Retired school social worker Eliot Winokur jumped 20 feet from the edge of Jersey City’s Liberty State Park into the Hudson River this past summer, hugging an orange swim buoy as he embarked on a 3.5-mile swim for charity.

The 80-year-old had secured a spot for his third consecutive New York City SEAL Swim, sponsored by the Navy SEAL Foundation, despite the organization’s concerns about his age. Participants swam to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and Battery Park on Aug. 10, completing exercises at every stop before making their way to the 9/11 Memorial & Museum to honor those who lost their lives.

Winokur is the oldest swimmer among the hundreds who participate every year, he said. “I hope I am an inspiration to my younger colleagues,” he said. “They say when they ‘grow up,’ they hope to be half as active as me.”

Winokur, who splits his time between New York and Florida, worked 15 years as a bilingual Spanish-English school social worker before retiring in 1999 from a 12-month program at a District 75 site in the Bronx for children with emotional disabilities.

He is also fluent in Hungarian and German, languages he picked up while serving in the U.S. Army and living abroad as a child. He previously worked as a social worker for the city. He retired from the U.S. Army Reserve at the rank of lieutenant colonel with 35 years of service.

Winokur has a strong connection to Ground Zero because he volunteered there for 10 days after 9/11, counseling the workers as part of a critical incident stress-management team. He now has eight medical conditions — including two skin cancers, ocular melanoma and lymphoma — connected to his exposure to asbestos and other toxins there, he said.

Despite that, Winokur said, he has a “glass half full” outlook on life. He has been married for 52 years to Irene Winokur, a retired speech and language evaluator. They attend shows and concerts and take several cruises a year, among other activities.

“I’ve already passed the normal life expectancy of a male in the United States, so I’m doing pretty well,” he said.

He turned to competitive swimming 40 years ago when a knee injury knocked out volleyball. He holds top 10 rankings on the U.S. Masters Swimming website for the United States and the world.

Swimming is fun and empowering and “I do get a high from it,” he said. In addition, training three days a week allows him to indulge in sweets.

For the Navy SEALs this year, Winokur had to prove he could swim 3.5 miles, a feat he had accomplished in Lake Balaton, Hungary, in 2022. He spent this past October training for the Swim Fort Lauderdale Classic that took place in mid-November.

“I don’t let the moss grow too much around me,” he said. “I’m valuing every day. I’m taking advantage of every day.”