The Queen of the Pool

Virtually every day since 1979, Janet Gigante has slipped into a one-piece bathing suit and climbed into the swimming pool at the West Valley Family YMCA in Reseda.

Swimming more than one hour a day is therapeutic--both physically and mentally, she says.

“All my life I have not had very good self-esteem,” said Gigante, 66, a retired emergency-room nurse from Woodland Hills. “When I went to the pool, people at the Y were so nice to me.”

“At first, I was unable to accept it. When I first went there, I wore ugly bathing suits and wore a bath towel around my waist until I actually got in the water. People there have just turned me around and caused me to open up.”

A former tomboy who climbed trees and rooftops as a youth, Gigante often used to stoop while standing because she was ashamed of her 5-foot 7-inch height. As a result, she suffered from back pain and started doing sidestrokes and breaststrokes regularly in 1974 for relief.

Gigante joined the YMCA in 1979 and, for the next 13 years, swam freestyle as far as three-quarters of a mile a day.

Since about 1992, tendinitis in her elbows has cut her time in the water.

Still, she is out there daily in a navy blue swimsuit--stretching underwater to warm up and chatting with lifeguards and YMCA patrons.

YMCA workers refer to Gigante as the “heart of the swimming pool.”

“She always says, ‘Every time I’m not in a good mood, I leave in a good mood,’ ” said front desk supervisor Eric Kizirian.