Noel Morrow, 90, will swim at the Sydney World Masters games and is ranked first in the world in her age group. (CBC)

A 90-year-old former swimming champion, Noel Morrow, is training to win another gold medal in swimming at the World Masters games in Sydney, Australia, in October.

She has competed in Sydney before, in the 1938 British Empire Games, where she won a gold medal in the 4×110 yard freestyle relay, as it was known then, and placed fourth in the 100-yard backstroke.

"When I heard the games were going to be there, I just thought I'd like to see it again. Just a good excuse to go," she said.

Morrow will race in the same races this time around, and in her age group, she’s ranked first in the world.

She was the women’s Canadian champion from 1934 until 1940 in the 50-, 100- and 200-metre backstroke.

Morrow, whose maiden name was Oxenbury, grew up in New Westminster, B.C., and trained by swimming in the Pacific Ocean.

She competed in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, but the Games in 1940 and 1944 were cancelled while the Second World War raged and Morrow had already quit swimming to raise her daughter when they resumed.

She currently trains at the Crescent Beach Swimming Club, in White Rock, and according to an online profile of Morrow, she took up training again at the age of 85 after her grandson encouraged her.

Morrow trains five times a week in her daughter’s pool, but said she doesn’t keep track of her times anymore.

"In 1940, when we were training for the Games then, 1:09 for the 100-metre backstroke…[Today] I have no idea 2:09? I've forgotten what my time is… It could be 3:09 for all I know," she said.