Judy Chadima lived a Hall of Fame life - in and out of the pool

I’ve written in the past about my fascination with reading obituaries. After the Sports section, of course, it’s the next place I tend to look.

Maybe it has something to do with my age, but I find it interesting to see someone’s life capsulized in eight to 10 paragraphs. Sometimes more, oftentimes less. It’s a story of life, generally a life well lived.

The role sports play people’s lives intrigues me, from the star athlete to the fan to the booster.

One such obit caught my attention this weekend. Growing up on the southeast side of Cedar Rapids, many of us knew the Chadima family. The late Doug Chadima and I delivered papers together for a bit in our youth and older brother Bill remains a good friend today. Brothers John and Jim are friends, too.

But when I read the obituary about their mother, Judy, I had to dig a little deeper. I remembered Judy was an outstanding swimmer, but didn’t realize just how outstanding or the fact her career started at a young age and, after a 20-year hiatus, restarted where she left off.

“Her hobbies included gardening, sewing, baking, making homemade sauerkraut and playing a little tennis with her friends at the Cedar Rapids Country Club,” her obit read. “Judy loved sports (a ‘Huge’ White Sox fan), but her passion was swimming.”

Swimming was more than a mere passion.

It was left out of the obit, but Judy Chadima, who died a week ago at the age of 95, was among the best in the country during her younger years and, after raising her six children and restarting that “passion” at the age of 43, she again became one of best swimmers in the country, albeit in the “masters category.”

She was inducted into the Coe College Athletics Hall of Fame in 1995 despite never swimming for the Kohawks. They didn’t offer women’s swimming when Judy was in college.

“When Judy Chadima was 18 months old, her father tossed her into Lake Michigan. It was sink or swim. She swam and she is still swimming today,” read the opening of her HOF bio.

She reportedly made the 1940 United States Olympic swimming team, but those Games were canceled because of World War II. Also, according to that Coe College bio, she won gold in the 50-, 100- and 200-meters at the 1995 U.S. National Senior Sports Classic in San Antonio, Texas, at the age of 65.

In the freestyle AND backstroke.

“She finished the 200 meter backstroke 35 seconds ahead of the second place racer,” it was noted. That was two years after she set the national age-group record in the 100 freestyle.

She helped start the masters swimming team in Cedar Rapids, a program still going strong today as “Milky Way Masters.”

“Though there wasn't a letter to be won at Coe, Judy Chadima is a model of the Coe ideal that fitness and sports competition are a lifetime commitment,” her induction bio reads. “Her national stature as a master's swimmer calls for this accomplished alumna of Coe to be a member of the Kohawk Athletic Hall of Fame.”

A Hall of Fame swimmer. A Hall of Fame wife, mother and grandmother.

A Hall of Fame life well lived.

Comments: (319) 398-5861; jr.ogden@thegazette.com