Malvern swimmer qualifies forNational Senior Olympics in 2025

American swimmers made a splash at the recent Olympics in Paris, including one from Dover.

A Malvern man also excelled in the pool at the recent New Hampshire Senior Games, held   in July in at the New Hampshire Senior Games swimming competition held at Colby-Sawyer College in New London. 

Dover native Hunter Armstrong won gold in Paris and Dave Lange of Malvern won gold in five events in New Hampshire.

Lange’s victories in the 75-79 age group in the 50, 100 and 200-yard breaststroke, 100 individual medley and 500 freestyle events qualify him for the 2025 National Senior Games next summer in Des Moines, IA.

“I ended up in New Hampshire this year after the belated scheduling of the Ohio Senior Olympics conflicted with my previously reserved family vacation in Myrtle Beach,” Lange said. “My wife, Linda, and I regularly visit great friends at a mountain lake in northern Massachusetts each summer, and the New Hampshire swimming competition just happened to be held nearby on July 20.”

Lange’s swimming days date back to 1959, when he was 10 years old and competed in the butterfly event at the Dover YMCA. Growing up in Cuyahoga Falls, he was a member of the Water Works Swim Club AAU team there and was a breaststroke and IM specialist through high school.

Thanks in no small part to his military service, his swimming experiences essentially have taken him around the world. In 1968, his butterfly leg led his boot-camp company’s medley relay to first place at the Great Lakes Naval Base in Illinois. During his riverine support service in Vietnam the following year, Lange completed a 500-yard swim in the hazardous Nha Be River. While on his rest-and-recuperation leave to Thailand that year, he had the pleasure of swimming and water-skiing in the Gulf of Siam.

While on his next duty assignment onboard the aircraft carrier USS Intrepid, he took a plunge in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea. He also led the Intrepid swim team with his second-place 100-meter-breaststroke finish in Bergen, Norway.

After moving to Malvern in 2009, Lange became a member of the Carroll County Veteran’s Club, where he has served on the board of directors for over nine years. He also is a member of Vietnam Veterans of America, American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars.

While his swimming sons were growing up, he was an assistant coach with the Lake Erie Silver Dolphins for several years and coached the swim teams at Kenston High School in Geauga County for seven years, including as head coach in 2006-07.

In 2014, Lange won four gold medals and one silver medal in the Ohio Senior Olympics, which earned him a trip to the National Senior Games in Minneapolis the following year. His top national finishes in the 65-69 age group there were fifth place in the 200-yard and eighth place in the 100-yard breaststroke events.

Competing in the 70-74 age group, he also took five gold medals in the 2021 Ohio Senior Olympics.

“Unlike the days of our youth,” Lange said, “our times as seniors don’t get faster each year, and the competition isn’t so fierce. I hope to step up on the podium more than twice next year in Iowa.”