INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS: 8 FINA MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1992-2010, 15 MEDALS (12 GOLD, 2 SILVER, 1 BRONZE). 1989 DANISH INVITATIONAL: GOLD; MORE THAN 35 US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS.
She was born in Denmark and learned to swim in Copenhagen’s harbor along with the rest of her elementary school classmates, where they took lessons. As a girl, she belonged to a Danish gymnastics group and was an active Girl Scout in her country.
She was a teenager in Copenhagen during the Nazi occupation in World War II from 1940 to 1945, volunteering with the Red Cross and Save the Children organizations helping the people of Poland right after the end of the War.
Jakobsen eventually married, moved to Sweden and eventually immigrated to the United States, first to the East Coast and finally settling in Arcadia, California, in 1970.
She was a Girl Scout Leader, taught gymnastics, and private swimming and synchronized swimming lessons for more than 40 years as a Certified Red Cross Water Safety Instructor in California.
She was one of the five original members of the Southern California Masters synchro group, the “Unsyncables”. Inspired by the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, the women decided to enter the Masters National Championships that year where they placed sixth in the team event. Adding a few members each year, the self-taught group watched local competitions and tried to emulate what they saw.
They competed in the Synchro Masters Nationals again in 1986, 1988, 1990, and 1991. Then, with the FINA World Masters Championships being held in Indianapolis in 1992, they planned to enter, so they decided to ask former synchronized swimmer and coach, Dawn Bean, to help them ~ and it worked! They were elated to come home with medals in four events including gold medals in the 50-59 age group team.
Jakobsen was the team leader who prepared entries for competitions and determined routines. She also became a top swimmer in all events winning solo, duet or trio and team in National Championship competition and in many of the international meets she attended. She even won the May McEwan Award in 2008, given annually to someone who has made outstanding contributions to and best exemplifies the spirit of U.S. Masters synchro.
Her first international event was a competition in her old hometown of Arbus, Denmark in 1989. Lizzi competed in eight FINA Masters World Championships events in Indianapolis (1992), Montreal (1994), Sheffield, England (1996), Munich (2000), Christchurch, New Zealand (2002), Riccione, Italy (2004), Stanford, California (2006), and Goteborg, Sweden (2010).
Asked about her most memorable moment in synchro? Lizzi answered, “My first gold medal in team.” And in her final Masters Competition in Gothenburg, Sweden, she proudly told her friends upon her return, “I was the oldest one out of 417 swimmers from 19 countries, and I won two gold and one silver medal”.
Lizzi Jakobsen passed away on April 22, 2022.