» More: Behind the lane with the Stagers

» Photo gallery: Joel & Nan Stager

Fresh out of the water, Joel Stager is dripping wet.

He places his eyeglasses back on and dries off the beads with a towel.

He slides into a seat at the IU Outdoor Pool.

As a kinesiology professor and director of the Counsilman Center at Indiana University, Stager is a popular expert on the effects and benefits of swimming. He starts to share some of his research findings about the health impact from that steady swish of digging in the water.

But it doesn’t take long for him to begin talking about his favorite subject: his wife, Nan.

“Show her your pythons,” Joel says with a smile.

Nan, seated across from him, returns the smile, but doesn’t flex her bronzed arms. She doesn’t need to. Years and years of laps and laps have given them an impressive tone, and they are on full display in her black Speedo with a pink print.

The Speedo is Joel’s go-to topic if Nan needs a pep talk.

“I tell her she looks great in a Speedo even if she doesn’t always win the race. ‘You may not be the fastest, but you’re certainly the best looking!’ And it works ... because I am sincere!” Joel writes in an e-mail. “She really does look great in a swimsuit. Another great side effect of swim practice!”

The Stagers are masters swimmers. Since the 1970s, each has competed in sprints across the country. Nan joined masters at the age of 22 in 1978 as an IU graduate student.

She swam as a young girl, but there were no competitive opportunities for girls at the high school and collegiate level. Joel, who was brought to IU by legendary coach Doc Counsilman, joined masters a year later, and that’s how he first met Nan.

That shared love affair with swimming evolved into another love story.

The couple met at IUPUI during a YMCA Nationals meet.

“We didn’t see each other for another five years,” Nan says. It was the Bloomington swim scene that reunited them.

They dated for four years.

“He had the hots for me, come on,” Nan teases him. “He wore me down.”

They married, and celebrated 11 years in late June.

“June 28,” Joel offers up.

“Good you remember the date,” Nan replies.

It is the second marriage for both Joel and Nan.

Nan remembers swimming 15 hours before she gave birth. She swam all during the pregnancy — and her newborn daughter joined her afterwards. The infant carrier seat was placed in the shade as mom sliced through the water.

“It’s a lifetime sport,” Joel says of swimming.

For many it’s a daily activity, warding off what Joel calls the “Weekend Warrior” — someone who is sedentary during the week and then kicks it in highgear.

The Stagers are regulars in one of the five training lanes at the IU Outdoor Pool.

On a practically pristine day, Joel looks around and says: “It’s not torture to come out here. No doubt this is preventive health, if you will.”

Joel often tells people, you probably “can’t swim as fast as Michael Phelps, but can look like him.” That long, lean body is a “great side effect of swimming,” he says.

Nan’s swimming has accomplished the unthinkable for many women. Her weight has stayed the same since she was a teen. She’s even out performing “my 16-year-old self.”

The swimmer’s body belies age.

Joel and Nan both point to Olympian Dara Torres, the rock-solid 40-something who grabbed medals — and countless fans — last year in Beijing.

For the Stagers, these lunch-hour laps provide an escape from worries, responsibilities and all those demands on land.

“This one is about me,” Joel says about the time he spends swimming.

Nan agrees: “Not a mom, not a worker.”

Once the caps and goggles are on, identities and titles just seem to dilute in the chlorine.

“Once you’re in the water, you’re just swimmers,” Joel says. “Age sort of disappears, social status sort of disappears.”

His 12 graduate assistants are always surprised to hear that a person they may have shared a lane with is a dean or former Olympian. But the swimming scene is social.

Show up to swim just about every day and connections form. Don’t show up to swim and people ask about you.

Fellow swimmers help serve as reinforcement, Joel says.

Research shows that most swimmers stick to it, he says, and tend to remain active over time. It’s also a tough sport to get sidelined from. Swimming injuries are rare. Who’s heard of swimmer’s knee?

The big bonus of swimming: slowing down signs of aging.

“How old do you think she is?” Joel asks back on the chaise lounge after his swim. Nan smiles, she’s heard this before, but doesn’t seem to mind.

When Nan answers 54, he flashes her a surprised look. “I thought you were 39.”

With that, Nan is up switching her tortoise shell shades for goggles. Then she plunges into the pool for her me-time.

*****

STAGERS OFFER TIPS FOR GETTING STARTED IN THE POOL

Swimming advice for beginners

NAN: Work on technique first; you don’t want to practice bad stroke mechanics.

JOEL: Learn to relax. Use the water rather than fight the water. Try to get as much out of every stroke rather than simply taking more strokes. Swimming is all about finesse. Pay attention to details and focus on your senses. There is quite a bit of “feel” required to become proficient at swimming. Try swimming with your eyes closed, with your eyes open, with your hand closed, with your hand open. Experiment and try different things. Be patient and most of all relax! Kinda like life, huh?