Happy BIrthday to Honor Swimmer Jenny Fletcher, who was born in 1890….
JENNIE FLETCHER (GBR) 1971 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1912 gold (4x100m freestyle relay), bronze (100m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: 100yd freestyle (held for 7 years; broke her own record 11 times); BRITISH CHAMPION: 1906 through 1912.
In the modern Olympic period beginning with the 1896 Games, the first great woman swimmer was Jennie Fletcher of England. Miss Fletcher was born in 1890 in Leichester, the midland’s city that also produced Hall of Famers Matthew Webb, John Jarvis and Henry Taylor. It is ironic that this inland city has turned out the four greatest swimmers in the island country that was the cradle of organized swimming. The public baths in which Jarvis, Taylor and Fletcher worked out in Leichester are still in use now, 75 years later.
The first Olympics to advertise women’s swimming competition were the London Games in 1908.
Jennie, at 18, was at the peak of her career, but the women’s events were cancelled due to the lack of women competitors. She did get to compete in the 1912 Games in Stockholm at the end of her career. She was beaten in the 100 meter freestyle by another Hall of Famer, Australia’s Fanny Durack but she won her gold medal anchoring Great Britain’s 4×100 “Team race” as the freestyle relay was called in those days.
“The crowning moment of my career,” Jennie Fletcher said many years later, “was when King Gustav of Sweden placed the classic laurel wreath on my head, put the gold medal round my neck and said, ‘well done, England’.” This laurel wreath is now on display at the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Interviewed after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and just before her death at 78 in Canada, Miss Fletcher was asked to compare the athletes of the present and those 60 years earlier. “We did not have the time or the training,” she said. “We swam only after working hours and they were 12 hour days and 6 day weeks.”
Among trudgeon-stroking women training after a 60 hour work week, there were none better than Jennie Fletcher. She held the 100 yard freestyle World Record for seven undefeated years and was British champion from 1906 through 1912. During a three year period, she broke her own world record eleven times.
Coached by the great Jack Jarvis and chaperoned by his wife, Jennie’s parents (she was one of eleven children) turned down an offer for her to turn professional at 17 and tour with the world famous Annette Kellerman. While Annette was startling the public with her daring one-piece silk suit styled with long sleeves and legs, Jennie had been wearing a shorter sleeveless knee length version for years. “We were told bathing suits were shocking and indecent and even when entering competition, we were covered with a floor length cloak until we entered the water.
Aquatic Complex Dive Well Updates – March 13, 2021
The 27M dive tower pile cap was poured on February 26. Planning a trip next week to Gate Precast in Kissimmee to see the last panels cast before the tower is erected. Thank you to our design builder Hensel Phelps Construction Company.
We have the best construction crew ever !
Measurements and calculations are performed by two people for quality control.
Hard at Work !!!!
Sunrise
Hensel Phelps Field Engineer checking calculations.
Putting everything in its place !
Oscar and Chala with the HP craft team down inside the rebar cage checking the details.
Soon to be the GREATEST Dive Well in the WORLD!
Moving right along………
More aquatic complex photos!!! March 13, 2021
Grandstand seating for 1522
Scaffolding parts
Pile field. Marked augercast piles for the pool deck.
Guess who has beautiful new stainless steel gutters????
New stainless steel gutters for the 50M x 25Y Training Pool.
Pool Depth: 4FT – 12.6FT, no change.
Surge tank for the Training Pool – 749,348 gallons.
Updates from the ISHOF Aquatic facility, March 13, 2021 thanks to Laura Voet.
Happy Birthday Tom Gompf !!!
