As constitutionals go, the nearly three-mile round trip was nothing out of the ordinary for the longtime friends. Heck, during the week they’d hoof it to the Lakewood Rod & Gun Club and back.

Every. Day.

“I’ve always been active,” Judy told me during a 2016 interview. “I just didn’t like sitting still. I think activity has been part of my life from the get-go.”

Ten years have passed since that conversation and Judy, who turns 100 today, is still not sitting still. In fact, she is scheduled to swim in the Allegheny Mountain YMCA/YWCA Masters Swimming Association Championships at the PennWest University-Clarion campus next week.

Judy Young

“Swimming is one of the few things that when you get older you don’t mind,” she said in 2016, “because you move into a new (age) group and you’re the youngest in the new group.”

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Judy first heard about AMYMSA after her retirement in 1987 and brought it to the attention of the Jamestown Y’s aquatics director. A local team was eventually formed and Judy began competitive swimming when she was 61.

And she’s never stopped.

During the course of the last 39 years, Judy has claimed dozens and dozens of medals and set many, many national age-group records for her swimming prowess at meets in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, California, Florida and points in between.

Maria Roehmholdt, an assistant swim coach at the Jamestown YMCA, told me that “The Longevity Book” she was reading in 2023 reminded her of Judy.

“It goes through what you should be doing throughout your life to make it to your 90s or 100s,” Roehmholdt said. “Everything they brought up is the way Judy lives her life. It was fascinating. I kept rereading chapters, going ‘This is the way Judy approaches everything.'”

Others have taken notice.

At the 2023 National Senior Games in Pittsburgh, Judy was chosen as a Humana Game Changer. The award is national recognition for outstanding athletes who, according to Julie Mascari, the Medicare president at Humana in New York, “exemplify active aging and provide encouragement, motivation and inspiration for people of all ages to pursue lifelong health.”

Judy admitted she was “stunned” to be so honored.

“I just enjoy being active,” the 2024 Chautauqua Sports Hall of Fame inductee said.

It all started nearly a century ago.

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During her formative years near Little Neck Bay in the New York City borough of Queens, Judy fell in love with swimming. On multiple occasions as a teenager, Judy and her friends would either hop on their bikes or catch a car ride to the bay.

“We could swim for four hours — two hours when the tide came in and two hours when the tide went out,” Judy told me in 2022. “Mothers weren’t working in those days, so we would generally corral (one of them) to take us to the ocean at least two or three times a month.”

Judy eventually joined her high school’s synchronized coed swim team because she loved the water.

And she’s never stopped loving it.

“Judy is an inspiration to us all,” Roehmholdt said in 2022, “and she deserves a little time in the spotlight. She shines her light on everyone. It is good to flip that light toward her once in a while.”

Especially today.

Happy 100th birthday, Judy!