Dentist excels as competitive swimmer

For one thing, it demands a blind finish and turn. The swimmer must gauge how many strokes it takes to get from the signal flags to the wall. If there isn’t enough space, the swimmer needs to slow down. If he has to turn to look at the wall, he loses a step on his competition.

The turn is also fraught with peril if you’re a dentist: time it wrong and you might break a hand.

You could say Dr. Geoff Mykleby was “in the zone” May 4 when he reached the wall ahead of 18 swimmers in his age category and set a new national record in the 50-yard backstroke at the U.S. Masters Swim Competition. His time in the men’s age group 55-59 was 26:51, breaking the previous record of 26:63.

His record also followed second place showings in both the 100-yard backstroke (finishing at 58:97) and 200-yard backstroke (2:13:84).

“Everything worked well this time,” said Dr. Mykleby, 55, a Wauwatosa, Wis., general dentist. “For me it hadn’t happened in five years to have a great start, a good turn where the stroke count is perfect, the finish is perfect and strokes came right to the wall.

“I knew I had a good chance to win the 50-yard but swam the other events to get ready for the 50,” he said. “The 200 I rarely if ever do, but I tried it out to kind of warm up and get used to the walls and the environment.”

Dr. Mykleby has been swimming competitively since age 8. In high school he got an invitation to be a walk-on to the North Carolina State University swim team, eventually performing well enough to earn a scholarship.

N.C. State is also home to a vibrant health professions advising program. An honor student, Dr. Mykleby decided to pursue a pre-dental path.

“On my college team, there were many accomplished swimmers, some of them being future Olympians. I realized I wasn’t the best. I needed an academic focus and dentistry appealed to me.”

While growing up, Dr. Mykleby’s family had a neighbor who was a dentist, and his father had always encouraged his son to consider dentistry as a career. His brother, Dr. Brian Mykleby, followed a similar path by swimming in college and earning a dental degree at the University of Iowa.

His more recent success in swimming is remarkable based on the fact that around 1974, Dr. Geoff Mykleby took a hiatus from swimming to concentrate on other priorities in life. He would go on to graduate from the University of Iowa College of Dentistry and complete a residency at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, but it would be 20 years before he swam competitively again.

“A high school swimming teammate had been trying to get me to do the Maui Channel Swim in Hawaii,” said Dr. Mykleby. “It’s a relay race with six people and an escort boat swimming from the island of Lanai to Maui, which is about 10 miles. I finally broke down and did it in 1994. It was a fantastic experience and a year later, I decided to start competitive pool swimming.”

He now swims anywhere from 1.5 to 3 miles every other day, and has found that at age 55, “the workouts have rejuvenated me. I feel good for two days afterward. From a health standpoint, I’m in good shape because of swimming, and I’m swimming times that I was at my peak in high school.”

It’s also given him a new social community. He joined U.S. Masters Swimming, which offers organized workouts and competitions, and has spent the last few years competing in events like the backstroke, the butterfly and individual medley.

“I found out last year that one of the guys I had been going head-to-head with for years was a dentist,” said Dr. Mykleby. “That’s what happens at these meets. Once someone knows you’re a dentist, they tell you who the other dentists are.

“It’s a pleasure to talk to other dentists because we have so much in common,” he continued. “I look at swimming a lot like dentistry in that it’s an individual sport. Like dentistry, we’re small business owners and mostly solo practitioners. Maybe there is this common thread of being independent that is running through our personalities.”

He was able to meet Dr. Robert Supple of Albuquerque, N.M., at the competition in May. Dr. Supple, 53, has won five national championships in U.S. Masters competition and a world championship in the 100-meter backstroke in 2006.

“Dentistry can be a little tough on your body when you’ve practiced for 20 years,” said Dr. Supple. “When you swim, you really feel a lot better during the day. I have more stamina now. It was not good trying to get back in shape, but once you’re there, you find you have a lot more energy and no question a better attitude.”

Next up for Dr. Mykleby are the Maui Channel Swim and a shot at the U.S. Masters Long Course Championship in Portland, Ore., in August.

“The long course is not exactly my strength,” he said. “My underwater kick in backstroke is my plus and you only use that after you make a turn. In the long course, there are fewer turns so there aren’t as many chances to push off the wall.”

Whatever the outcome, he said he’s already reached “the cherry on top” of his career.