Janne Virtanen is a 62-year-old a Finnish swimmer who competes with Speedo Masters Finland and has been competing in masters swimming for 37 years. A holder of masters World and European records, he has won multiple gold medals including relay titles, and the European Aquatics Masters Championships this summer will be his 16th Europeans, having first competed in Coventry in 1991.
Janne Virtanen’s life has been built around water. He started swimming in 1973 and hasn’t really stopped. Two of his four children have competed in the sport, he organises 50 to 60 swim camps abroad every year, and he runs a company selling swimming gear. Swimming, in his words, is his life.
He came to masters competition at 25, having swum only at national level as a younger athlete, but his career-best times came late in his career. “My all-time records have been from 2001, when I was already 37, so very late as a swimmer on those days.”
That lateness, he says, is connected to how he has always approached training. For the last 30 years, Virtanen has trained like a sprinter – swimming 1,000 to 1,500 metres a day, three or four times a week. He doesn’t count metres. “Less is more,” he says, “and this motto has helped me to keep my motivation this long.”
Swimming has shaped how he thinks about life more broadly. “I always try to have some kind of goal both in life and in the pool. I have learned that there are no fast tracks, not in the pool and not in life either. You have to work consistently. And I have learned to forget disappointments.”
He admits that race day still carries its nerves, particularly over the longer distances. “For those 100m distances I am always afraid, because I am a 50m guy and 100m hurts a lot more.” He competes two or three times a year now, and the seriousness has softened without the excitement disappearing. “Times are getting slower and slower every year. But of course there has to be some excitement in every start, otherwise it does not go well at all.”
The 2026 Europeans presents a different challenge for Virtanen. Without a relay team this time, he will be competing in individual events only, which is a contrast to the last edition of the Championships in Belgrade in 2024, where he won five individual titles.
He is measured about his expectations, but clear about what success would look like. “I hope that my times won’t go much slower than last year in the Singapore World Championships (in 2025). Maybe one or two medals would satisfy me, and times as close to last year’s as possible. Then I have made progress.”
As for how much longer he plans to keep going, his answer is simple: “As long as I can and this is fun – hopefully until I am over 100 years old.”
The European Aquatics Masters Championships Samorin-Bratislava-Graz 2026 takes place from 18–30 August.
Click here for full details, including how to register.
Stephen Stanley for European Aquatics