TOM GOMPF (USA) 2002 Honor Contributor
FOR THE RECORD: 1964 Olympic Games: bronze (10m platform); 3 National AAU Championships: (trampoline-1, 10m platform-2); 4 Foreign National Championships: Japan (3), Spain (1); 2 World Professional High Dive Championships; 11 years Diving Coach: University of Miami (FL) (1971-82); 1976, 1984 U.S. Olympic Diving Team: Coach/Manager; U.S. Olympic Committee Executive Board of Directors: Member (1977-2000); 1984-2004 FINA Technical Diving Committee: Chairman (1988-2000); U.S. Diving, Inc.: President (1985-90); U.S. Aquatic Sports: President (1999-present); Executive Board of Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas: member (1999-present).
Tom Gompf loves all aspects of diving; always has, always will. He started as a young local competitor, advanced to the Olympic Games, performed in professional competition and grew to serve the international diving community as an administrative leader. He is a hard worker for the good of the sport and a friend to all. Gompf has had a profound international influence on the sport of diving.
As a youngster, growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Tom won five National YMCA Diving titles and two National AAU Junior Nationals Championships. He was coached in the early years by Ray Zahn, George Burger and Lou Cox.
By the time he graduated from college at Ohio State University in 1961, diving for Hall of Fame Coach Mike Peppe, Tom had won the NCAA National Trampoline Championships and a year later, the U.S. National AAU Diving Championships twice on the 10m platform. In 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics, and under the eye (1961-1965) of coach Dick Smith, Tom won the bronze medal on the 10m platform, only two points behind gold medalist Bob Webster (USA) and one point behind silver medalist Klaus Dibiasi (Italy) both Hall of Famers. Tom went on to win National Championships in Spain and Japan and then competed in and won first place in the 1970 and 1971 World Professional High Diving Championships in Montreal. His next competition was diving off the cliffs of Acapulco. He survived. All this was while flying several hundred combat missions in Vietnam from 1965 to 1967 earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Medal with multiple silver clusters.
From 1971 to 1982, he coached diving at the University of Miami (FL) developing divers, winning six National Championships and competing on World, Pan American and Olympic teams. Steve McFarland, Melissa Briley, Julie Capps, Greg Garlich and Greg Louganis were among his team members.
But perhaps Tom’s greatest contribution came from behind the scenes as a leader in the sport. Universally acknowledged for his low-key, amiable manner, his stock-in-trade is his ability to work effectively and silently to promote the sport. Extremely intelligent, he can be very persuasive. Says one veteran, “Tom can make you believe a watermelon is an apple.” Since 1977, he has served on the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors (1977-2004) and Executive Board, working to autonomize the four aquatic disciplines under the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. He helped establish U.S. Diving, Inc. in 1980 and serves as the only continuous board member. He served four years as its president (1985-90) and since 1998 has been president to United States Aquatic Sports which represents all the disciplines and reports directly to FINA.
On the international scene, Tom serves on the Executive Board of the Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA). In 1984, he was elected to the FINA Technical Diving Committee and continues in that position today. He served three, four-year terms as chairman during which time he proposed and passed legislation to include 1 meter diving in the FINA World Championships (1986) and synchronized diving for World competitions, with its debut at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. “It lends the element of team, which every other sport has. It’s TV and a proven crowd favorite,” says Tom. Tom is responsible for the renovation of international judging, initiating a judges’ education program involving clinics and manuals. Tom has served as the
Chairman of the FINA Diving Commission for the World Swimming Championships (1990-98) and as Chairman of the FINA Diving Commission for the Olympic Games (1992-2000).
Tom has received the FINA silver and gold pins, served as the U.S. Team Manager for the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Games, was Chairman eight years (1991-98) for the ISHOF Honoree Selection Committee and served four years (1986-90) on the ISHOF Board of Directors. All the while, Tom was airline captain for National (1967-80), Pan American (1980-91) and Delta Airlines (1991-2000). He has received the Mike Malone/Glen McCormick Award (1984) for outstanding contribution to U.S. Diving, the Phil Boggs Award (1995), U.S. Diving’s highest award and the 1997 Paragon Award for competitive diving.
