BOSTON -- While hundreds of U.S. athletes are eagerly preparing for the Beijing Olympic games this summer, one 75-year-old Massachusetts nun is getting ready to test her own personal best.

Sr. Eileen McCarthy, a member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, will be competing in the National Senior Olympic Games in San Francisco next summer, despite having suffered a broken leg that required a plate and six screws to heal.

"I compete with myself and my previous times," said McCarthy, who finished first in the 50-, 100- and 200-meter backstrokes for her 75-79 age group at the recent Massachusetts state qualifying meet.

McCarthy, of Marshfield, Mass., has only been swimming since 1999 when she was forced to stop jogging because arthroscopic surgery revealed arthritis and a piece of broken bone on her knee cap.

She decided to try to master the backstroke and, without any formal training, she competed in the backstroke division and came in 40th. That's when she decided to start taking actual lessons.

Two years alter she was finishing in 10th and 12th place on the national level.

McCarthy says her goal for the 2009 games is to come in 8th, adding that she has no "illusions of medals," because she will be competing against elite swimmers who have coaches and trainers and have been swimming most of their lives.

McCarthy's training regimen includes a six-day schedule of swimming, strength training and balance work, such as Pilates or yoga.