even longer chance of reaching the semi-finals, Rose is playing with house money while proudly championing what older swimmers and athletes can achieve.

“I like to think of myself as young,” Rose said. “I consider myself really lucky to feel so young and so strong, and to have this experience, without really identifying with the older people. I just hope to show people that you are capable of doing more. You may have more energy and more strength than you thought possible. I want women in particular to not be afraid to be strong, to lift weights, to take care of themselves and to just know that they can have so much more.