Tom’s accomplishments were never for personal fame, but always an honest attempt to help the sport he loves. He has applied the same determination and passion that made him an Olympic medalist to pursuing the goal of advancing and improving all aspects of diving on the international scene for the good of the sport and the athletes.
Happy Birthday Andras Hargitay !!!
Andras Hargitay (HUN) 2008 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (400m I.M.); ONE WORLD RECORD: 400m I.M.; 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (400m I.M.); 1975 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m I.M., 400m I.M.); 1974 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m butterfly, 400m I.M.), bronze (200m I.M.); 1977 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m I.M.).
The small, European country of Hungary is noted for producing the world’s great individual medley swimmers including Olympic champions, Tamas Darnyi and Attila Czsne. But it all began with a young 16 year old swimmer, who in 1972 won the Olympic bronze medal in the 400 IM in Munich, less than one second behind Gunnar Larson of Sweden and Tim McKee of the US who finished with identical times. Under the coaching guidance of Tamas Szechy, Andras Hargitay was on his way to become the great IM swimmer of the 1970’s.
At the first World Championships in 1973 Belgrade and again in 1975, Hargitay beat the competition by over three seconds to win gold in the 400 meter IM as well as a gold medal in the 200 IM in 1975. At the Vienna European Championships of 1974, he not only won the gold medals in the 200 meter butterfly and 400 IM, he broke Gary Hall’s 400 IM five-year old world record by two seconds, holding the record for two years until it was broken by his team mate, Zolton Verraszto. In 1977, he again won the European Championships, this time in the 200 IM. All told, he won six titles at World and European Championships and was named the Hungarian Sportsman of the Year for 1975.
Passages: ISHOF Honor Player and Coach, Ivo Trumbic, Croatian Olympic Gold Medalist in Water Polo, Dies at 86
Olympic water polo player Ivo Trumbic died on March 12 at the age of 86 in Zagreb.
The Croatian water polo player and coach was a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Trumbic was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale in 2005. Last year, he received the “Franjo Bucar” Lifetime Achievement Award, which is the highest award for exceptional achievements in developing the sport in Croatia.
• More from Trumbic’s ISHOF page
Trumbic started his career in water polo as a goalkeeper, moved to defender, then coach; an Olympic legend and expert for all times. Born in the town of Split, in the former Yugoslavia, he played for Jadran VK up to 1962, and from then on for Mladost, in Zagreb, because they were willing to pay for his tuition at the Faculty of Physical Education at Zagreb University. Graduating in 1966 with a degree in Kinesiology, he began working as assistant coach for Mladost while still a player, helping them to win the 1968, 1969 and 1970 European Cup for the National Champions. As a member of the Yugoslavian National Team, always wearing cap number 2, he had 140 appearances, winning the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and Yugoslavia’s first Olympic gold medal in water polo, in 1968.
• More water polo news
As a player, the gold medal match in Mexico City against the Russians is his most memorable. Not only because of his gold medal, or because he was named the World’s Best Player after the finals, but because it was one of the roughest games ever played. With just 12 seconds left to play, Yugoslavia held a one goal lead before the Russians were awarded a four-meter penalty shot that tied the game. In extra time Trumbic was on the receiving end of a vicious kick to his abdomen that left him without air and unconscious. Pulled from the pool and placed on a stretcher bound for the hospital, he revived, insisting on returning to the game. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Ivo Trumbic started his career as a head coach in Greece by winning the national title with the team of “Olympiacos Piraeus” in 1971. In 1973 he moved to the Netherlands, hired as coach of the Dutch National Team. Leading up to the 1976 Olympic Games, the Dutch finished fourth at the European Championships in Vienna, in 1974, and although they slipped to seventh place at the FINA World Championships in Cali, in 1975, they were much improved.
It was at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976 where Ivo Trumbic stamped his credential as a coaching legend.
