2 0 1 7 F L O R I D A S E N I O R G A M E S C O M M E M O R A T I V E P R O G R A M
I N S I D E T H E G A M E S
Swimmer celebrates FSG’s 25th year
This article appeared in the January/
February, 2017 edition of the Florida
Department of Elder Affairs Elder Update
Among the more than 200
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swimmers gliding along the lanes
in Clearwater’s Long Center Pool
at the 2016 25th Anniversary Florida
Senior Games was Doris Prokopi,
the 1994 Florida Senior Games State
Championships Female Athlete of the
Year.W
hen Doris earned the 1994 Athlete
of the Year Award, she was swimming in
the 55-59 age group. Since then she has
advanced into the 80-84 age group. She
will still swim six events over two days
and will win gold medals in the breast
stroke, her best events.
“When I start something, I stick
with it,” said Prokopi, who was born in
Cologne, Germany and still counts laps
in German. “Swimming is my life now.
It got into me and I can’t get away from
it. I started with the Masters Swimming
and was good from the start. I don’t
really know why either. I’ve never had a
coach.”
Since her first Florida Senior Games
in 1993, Prokopi has swam in 18 of the
25 Florida Senior Games competitions
and is a regular competitor at the Polk
Senior Games in the spring and the
Tampa Bay Senior Games in the fall.
In the Florida Senior Games Series
Qualifiers, she registers for as many
events as her schedule allows – Track
and Field running events, bag toss,
billiards, darts.
“I’m not sure if I’m a very good runner
but I do it,” Prokopi said.
It’s still in the pool where Doris
excels. She was honored at the 2016
Polk Senior Games with a “Stretch”
Award for winning a gold medal in the
100 Yard Breaststroke for 21 consecutive
years.
“She has been an outstanding
swimmer winning many medals and
holding many records,” said Polk Senior
Games Executive Director, Deena
Wilbur. “She has also competed in a
variety of events through the years and
is a popular competitor because she is
friendly and encouraging to others.”
In her 18 Florida Senior Games she has
won over 70 swimming gold medals and
100 medals total.
She began her Senior Games
swimming endeavor after being a
“swimming mom,” taking her two sons
to swim meets, sitting in the bleachers,
serving as a timer and helping out with a
lot of things but never swimming herself
competitively.
“I’ve been into swimming all of my
life but never occurred to me to be a
swimmer” she admitted. “After my sons
both graduated and went off to college,
a pool opened up in Land O Lakes and
that gave me the opportunity to swim.”
Like many senior athletes, Prokopi
had a mentor in the early years of
her Master’s Swimming (for over
40 swimmers) and Senior Games
swimming in Gertrude Zint, of
Edgewater, who was in the 75-79 age
group in 1993.
Prokopi claims Zint was the best
breast stroker she ever saw and now
Leah Bourlon, a 59 year old swimmer
from Tampa probably says the same
thing about Doris, her mentor.
Besides learning from an established
swimmer, Prokopi claims her success in
the breast stroke comes from her arm
strength. Before her retirement, she
served as a caregiver for other seniors
not as active as herself and at times it
called for her to pick them up to move
them. Pushing a lawn mower in her
Land O’ Lakes yard also gives her arms
a workout.
“Me, I’m not old. I still got it,” Prokopi
says.
While Doris Prokopi still swims in the
Games, she represents a link to the past
25 years of the Florida Senior Games, an
event which has seen more than 45,000
athletes over the age of 50 choose an
active lifestyle since 1993.
It’s athletes like Doris in the 80-84 age
groups and above that will inspire the
50-54 age groups and up to stay active in
one of the Florida Senior Games Series
Qualifiers.
Doris Prokopi of Land O’ Lakes has
competed in 18 of the 25 Florida
Senior Games events since 1993.