24/09/2026
Making waves! Huge congratulations to our very own Roger Eagles, who was recently featured in The Southland Times by Michael Fallow for his swimming achievements. We are incredibly proud to see your hard work recognized, Roger!
The rewards of a heart felt and hard-case memories from decades of dedication to masters swimming have just increased for Invercargill’s Roger Eagles.
New Zealand Masters Swimming has awarded him life membership for his “outstanding contribution … both in New Zealand and on the international stage”.
This includes his presidency 2012-2018, chairing Aquatics New Zealand 2006-2022, and similarly epic term on the masters committee of swimming’s international governing body FINA (now World Aquatics) 2009-2025.
That was a role that has taken him around the world for massive biennial championships involving up to 8500 competitors.
For the past two, in Doha and Singapore, he was seconded to duties at the diving events, where the competition was reliably admirable if occasionally comical.
“Sometimes you see some spectacular entries into the water, when they’re not quite as quick through the air as they used to be,” he reflected.
Unfair as it may be, with the passage of time swimmers just got slower but “divers get exposed in a more merciless kind of way.”
As a teenager, he’d make national finals but almost never medals.
As he reached masters age – and it starts at 25 – the medals eventually start showing up as the rest of the world did him the favour of slowing down quicker than he did.
He became a pretty reliable top-three finisher. By that stage ace swimmers from his younger years would often have stepped away from competition, often concentrating simply on fun and fitness.
Whereas for Eagles and those who joined him at masters level, the competitiveness was a key part of the fun.
“I mean nobody (else) actually cares,” he said, cheerfully.
“The public at large, they’re not really interested in who’s the top master swimmer, or who’s the second or third.
“So it doesn’t pay to be vain about it.’ “But if you keep participating – well it’s good for you.
“And it’s fun”
Eagles has also become a historian for his sport with two books; one an overview of masters swimming, and the other a history of Southland swimming.
One of his most pleasant duties has been handing out medals to people who have often striven ages for such a moment.
“This is the greatest day of my life,” one Australian woman confided.
“I’ve never been able to achieve anything like this before - and my children didn’t think I would be able to do it”
Then again, having shaken the hand of another beaming medallist, he had to witness the disconcerting process of revoking the honour for cheating.
In a feat far beyond anything her record foreshadowed, she’d medalled in the 3km open water swim, which comprised two laps of 1.5km.
The ethical glitch being that, unnoticed at the time – which wouldn’t happened nowadays, he adds – she’d only swam one of the laps.