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Just like in every great modeling story, Steve Hammond was discovered at the mall.

One week after moving to Phoenix in 2019, Hammond and his wife, Kathy, were walking around a mall when they stumbled upon a table where people were submitting their names to become a contestant in a runway modeling competition. Kathy dared her husband to throw his name in, so he did, figuring there was no way he’d be selected.

“I put on there that I’m 62 years old and figured that would be the first thing they looked at and the reason they’d pass on me,” says Hammond, now 64.

About a month later, Hammond received a text message from the modeling agency asking him to audition to be a spokesperson for a company it was promoting. He immediately texted back, “Are you sure? You looked at my age? You really want me out there?” They did. Hammond participated as part of the over-40 group.

“I was definitely the oldest by 15 or 20 years,” he says, laughing. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think I’d be in front of people. My job was always behind a desk dealing with people’s problems. My whole goal in retirement was, I don’t want to be in public or deal with people anymore. I just want to do my thing and relax.”

Instead, Hammond found himself strutting down a runway and eventually being chosen as the winner of his age group. This launched him into more modeling opportunities, including answering a casting call to be an extra in the family comedy movie “Daddy Daughter Trip,” which Rob Schneider starred in, directed, and produced. Hammond plays a maître d' at a restaurant and has one line. “Hopefully it doesn’t get edited out,” says Hammond, who has also been in dozens of local commercials and runway events.

Hammond didn’t know how much he’d love this second act of his career but credits his youthful and healthy appearance to swimming regularly and converting to a plant-based diet. “I used to get up and feel sore and stiff,” he says. “I don’t feel that way anymore.”

Hammond has been a swimmer in some capacity all his life. He grew up in the small town of Huron, Ohio, right on Lake Erie, and loved running down the beach and swimming in the lake for hours with his four brothers. Hammond didn’t swim competitively until after college when he moved to Cleveland for work. He quickly became hooked on the sport and found motivation in wanting to improve his times and places in his events.

Hammond, who now swims three to four days a week (five if he’s training for a competition) as an unattached member in the Arizona LMSC, believes swimming has had a direct impact on his modeling career because it’s helped stay in shape and feel confident.

“That plus the diet and just having a year-round tan living out here doesn’t hurt,” Hammond says. “Most swimmers I’ve met all look 20 years younger than their age. There is something about swimming, even more than other sports. It just has an overall effect, and I’ve not figured out how to explain that, but in my personal experience, swimming helps you look younger and stay younger.”

This, of course, is beneficial to his modeling career, which has been going strong for two years. The gigs don’t pay a ton, but that’s not why Hammond does it. He has fun doing it. Hammond has no plans of quitting anytime soon.

To people thinking they might be bored in retirement, Hammond has sage advice.

“Be open to new ideas and new opportunities when they come across your path,” he says. “Whether it’s volunteering or something stupid like an audition to be a model, don’t close yourself off. You never know. It may end up going nowhere or it could open a new and exciting door.”