Travis Cummings already has his eye on the next masters swimming world championship after getting his first taste of the sport at the global level.

Cummings, 34, who teaches and coaches at St. Timothy High School and is the founder of the Cochrane Endurance Project, recently travelled to Gwangju, South Korea to compete in five swimming events in the 30-34 age group.

Having just returned to the pool two years ago, he has focused on developing his skill and meeting standards to qualify for the worlds. Along the way, he participated in, among others, the Canadian championship in Montreal, May 24-26.

What he has found is an inspiring sports world where the athletes are competitive and supportive at the same time. 

"I've never seen a sporting community that is so positive," says Cummings. "It almost sounds cheesy but it's not. When you go to these events the clubs are super supportive of each other and everyone cheers for each other. I found that at worlds, too. There's no criticism of what level you're at. Everyone is genuinely interested in you and your aspirations."

He believes swimming has done a solid job of promoting a lifelong, low impact sport.

"It's pretty cool what they have done with masters for 20-25 years," he says. "Swimming has done a really good job of keeping people involved and interested in making it a lifelong pursuit. Swimming is such a good sport for people as they age."

He was taken back by the thousands of people who packed the stands every day at the worlds. He also remembers the cheers that reverberated when the oldest competitor at the championship swam. She was 89. 

"Everyone was there watching and cheering her on to support her on the accomplishment."

Many people are passionate about the sport and many are coaches for younger athletes, like himself.

"That passion is really important because it's those types of people that keep the sport going. It's not necessarily people who win gold medals at the Olympics but you're mid-level people who want to contribute to the sport."

"They're there because they're passionate about the sport and they want to set an example. I saw so many cool examples of that."

Cummings was a longtime competitive runner and split five years of varsity running between the University of Calgary and Queen's University. He's competed on the local, provincial, national and international stage. 

With time, the running injuries have accumulated. While continuing to enjoy and compete in several sports, including cyclocross, he turned his attention to the pool two years ago.

"You can't just shut that off. You need something to keep you going and balanced; you need a goal. That's been good for me. I needed an outlet and I found swimming has been really good for me."

Cummings will take back what he learned to the pool and share with other master swimmers here. He also has marked Fukuoka, Japan on his calendar August 2021, the site of the next world masters championship.

"I didn't necessarily knock it out of the park but I did pretty well [in Gwangju] and it was a really good experience. It's going to be a good baseline to build upon. Hopefully, it will be the start of going to more world masters championships and I'll be able to improve as I get more experience and get a lot more training under the belt for the next couple of years. I'm still pretty new to swimming even though I've been an athlete for a long time."

Gwangju gave him his first exposure to swimming a long course (50m) pool and says it did add to the challenge after training in 25m pools and only doing a bit of training in open water in the Okanagan.

Fortunately, he arrived early enough to do a little training in the Olympic-sized pool.

"I knew it was going to be slower, but I was pretty comparable to what I would normally do on the short course, so I was pretty happy with that. Now I have a new set of goals and I got my eyes opened there and I've got lots of things that I can take back to the pool when I start swimming again to build up for the next worlds in 2021."

Cummings sees his strength as distance swimming and his placements tell the tale. He was 22nd in the 800m freestyle, 21st in the 400m free, 27th in the 200m free and 48th in both the 50m and 100m free.

While training as a master swimmer, he has received plenty of support from the local swimming community and even trained with the Cochrane Piranhas this summer against some of the students he has coached at St. Tim's. He laughs when he reflects on the race announcements.

"Lining up on the blocks there would be 15, 15, 16,17, 18-year olds and then in lane six, 34-year old Travis Cummings. They'd be going, 'Who's the old guy?' he laughs. "It's good for me because it sort of keeps me young. I really appreciated it."

Registration for the Cochrane Masters Swim Club is on Sept. 19 and the fall session begins on Oct. 3.

"Everyone has different goals and abilities, but everyone shows up Monday and Thursday night to enjoy swimming."

Masters officially starts at age 25 but those 18 to 24 are also welcome and compete at the 'sub-master' level.