Swimmer Spotlight – Todd Lantry 1

Todd Lantry

Name: Todd Lantry
Age: 47
Occupation:  Application/Website Manager at Tessitura Network, a non-profit software co.
Team: RVM Rogue Valley Masters (Ashland)

I am a water baby, born and raised in Seattle, and I had my first swim lesson at 6 months old (the classic “blow in his face and push him underwater to the other parent”).  After “graduating” from all the Red Cross swim lessons the coach at the pool asked when I was going to join the swim team, and since I didn’t have a good reason not to, that’s what happened at 10 or 11 years old. That was for the Central Area Swim Team based at Medgar Evers Pool in Seattle. Later, in high school, I moved to Cascade Swim Club at Madison Pool. I also swam for my high school team, Seattle Preparatory School, and continued swimming in college at Norwich University (Vermont) and Linfield College (now University). I graduated from Linfield College and stayed in Oregon continuing on into Masters without really ever stopping…I just can’t stay out of the water!

I swim with Rogue Valley Masters, established in 1984, in Ashland, Oregon. We swim outdoors year-round in Daniel Meyer Pool, the city pool. I have a great group of team and lane mates; generally I swim with about 6 other people in a couple of lanes. Sometimes I float to other lanes to swim with other teammates if I’m needing to take it a bit easier that day, or if our lanes are extra crowded I move to a different lane. We have a great team of almost 40 folks and with 6 practices a week I get to see them all at some point! We have four married couples, a swimmer and his two adult children (college water polo players both), and two college-age children of team members who swim with us when they are in town. Ashland is a small town and Masters can be a family affair so it’s not surprising we have so many family members swimming with us. We also feel that our team is our chosen Masters family! Anytime I have to train alone I end up not really training, so I feel very fortunate to have an active team in Ashland that I’ve been swimming with since March of 2001. A handful of us also train in the local lakes in the summer for open water season.

Not many of us are interested in competition, most swim together for the fun and fitness aspect. Several competed in years past, both in pool and open water; we should have a small team at the OMS pool championship in May this year. Generally, more of us compete in open water than pool competition, especially the event we host at Applegate Lake in mid-July — this year it’s July 15 and 16, with the USMS 10K Open Water National Championship on the 15th!

I am lucky that my job is remote work and offers great flexibility. Tessitura is a non-profit software and services provider to non-profit arts and cultural organizations (theatres, ballets, operas, museums, zoos, and aquariums, etc.) around the world. We’ve been non-profit, mission-driven, and all remote workers since inception — no office or headquarters exists. It’s a great place to work supporting arts and cultural organizations in their critical work!

I competed in my first Masters meet when RVM hosted the OMS Association Championship, I think in 2002. My first open water competition was our Applegate swim in 2003, preparing to go to the Maui Channel Swim and Waikiki Roughwater in 2003, and since then I’ve competed once a year or so in the pool and usually do a few of the Oregon Open Water series each year. When on vacation I like to find an open water swim if I can. Some vacations have actually been swimming vacations with events in Vermont, Tennessee, California, Oregon, Washington, Hawaii, and a fun 1800 meter swim around Sandycove Island in Ireland.

My wife Celeste (also a swimmer all of her adult life) and I are headed to Mallorca for the second time this spring for the Best Fest, a week of open water events in the Mediterranean town of Colonia St. Jordi — I recommend checking it out if you like travel and swimming! Closer to home, Phil White hosts the Kingdom Swim Week in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont; it’s another week of open water swims every day in a different lake. Those have been some great open water experiences…can you tell my favorite thing is open water swimming? Most of my favorite hobbies include something to do with water like boating, water skiing, and traveling to find fun lakes and warm oceans to swim in. There are so many great places to swim!

Somehow I am now the race director for our Applegate event and so I’d like to extend an invitation to all the OMS swimmers to travel to Southern Oregon and go for a nice lake swim with us in July! Look for info on the OMS site soon!