HOWELL — Kevin Doak’s 100-yard backstroke record at Brighton stood for 24 years until it was broken in 2023.
Unlike many athletes whose long-standing records are eventually eclipsed, Doak wasn’t some out-of-shape guy whose talent had long since waned and whose glory days were well in the past.
Doak remains a highly competitive swimmer who is still setting records at the age of 45.
In May, Doak set the 100-meter short-course backstroke world record for the 45-49 age group at the Canadian Masters Championships across the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario.
Doak posted a time of 56.37 seconds to break the record of 56.85 set by Kohei Kawamoto of Japan on April 6, 2025.
He was the state Class A runner-up in the 100-yard backstroke his senior year at Brighton in 1999, recording a time of 51.30 that was eventually broken by John McHugh during the 2023 state Division 1 meet.
Doak competed at Eastern Michigan University in the early 2000s and has no intention of leaving the competitive masters swimming scene any time soon.
“I do it to stay in shape and it’s just a wonderful community,” said Doak, who lives in Howell. “I’ve seen so many people love their sport, but you can’t do every sport forever. Everybody ends up in the pool because you see these track runners blow out their knees and hips or all these football players end up in the pool.
“Swimming is a wonderful activity. It keeps me active. Masters swimming is very flexible. You have meets every two or three weeks if you’d like to do them. I enjoy how flexible and how accommodating it is for an adult with work-life balance.”
Doak swam in a heat next to Markus Thormeyer, a 29-year-old who was on Canada’s fourth-place 400 freestyle relay team in the 2021 Summer Olympics. Thormeyer took first in 55.00 and helped to push Doak to a time that was the second-fastest in an event which had 64 entrants ranging in age from 21 to 96.
“I began the meet thinking it’d been some not ideal training leading up to that meet,” Doak said. “I just finished up the U.S. Nationals in Greensboro, N.C. I didn’t think I had a shot at many records, but I started swimming well on day one and broke the national record in the 100 fly. That set me up thinking I was going to swim better than I expected.
“I wasn’t sure if I was going to go for the 50 split, which would’ve been an attempt at the 50 back record, or swim the whole race for the 100 back record. I decided to go for the 100 back.”
Doak’s national-record time in the 100 butterfly was 55.91. It was the fastest time among all age groups in the event.
A bonus for Doak was that the meet was so close to home that he got to share the experience with many of his friends in the swimming community.
“There were 59 swimmers from Michigan there,” he said. “I had my community there. They knew I was going for the record. It was meaningful to have some friends and some teammates there to celebrate with me. I got a lot of recognition and support before and after the world record.”
Coming into Brighton’s program, there was little indication Doak would become a record-setting swimmer in high school or decades down the road.
He said his trajectory changed when Sean Hickman, who is the current Brighton coach after years away from the program, took over the team his sophomore year. Doak was eighth in the state in backstroke as a junior in 53.05 before taking second as a senior.
“I came from not much my freshman year,” Doak said. “I grew up swimming, but I credit all my swimming to the wonderful coach we got my sophomore year, Sean Hickman.
“Honestly, it wasn’t a real serious program when I got there. He was a former D1 athlete at Michigan State and knew what to do once he got there. I was blessed to have a wonderful coach at Brighton who turned the program around and turned me into a swimmer who could go to a D1 school.”
Contact Bill Khan at wkhan@livingstondaily.com. Follow him on X @BillKhan
This article originally appeared on Livingston Daily: Kevin Doak sets world swim mark 27 years after setting Brighton record
Reporting by Bill Khan, Livingston Daily / Livingston Daily
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By Bill Khan, Livingston Daily | USA TODAY Network
