A Brief History
CMSC 1977: Can you spot the 3 current CMSC Members?
It all began in 1976. Swimming parent, the late Henry Rechel (lying down in the front), placed an advertisement in the Calgary Herald for Masters swimmers. The first night brought out Henrietta MacGregor, Patti Doody, Sue Chenier, Pat Malcolmson and Peter O’Brien to Inglewood Pool. Thus CMSC was founded. After two years, we moved to Glenmore Pool and took the brave step of expanding to THREE practices per week. Our first coach was the late Alex Wallis (second row, red suit).
On September 14th, 1978 Calgary Masters Swim Club was incorporated under the Societies Act with the objective “…to develop a blend of recreational and competitive swimming for adults in accordance with the Canadian Amateur Swimming Association”.
In 1983 after the Western Canada Games, we moved to Lindsay Park Sports Centre (now called Talisman Centre) largely through the efforts of Patti Doody, and we have been there more or less continuously since then. We are now honoured and extremely fortunate to be a Full Sport Partner in this world-class, high profile facility.
In 1994 we expanded and started our 9:30 am – 10:30 am sessions as well as our Early Bird sessions from 6:00 am – 7:00 am. Today we provide various options and schedules for more than 160 Members and continue to train 12 months of the year.
CMSC has also hosted six Canadian Masters National Championships: in 1981, 1991, 2001, 2006, 2018 and lastly in 2023.