Courtesy of P2Life, a SwimSwam partner.
Many of you know Rick Colella, US Olympic medalist, an inductee into the International Swimming Hall of Fame and holder of over 81 World Records.
And we feel now deserving of the title Greatest Male Masters Swimmer in History.
Over the long 55+ year History of Masters Swimming, both here in the U.S. and internationally, many men have set and held numerous USA and World Records, but none have so completely dominated the competition as Rick has been doing for most of the last 10 years. Not just virtually unbeaten over that time frame, but usually winning by such huge margins.
Rick currently holds 17 of the 18 US Masters Short Course Yards Records that exist in the 70-74 age bracket. That is every distance of every stroke except the 50 free. No other male swimmer has even remotely dominated, or held as many USMS records, in one age group, at one time.
That alone would probably bestow upon Rick the title of Masters G.O.A.T.
But it is not just that he holds almost all the records, but because he is just so much faster than anyone else in history in doing so. Just recently Rick absolutely obliterated six USMS records, including lowering the 1650 yd Freestyle record by a minute and 15 seconds. Earlier this year he beat the existing 500 free record by over 30 seconds.
Not even the GOAT Michael Phelps or Katie Ledecky ever won by such huge margins. Below is a sampling of Rick’s US Masters Record times versus the 2nd fastest in History.
| Event | Rick’s USMS National Record | 2nd Fastest in History | Difference in Time |
| 200 FR | 1:56.50 | 2:05.33 | 8.83 seconds |
| 500 FR | 5:11.03 | 5:41.21 | 30.18 seconds |
| 1650 FR | 18:30.92 | 19:46.98 | 1 minute, 15.96 seconds |
| 200 IM | 2:10.59 | 2:21.79 | 11.2 seconds |
| 400 IM | 4:43.56 | 5:08.59 | 25.03 seconds |
| 200 BK | 2:12.65 | 2:19.00 | 6.35 seconds |
| 200 BR | 2:21.03 | 2:35.66 | 14.63 seconds |
Tim Shead, P2Life Founder, well remembers the day Rick asked him about P2Life. Laughing he says it was the day I made the biggest mistake of my life. I told Rick about P2Life and told him he should try it. The mistake, prior to that day I had never lost a race to Rick, since Rick started taking P2Life—I have never beaten him.
Following his Olympic medal performance, Rick took a long break from swimming. “I actually only started doing masters regularly in 1990,” says Colella. He quickly regained his swimming superiority, breaking some US and World records, but nothing like the complete dominance he is showing now.
In 2010, Rick started experiencing issues with atrial fibrillation. He even had a bout during the 2012 USMS National Championships causing him to have to leave the meet for treatment. Thankfully, subsequent medical procedures successfully corrected the issue, and with P2Life by his side, Rick has not had any more issues with his heart and his swimming performances speak for themselves.
“Thanks to P2Life, today I feel healthy and full of energy and I feel my performances prove what you can do when you maintain your health,” said Colella.
With P2Life by his side, Rick, like fellow world-class P2Life Ambassadors Katie Grimes, Katharine Berkoff, Laura Val and Pieter Coetze, there’s no telling the heights he can reach!
THE P2LIFE ADVANTAGE EXPLAINED
The evidence is clear; an increasing number of swimmers are taking P2Life, and they’re consistently achieving Personal Best Times as they move up the World Swim Rankings.
As P2Life Founder and International Swimming Hall of Fame Inductee Tim Shead Explains. The ability to consistently train hard, improve, and become a world-caliber athlete, ultimately depends on the level of HEALTH of the athlete.
Everyone knows you can’t train properly if at all, or swim your fastest when sick. Nor when you are in hard training. Only when you taper and rest, or more accurately put, when you maximize your health, are you able to also maximize performance.
Given that simple fact, the only way to maximize your health, train consistently hard day after day, and ultimately improve your performance, is to make sure your body has every nutrient it needs 24/7/365.
That is exactly why P2Life Nutritional supplements were developed, and what they accomplish. And P2Life does it in three critically important ways.
First, P2Life supplements are nutritionally dense and complete, supplying every critical nutrient the human body needs. So nutritionally complete you could literally survive and thrive taking just P2Life. Given the tremendous daily nutritional needs of a swimmer, P2Life is guaranteed to fill any nutritional deficiencies that may exist from one’s daily eating routine.
Secondly, P2Life supplies additional important nutrients not found in normal foods, nutrients proven to safely and effectively increase your health and performance. If you don’t supplement with P2Life- you won’t get these important health, strength, recovery and performance-assisting nutrients.
And third, P2Life nutritional supplements do not bulk up an athlete or supply unnecessary calories. A swimmer must increase strength and power without gaining bulk or weight which greatly increases water resistance, sapping energy and slowing one’s ability to swim fast. P2Life promotes lean, powerful bodies that knife easier, more effectively and faster through the water.
P2Life are not magical potions! They are made up of concentrated, complete, highest-quality nutrients that will help enhance, even elevate your health above what would be possible without those nutrients. Together they help your body consistently train harder, recover faster, gain strength without bulking, and develop better stamina, all of which help ensure you to achieve higher and higher levels of health, and with it more consistent magical performances.
Pieter, like Katie, Katharine, Matt and Gabriel are just a few clear examples of this fact. As fast as they are all, they are still very young and their best is definitely yet to come.
If you are not taking P2Life,
You will be beaten by someone who is.
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About P2Life:
P2Life Nutrition stands for Promoting Health and Performance. It was founded by Tim Shead, a Swimming Hall of Fame inductee and past US International Head Swim Coach who was directly involved in the formation of USA Swimming. At 70, Tim still competes as a Masters swimmer with to date over 45 World records. Importantly Tim practices what he preaches, he has taken P2Life products for well over 40 years and had lifetime best times at 55 years of age, faster than when he attempted to make the US Olympic team in 1976 as a 20+-year-old. He is adamant the only possible explanation was he was healthier at 55 than when in his 20’s, supplying his body better, superior nutrition.
Swimmers taking P2Life Nutrition have set nearly 1,000 World Records, earned numerous Olympic Gold medals, NCAA Championships, and Age Group records.
Give your body its best chance to perform at its highest potential- feel the benefits of P2Life.