Movement for Seniors – Swimming!
Ania Suszyńska is a senior from Gdynia who inspires her peers with her passion for swimming, physical activity, and love for water. To her grandchildren, she’s the “golden grandma,” admired for her achievements and medals in winter swimming — swimming in water with temperatures below 5 degrees Celsius.
Water as Inspiration
Ania, tell us about your stay at the health resort and your experience entering the cold water.
It’s great! The water today was minus two degrees. But that’s just at the surface; deeper down, it’s zero degrees. And there’s a sauna afterward. It’s fantastic. The owner of this facility — a mobile pool called PollBox — learned that I swim in cold waters and suggested I promote this place! You know, this is the first facility of its kind in Poland. There’s a jacuzzi, a sauna, and a little bathroom you can use. It’s the perfect, professional place to take care of yourself. At the health resort I’m staying at, I also have water aerobics, and afterward, I can go for a swim. I’m thrilled because there’s water — which I love so much!
Connection with Nature and Swimming
Alright, but how did your journey with physical activity begin?
I learned to swim when I was 7 years old. My parents also swam. We went to the lake almost every day and taught ourselves how to swim. Back then, there weren’t any pools or swimming schools like there are now. That’s why, to this day, I feel most comfortable in open water. Whether it’s summer or winter… open water is my thing! I was introduced to winter swimming by Jacek Starościak, a well-known advocate of this activity here in the Tricity area. That’s how my adventure with winter swimming competitions began, where I mostly swim breaststroke, or classic style.
So, would you say you’re an individualist who avoids crowded pools, or is it more about your love for being close to nature?
Exactly, I love being close to nature the most. But I always try to swim with someone. When we swim long distances, it’s always in a group.
Movement as Medicine and Prevention!
Do you feel that physical activity is more of a prevention or a cure for you?
You know, for me, it’s a pleasure. I come alive in the water. Privately, I take care of a dependent, sick person. It’s a lot of effort and stress. And as we know, stress "kills."
So I enter the sea, and it all washes away. I swim, and I simply relax. Even when I’m tired — really tired — I go into the water and swim to unwind.
If you had to encourage your peers to get active, how would you do it?
Sometimes my friends ask me what swimming gives me, and I tell them: health. In my youth, I was a track and field athlete and part of a sports group. Later, I got into Nordic walking.
I’ve always been active. A few years ago, while preparing for a Nordic walking competition, I fell and suffered a complicated hand fracture and a shoulder injury. Even with a cast, and later during recovery, I entered cold water. Thanks to this cryotherapy and then daily swimming training, I recovered very quickly.
Water heals. My doctor said, “Don’t run with those poles anymore… Just swim!”
That’s why I encourage my peers, as well as younger generations, to swim. My granddaughters watch their grandma and learn that movement is incredibly important! They see how much I enjoy swimming, so they don’t need much convincing either. My granddaughter even told her class during a first-grade activity that her grandma is a gold medalist in swimming!
Photo: Anna Suszyńska’s private archive
Interview conducted by: Maciej Mazerant / Editor-in-Chief, AQUA SPEED Magazine