Montreal was a round-robin format, without extra-time, and it proved to be one of the deepest and most competitive water polo tournaments in Olympic history, with 11 tie games. In the opening round the Dutch upset the 1975 FINA World Champion Russians. The Dutch lost only one game, to eventual winner Hungary, and settled for the bronze medal with a one goal difference after a tie in their final game with Italy.
During his amazing career, after Montreal Ivo Trumbic was a much traveled expert consultant who never promised the impossible, but before every game he would say: “We’ll do our best, let’s compete.’’
In addition to coaching and giving hundreds of clinics, he wrote several water polo books and produced instructional video tapes, contributing to spread his knowledge all over the world.
Happy Birthday to the Mother of Baby Swimming – Virginia Hunt Newman
VIRGINIA HUNT NEWMAN (USA) 1993 Honor Pioneer Contributor
FOR THE RECORD: Swimming instructor of infants; Produced film on how to dive springboard. 1967–published Teaching An Infant To Swim; Best know for developing the non-forceful, non-traumatic method of teaching infants to swim.
Virginia Hunt competed in swimming for the Indianapolis Athletic Club from 1932 to 1940, winning numerous Midwest and national titles. From 1940 to 1948 she competed in diving for the Los Angeles Athletic Club where she won several Southern Pacific Association titles and a national title.
During World War II, Virginia traveled with the United Service Organization and the Hollywood Victory Committee, appearing in water shows with Hall of Famers Johnny Weissmuller, Stubby Kruger, Buster Crabbe, and Dutch Smith, for the armed services.
Although she was quite successful as a swimmer and diver, Virginia is renowned for her accomplishments as an infant swimming instructor. She began teaching swimming to infants and pre-schoolers in 1950 and became an aquatic director and diving coach at a private boys’ school. During this time, Virginia wrote and directed a series of films on springboard diving and served as Secretary of the Southern Pacific Association Diving Committee for two years.
In 1962 she came to a major turning point in her career. Her star student, two-year old Mary Crosby, daughter of entertainer Bing Crosby and his wife Kathryn successfully passed the skill test for the Red Cross Beginners Certificate. At this time, Mary was the youngest child in the history of the Red Cross to do this. So impressed with her achievements and the fact that she was the daughter of Bing Crosby, Mary’s award was personally presented by the director of Red Cross Safety Services and Hall of Famer Johnny Weissmuller on national television and covered by Life, Look, and Time magazines and headlined in the Los Angeles newspapers.
This event led to the compiling of Virginia’s methods in her book Teaching An Infant to Swim in 1967. It gave world-wide attention to non-forceful or non-traumatic teaching methods. Her book became so popular that it was published in England, Australia, Germany, Sweden, Italy, and Japan. She later published her next book Teaching Young Children To Swim And Dive, in 1969.
Besides her success with young Mary Crosby, Virginia was also the swimming instructor for the children of John Wayne, Bob Hope, Harry Cohen, Jerry Lewis, Alan Ladd, Bob Newhart, Max Factor, Sonny & Cher, and Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman.
Her methods, distraction from normal fears associated with learning to swim and rewards for trying and performing skills, have been accepted by thousands of swim instructors world-wide.
For her accomplishments, Virginia received both the National Service Award in 1971 and National Honor Award in 1983 from the Aquatics Council of American Alliance of Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Virginia later opened Newman Swim Academy in Hollywood, California, in 1973 and became the executive director of the United States Swimming Foundation in 1980. Today Virginia continues to give many national and world workshops, clinics, and lectures on teaching children how to swim.
March 14th – Happy Birthday to Coach Ron O’Brien !!!
RON O’BRIEN (USA) 1988 Honor Diver/Coach
FOR THE RECORD: NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1959 (one meter); AAU NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1961 (3 meter); OLYMPIC COACH: 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988; Assistant Coach: 1968; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS COACH: 1975, 1978, 1982, 1986; PAN AMERICAN COACH: 1967, 1975, 1983, 1987; WORLD CUP COACH: 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987; 1974 Malone Memorial Award; 1976 Fred Cady Award; 1979-1987 Mike Peppe Award; 1984 Ohio State University Sports Hall of Fame; Winner of 62 National Team Championships while coaching at University of Minnesota (1962-1963); Ohio State (1963-1978), Mission Viejo (1978-1985) and Mission Bay (beginning 1985-1988).
