RAPID CITY - Sometimes, victory can be defined as just having the courage to join the race.

Cindy Horning and Elaine Paulson are part of a group of friends who have overcome a fear of water.

Both women competed in the Black Hills Senior Games swimming events Friday at the Roosevelt Park Swim Center in Rapid City.

Horning, 61, won a pair of gold medals in the 50- and 100-meter backstroke in her second year participating in the games.

Paulson, 64, started learning to swim about a year ago and competed in several Senior Games events for the first time Friday, but she said the outcome wasn't important.

"I don't expect to come home with a medal," Paulson said, during a practice swim Thursday. "I just want a badge for survival."

"This is just a matter of competing with ourselves," said Horning, who works at the Rapid City Department of Parks and Recreation.

For both, the idea of swimming at all would have been unheard of just a couple of years ago.

That's when Lee Anthony of Rapid City, a longtime Senior Games organizer and participant, agreed to teach others in her group of friends - including Horning and Paulson - to be comfortable in the water.

"Some of them wouldn't go near the water, or they wouldn't go beyond the ropes in the kid's pool," said Anthony. "Now they can all swim laps."

"I just decided I needed to get out and do something," said Horning "Without Lee, we'd still be walking in circles."

Paulson water-skied in spite of not being able to swim, always wearing a life-preserver "with all four buckles fastened tight," she said. "If you needed to be saved, you were on your own."

Both grew up on farms. Paulson was raised near Strasburg, N.D., and Horning is originally from New Underwood.

"We moved cattle and hauled bales while the other kids went swimming," Paulson said.

Paulson said an attempt to take swimming lessons 30 years ago at the YMCA was less than successful, because, she said, the instructor was better suited to teaching young children than a reticent adult.

"You have to be able to overcome that fear," she said.

Anthony helped by individualizing her instruction.

"Lee would swim alongside us and if we started to go down, she'd pull us up by the scruff of the hair," Paulson said. "Not many other instructors would do that."

Anthony helped Horning learn to traverse the length of the pool, including the deep end, without the safety of a life belt.

"You just concentrate on what you're doing and you don't worry about the belt," she said.

Both Paulson and Horning are proficient swimmers but neither are able to swim with their faces in the water as of yet, so they stick to the sidestroke or backstroke.

"We've got the backstoke down, Cindy said. "That's all I do,"

"My backstroke is still kind of a Dilbert stroke, but I'm working on it," Elaine said.

Paulson said she isn't completely comfortable in the water, but she enjoys the exercise and the activity with friends.

"I will probably never get over that fear," Paulson said. "It's nice I can do this to enhance my life."