Paula Yankauskas
USMS Long Distance All American – 1 Relay
USMS Top Ten Achievements – 1 Individual, 1 Relay
USMS Certified Coach – Levels 1 & 2
Paula Yankauskas grew up in central Connecticut and always loved the water. The summer she turned 11, the City of New Britain opened five outdoor municipal pools – four 25-meter pools, and one 50-meter pool – spread out over different city neighborhoods. In the East End of New Britain, the home pool for those residents was Chesley Pool, and it was there that Paula spent nearly all daylight summer hours for the next five years.
When she turned 16, Paula was eligible to work for New Britain Parks & Recreation; at Chesley, there was only an opening for a locker attendant. Paula worked it for a short time; when the lifeguard Captain of Stanley Pool (the 50-meter facility) asked if she’d consider joining their lifeguard roster; all loyalty to the “neighborhood” vanished, and she took the job at the rival pool Stanley, taking on coaching the swim team as well as teaching swimming (WSI – babies to adults) in addition to lifeguard duties. A small claim to fame was that she guarded there for a Masters Meet on July 27, 1972 in which Larry “Buster” Crabbe (of Flash Gordon and Tarzan fame) swam.
Paula is now a Vermont swimmer – she came to Vermont for college in the fall of 1972. Attending UVM for undergraduate work, she was on the swim team for seven semesters. She also worked as a lifeguard for faculty and open swims in the Forbush Natatorium, and put in one year toward a Master’s degree in physics.
In 1977 Paula and her sister Valerie decided to swim across Lake Champlain and succeeded in crossing a 9-mile expanse in August. They tackled the swim because they felt they were good swimmers and thought they could do it. This was the summer before Paula started veterinary school; she graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in Philadelphia in 1981.
Paula founded Lamoille Valley Veterinary Services (LVVS) in 1985 as a mixed animal practice. Over the years it has evolved into a seven-doctor, full-service facility for small animals – mostly cats and dogs. Paula’s current clinical focus is on the behavioral and emotional health of dogs and cats.
Central to Paula’s life are 3 things: LVVS, family, and swimming, and not necessarily in that order (the attention devoted to each varies daily). LVVS and family took over for the 20 years between education and the 2001 opening of The Swimming Hole in Stowe, but once she had a pool to stretch out in, she was set to return to swimming and has not looked back since. To top it all off, the Green River Reservoir State Park is in Paula’s hometown of Hyde Park, Vermont. This “quiet” body of water (no power boats) is so ideally suited for open water swimming.
A mature endurance athlete, Paula has, at times, held titles for age. She was formerly the oldest person on record to have swum the length of Lake Memphremagog, a 25-mile swim she completed in September 2014, at 60 years of age. Currently, she is the third oldest (average age) swimmer to complete the Triple Crown of open water swimming, which includes solo swims across the English Channel, which she completed in 2016 at age 62; the 20 Bridges Swim Around Manhattan in 2017 at 63; and the Catalina Channel in 2018 at 64. When she swam the English Channel, Paula was the oldest American female to have done so.
In 2023, Paula reclaimed the title for the oldest person to have swum the length of Memphremagog, at 69, closing out and bookending the decade of her 60s with that swim. She does think the age thing gets a little “old” at times but is thrilled to motivate people to swim into their senior years, or even to get started then.
A grandmother, and practicing veterinarian, Paula has completed some of the toughest and most grueling Marathon swims in the world. In addition to completing the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming, Paula has completed:
The SCAR Lake Arizona swim series multiple times. This series features four marathon swims totaling 41 miles over four days.
Swim the Suck in Tennessee multiple times, a 10K race down the Tennessee River.
The 25-mile length of Lake Memphremagog twice.
The Three-Rivers Marathon Swim in Pittsburgh, a 30K urban swim.
The 8-mile Boston Light Swim.
Multiple distances at the annual Kingdom Swim and Swim the Kingdom events in Newport, Vermont many times over.
Cork Distance Week in Ireland many times.
An officially recognized Ice Mile (a 1-mile swim in water that’s 41 degrees Fahrenheit or colder without any heat-retaining gear or assistance. She was the 98th person to achieve this grueling feat.
Loving the water and swimming as a result is a lifelong, long-life experience, Paula says. And, as wonderful as pools are, the open water is a calling; for Paula there are many miles to swim before she sleeps.