Some people dive into water to compete; others return to remember who they are.
Buenos Aires, October 2025.
At seventy-three, cardiologist and former athlete Carlos Vozzi has become an unexpected ambassador of Argentine spirit. A man once buried in hospital routines is now travelling again, not as a doctor but as a player for Los Pampas +65, the veteran water polo team that recently represented Argentina at the World Masters Championship in Singapore.
For Vozzi, the return to the pool is not nostalgia but resurrection. Decades of medical practice had confined him to land, yet water was still the element where he felt most lucid. “Every time I dive in, I recover a version of myself that was asleep,” he told fellow competitors after a recent training session. The statement echoed beyond sport, touching on the philosophy he has carried into aging: movement as continuity, not resistance.
Born in Rosario and trained in both Argentina and the United States, Vozzi abandoned competition at twenty-eight to specialize in cardiology. Years later, a mild heart incident prompted him to revisit his own prescriptions. Swimming became therapy; therapy turned into routine; routine evolved into competition. When invited to join Los Pampas in 2013, he rediscovered the old language of teamwork, travel and discipline.
The team’s recent appearance in Singapore brought together players from Argentina, Italy and Spain. Analysts from the International Masters Aquatics Federation praised the South American participation as evidence that longevity and elite performance no longer exclude each other. For Vozzi, the result mattered less than the symbolism: “The victory is fraternity, belonging, and the joy of still being able to share the water.”
In Rome, coaches from the European Aquatic Association highlighted how the Argentine squad introduced a “philosophy of cohesion” that contrasted with the technical rigidity of many European line-ups. Meanwhile, sports scientists at the University of Tokyo referenced Vozzi’s case in studies on cardiovascular recovery and post-retirement vitality, citing the cognitive benefits of group aquatic exercise.
Back home, the doctor-athlete divides his time between the hospital, the pool and long evenings of writing. Friends describe him as a philosopher in motion: a man who quotes Seneca between training sessions and treats his teammates with the bedside patience of a physician. His wife Laura, his three children and his two grand-daughters are his anchor. “They are the turbo of my life,” he often says, half joking, half precise.
The world of senior sport, once marginal, has become a mirror of global demographics. According to recent UNESCO Sport data, participation in +60 competitions has doubled in the past decade, with Latin America among the fastest-growing regions. Vozzi embodies that transformation: not an exception, but a prototype of a generation that refuses to equate aging with decline.
Observers from the Argentine Olympic Committee see his journey as an invitation to rethink national sport policy. They note that programs like Los Pampas build social connection and health resilience while projecting a softer image of Argentina abroad—one defined not only by football but by endurance, camaraderie and intellect.
As the team prepares for the next Masters Championship in Budapest 2027, Vozzi continues to train three times a week, balancing pulse monitors with poetry. He says that returning to water has taught him the same lesson medicine once did: that life, like a race, is not measured by duration but by rhythm.
When asked what he feels as he dives in each morning, he pauses before answering. “Peace,” he says, smiling. “Because the body still obeys.”
Phoenix24: facts that do not bend. / Phoenix24: hechos que no se doblan.