He has been deemed an elite-level athlete since arriving in Santa Barbara to attend UCSB in the early 1990s
Mike Swan established himself as an elite-level endurance sports athlete when he arrived in Santa Barbara to attend UCSB in the early 1990s.
More than 30 years later, Swan is still going strong as a competitor in triathlons, marathons and ultra-marathons. He also has excelled in coaching local runners and triathletes for competition while continuing to run a business that specializes in physical performance and wellness.
Swan is being honored by the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table as its 2022 Masters Athlete Award recipient. The award was established and endowed by Louise Lowry Davis to encourage the continued participation in competitive sports, regardless of age.
It is given for achievement by an athlete older than age 40.
Davis served as the supervisor for the Santa Barbara City Recreation Department for 30 years before retiring in 1966.
Swan caught the endurance sports bug at age 16, when his father challenged him to compete in the Washington State Triathlon in 1987. That experience propelled him to get better. He won his age group in his second triathlon in Vancouver, Wash., and captured an age-group title in his first Half-Ironman event in his hometown of Olympia.
Swan made his way to UCSB and raced on the cycling team. He won his first two races and joined the first triathlon team at the school in 1990.
He soon became a standout at the national level. He took top honors at a duathlon in Palm Springs and finished third in his age group at the U.S. Age-Group Nationals. That qualified him for a spot on the U.S. Junior National Triathlon Team for the ITU Olympic-Distance World Championships.
Later, while competing for the UCSB team, he took third at the inaugural Collegiate Nationals at the Wildflower International Triathlon.
Swan’s career took off in the ’90s. He won the Half-Ironman distance at the Spokane Troika Triathlon and was first at the Vineman 70.3 race, setting the age-group record of 4 hours 3 minutes.
He competed at the Ironman World Championships seven times — 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2001. He placed third in the 18-to-24 age group in 1992 in 9 hours, 23 minutes, and was fifth in the 25-to-29 age group in ’96 with a time of 9:07:11.
He started coaching in 1997 and has helped dozens of triathletes to Ironman finishes.
Swan next challenged himself in ultramarathon runs and did well. Three times he placed second in the Avalon 50 Miler and took third another year.
He ran the famous Western States 100 in the Sierra foothills in 2003 and finished in 23 hours, 32 minutes. Other ultra races he’s completed include the White River 50, Way Too Cool 50k, Bulldog 50k, Santa Barbara Nine Trails and Santa Barbara Red Rock races.
Like he did in triathlons, Swan turned to coaching runners. He and local distance runner Rusty Snow started Santa Barbara Running and Racing. Swan was a member of the group’s racing masters team that won the U.S. Track & Field Cross-Country Nationals in 2012 and 2013.
In 2019, Swan and Snow coached a group of 43 Santa Barbara runners to qualify for and run the Boston Marathon.
Swan ran his first Boston Marathon at 49 and finished in 2:54.23. He qualified for the historic race again and will be at the starting line in 2023.
If that wasn’t enough, he returned to doing triathlons and completed the Hawaii 70.3 Ironman in June. In October, he’ll be back in Kona, Hawaii, to do the 2022 Ironman World Championships.
Swan has been a physical therapist since 1996, opening Elite Performance and Rehabilitation in 2002, and The Lab in 2016.
Click here for the list of past winners of the SBART Masters Athlete Award.
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