Five years ago, lifelong swimmer Penny Noyes, now 70, was uncoached and training in her favorite local pool which she was sharing at the time with a youth swim club. She was on a quest to break a 50 freestyle world record that she had missed by a mere three one-hundredths of a second twice in the prior weeks. She asked the youth club coach, Dee, if he would watch her 50 free to help figure out how to shave off time to break the record. He tweaked her start, and in the next meet she broke it by two-tenths.
“He then asked me if I would be interested in training with his Southern Kentucky Swim Club senior team members who are between ages 13 and 17,” Noyes explains, “and I started the next day.”.
Since then, Noyes has amassed nine world records and 17 U.S. records in the 65-69 Masters age group and another four world and U.S. records in the 70-74 age group. While she is a self-acclaimed ‘drop dead sprinter,’ breaking records in the usual 50 free, 50 fly, and 100 IM, she attributes training with the kids to her ability to target records in new, grueling, longer events, like the 100 and 200 butterfly, 200 and 400 IM long course, and more. With no plans to slow down, she has her eyes set on breaking even more U.S. and world records in her new age group.
Noyes began swimming at the age of nine and qualified for the trials for the 1972 Olympics in Munich, Germany. She competed at the University of Massachusetts where she became the first female recipient of a Title IX scholarship in school history. She also played on both the women’s and men’s UMass water polo teams. To top it off, she is an accomplished triathlete having made USA Triathlon’s Team USA in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Hip and back pain began to slow her down
Needless to say, swimming is Noyes’ passion. So, when hip and back pain began slowing her down in the pool, she became concerned.
“I eventually spent years struggling with pain and finally got a clearer diagnosis,” she says. “Initial imaging showed a partial tear of a tendon in my hamstring and then after being in an auto accident in 2023, a subsequent MRI revealed a complete tear in one of the tendons of my hamstring, a significant tear in the second, and the third one was still intact.”
She tried a variety of non-surgical treatments near her home in Bowling Green, KY, such as platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections, stem cell injections, and physical therapy which seemed to be helping. But after the auto accident, her recovery was derailed and these other treatment modalities failed.
Surgery became a possibility
As her swim times slowed but her motivation did not, she decided to pursue surgery. By that time, her local hip surgeon noticed that one of her tendons had retracted and he explained that he was not comfortable treating such an advanced injury. He recommended Dr. Shane Nho, a hip surgery specialist at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in Chicago.
“I had no problem going to Chicago for the right doctor and contacted Dr. Nho’s office right away,” she explains. “I was incredibly impressed with the administrative staff who arranged an appointment and facilitated records transfers, as well as the telehealth process with Dr. Nho’s physician assistants Delaney and Sara. They made me feel so comfortable and confident that I had found the right place, even with the six-hour drive.”
Sprinting through recovery
After undergoing surgery to repair her complex torn hamstring tendons earlier this year, Noyes sprinted through her recovery following all of Dr. Nho’s rehabilitation instructions. She started physical therapy at five weeks and was back in the pool after just six weeks, working closely with Dr Nho’s office and her physical therapist. She progressed to full senior group swim practices of 5,500 to 11,000 yards per day and eventually moved to cross-training with weights, cycling and running.
“I’m not surprised Ms. Noyes is doing so well,” Dr. Nho says. “She has the physical fitness and determination of an athlete which just added to a well-executed surgery. I know she will continue to amaze us in the pool.”
