Greenwich 8-Year-Old Already Breaking Swim Records

GREENWICH, Conn. – Meghan Lynch of Greenwich is only 8, but she is already putting all Fairfield County swimmers on notice: She will be a force in the pool for years to come.

Meghan smashed three county records this past weekend for the Bailiwick Club at the Fairfield County Swim League championships. She set new marks in three 8-and-under girls races, including the 25-meter breaststroke (18.95 seconds), the 25-meter freestyle (15.18) and the 25-meter backstroke (18.72), a record that had stood for 36 years.

Thanks to her record-breaking day, Meghan was awarded the Mark Newcome Cup, which is given to the meet’s most valuable swimmer.

“It’s pretty demoralizing for me that an 8-year-old can beat me in a race,” Meghan's Bailiwick coach Colin Burke joked. “She never complains. Every instruction the other coaches and I give her, she just jumps right in. She’s definitely mature beyond her years.”

Meghan’s precocious athleticism doesn’t end in the pool. She also took first place in the girls category of the Mini-Mossman Triathlon at Calf Pasture Beach in Norwalk and the Tough Kids 10-and-Under Triathlon in Ridgefield. Lynch also won three running events in her age group in the Threads and Treads Greenwich Cup.

“I’m pretty sure she’s set a new record at every meet she’s competed in this summer,” Burke said. “I’m possibly coaching a future Olympian. It’s pretty exciting.”

But for now, Meghan is just enjoying swimming as much as any 8-year-old would.

“I was surprised I won [the MVP] because there were so many other people that did really well,” she said. “I just really like my coaches and being in the water all the time.”

Incredibly, she almost didn’t get the chance to set those records after rushing back from a swim meet in Virginia. Her mom, Joan, thought she might be worn out from the previous day’s meet.

But Meghan was motivated to swim as well as she did thanks to one thing: hamsters.

“If I broke all three records, I got to get hamsters,” she said.

The records fell — and the hamsters are on their way.

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