Ron O’Brien has done it all in diving from NCAA and AAU national champion under Mike Peppe while a six letter man (gymnastics and diving) at Ohio State to the top professional water show act (with Hall of Famer Dick Kimball), to the Ph.D. that made believers out of the academicians, to a top college, club, national and international coach. He has won U.S. Diving’s Award as the “Outstanding Senior U.S. Diving Coach” every year since the award was inaugurated in 1979.
It seems like Ron O’Brien has always been a diving coach. Standing next to the deep end (now a diving well), speaking in sort of a stage whisper, animated by body language and hand signals of what the diver did or did not do. His face is constantly sunburned–his green eyes bloodshot with crinkle smile lines around his mouth. His ears and nose peeling as he does a dance in place, teetering on the edge of the pool.
In his first 25 years of coaching, his divers have won 154 gold, 90 silver and 78 bronze medals in major Olympic, world, national, NCAA and Big Ten Conference diving championships. This doesn’t take into account the dozens of medals in prestigious invitational meets around the world. He has coached everyone from beginners to the famed Greg Louganis.
Ron narrowly missed the 1960 Olympic team himself placing third or fourth in the Olympic trials where only two were taken. Perhaps this experience gave him the patience, persistence and understanding to be the coach of every Olympic team since 1968. “It certainly was a good motivator,” he says. “It made me want to make it as a coach. But what keeps me going is not winning,” O’Brien says, “but the quest for reaching potential in myself as a coach and my kids as divers. It’s the pursuit of excellence.”
If you had to pick a highlight from his first 25 years of coaching at Minnesota, Ohio State and the two Missions, it might be the 1982 World Championships when O’Brien’s divers from Mission Viejo won all four of the diving gold medals, the first and only time this has happened in diving history.
Happy Birthday Candy Costie !!!
CANDY COSTIE (USA) 1995 Honor Synchronized Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (duet); 1982 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (duet); 1983 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (duet), silver (team); 4 US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: (duet); 1 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
Candy Costie is an attractive, highly-spirited, athlete with an infectious smile who is artistic by nature. Fortunately, at the age of nine, she was able to find the perfect sport to devote all of her God-given attributes–synchronized swimming.
Candy is best remembered for being part of the dynamic pair that she and her partner, Tracy Ruiz, were throughout their year of swimming together. Candy and Tracy first teamed up when they were ten years old. In the crystal blueness of the water, their artistic movements captivated the judges and their audiences again and again. During their ten year partnership, only twice did she and Ruiz ever finish lower than first place in the duet event, taking silver medals in the 1980 US Nationals and 1982 World Championships.
Candy and Tracy are one of the most decorated synchronized duets to date. They have won four US National Championships, one NCAA National Championship, and a 1983 Pan American Games gold. The culmination of their career happened in the summer of 1984 –when, for the first time in history, the duet event was presented at the Olympic Games. Candy and Tracy approached the crowd and swam with such beauty, spirit and grace that no one could deny the team their right to the first Olympic Games gold medal in synchronized swimming.
Shortly after her historic Olympic experience, Candy retired. Though her athletic career has past, her name lives on through the many products she has endorsed, her appearances as a sports commentator, and her video, “The Water Workout.” Candy is remembered for helping to raise synchronized swimming — a sport which requires strength, co-ordination, and artistic composition, to new levels of popularity.
Eleven years since her retirement, Candy Continues to find new goals to reach. Her strokes no longer land in the water but rather on canvas, exploring her artistic talent at her art studio, the Desert Fish, in Arizona. Candy is the mother of two children and recently expanded her family to include two more youngsters when she married Fred Merrill, Jr.
