Sid Hall

It is with great honor O*H*I*O Masters Swim Club bestows the 2024 Lifetime Achievement Performance Award to Sid Hall.

Sid has been a lifelong swimmer from his high school days to his most recent swims for USMS. He has excelled in every level of completion over his 74 years of competition, except for his “37 year taper” between high school and Masters swimming stints. He once quipped, “There’s three things that keep me going. I want to keep my body going as best I can, I want to keep inspiring and improving, and I want to compete.” And as you will read below, he does!

Sid was a multi-sport athlete at Grandview Heights High School in Columbus where he was a three-time swimming state meet qualifier and two-time state champion winning the 100 free as a junior and the 50 free as a senior. His times ranked him as a two-time high school All-American (top 20 in the USA) before graduating in 1953.

Part of the reason for his break was his swimming career was his family life (married wife Nancy in 1960 and for 64 years until her passing this past January), raising two children (Shelly and Scott), 6 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. His career employment included several jobs, from limo driver to program manager of the Fisher College of Business at Ohio State-Mansfield. 

Sid’s Masters career started when he saw an article in the newspaper about senior games and thought that might be something he could do. Unfortunately, he had to wait 4 years to compete as he was only 51 at the time. He kept the article as motivation, and entered the National Senior Games when he turned 55, and has been swimming ever since, competing in all of the NSGA swimming championships since 1993 except for the 1995. Last summer, at age 87, he won 4 medals in Pittsburgh NSGA meet, including gold in the 500 free (and ranked him third in USMS top 10 as well.) At the Minneapolis NSGA he won gold in all 5 of his events. In national senior games competitions, Sid has won so many medals and set several NSGA records, that in recognition of these achievements, the Ohio Senior Olympics inducted Sid as a member of the Ohio Senior Olympics Hall of Fame in 2012.         

Sid also competes in Masters YMCA National meets where he often medals, many of them gold. In 2018 Hall took first in the 500 yard freestyle (8:25.78), second in the 200 and 100 free and third in the 50 free. That same year, he swam USMS Nationals at Indy he was first in the 200 free and third in the 500, 100 and 50 free. These accomplishments occurred just one year after two major surgeries (shoulder surgery and then very delicate spinal decompression surgery.)

In USMS competitions spanning 33 years, he has amassed 175 Top 10 individual and 63 relay swims, including one All American ( #1 individual ranking) and 18 All- American relay rankings. Three of those relays were USMS National Records. Most recently, three of his relay teams were ranked in the top 10 World Swimming (previously FINA) tablulations. Sid has placed in the top 10 every year but one since 1991.

Achievements and Highlights

USMS:

  • Member since 1991
  • Swims span 8 age groups over 33 years
  • Top Ten achievements (175 individual, 63 relay)
  • All-American Honors (1 pool individual, 8 pool relay)
  • USMS Records: 3 Relay
  • Complete list of age groups, events, times, dates, and locations available at https://www.usms.org/people/01PPA

World Swimming (formerly FINA):

  • Three Top 10 Relays: 2002, 2004 (2)

USMS:

  • Three Relay National Records

National Senior Games (NSGA):

  • Five individual age-group records. His 100 free record stood for 8 years from 2001 to 2009.
  • Inducted into the Ohio Senior Games Hall of Fame, 2012.

Sid is always a gentleman. He often roots for others and is always willing to hop on a relay. He loves swimming. Even his license plate reads, “SID SWIM.”