Happy Birthday Djurdjica Bjedov!!!
DJURDJICA BJEDOV (YUG) 1987 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1968 gold (100m breaststroke), silver (200m breaststroke); OLYMPIC RECORD: (100m breaststroke); Many time Yugoslavian National Champion and record holder; First Yugoslavian swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal.
As the only swimming gold medalist Yugoslavia ever had, Djurdjica Bjedov may just be the all-time Cinderella of the modern Olympics. She is certainly a wonderful story on why it pays to be ready because no one really knows when their big chance might come. Swimming’s miracle wonder story went something like this:
The best Bjedov had ever done was third in her heat at the European Championships two years before her 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. The Yugoslavian Swimming Federation decided they had to take her to the Olympics because they had no other breaststroker for their medley relay (which was ultimately disqualified in the preliminaries because she jumped on her relay start). Bjedov qualified fifth in the 100 meter breaststroke in a final in which the odds were on favorite, world record holder Catie Ball of the United States who placed a sub par fifth because of a serious intestinal disorder. The formidable field that remained included Galina Prosumenschikova, the only European to have won a gold medal fours earlier at Tokyo.
Everyone was worried about the altitude affecting their performance, something Bjedov thought might improve her chances. She was fit, and she was ready, and she had made the finals. To everyone’s surprise, the unknown from Split, Yugoslavia, came through to win in Olympic record time. A few days later she almost did it again in the 200. Qualifying seventh, she swam in an outside lane, topped her best previous time by three seconds and again beat the Soviet Prosumenschikova, but this time she was the only Yugoslavian swimmer to win a silver medal as American Sharon Wichman came on to win the event.
Happy Birthday Peter Biros !!!
Péter Biros (HUN) 2016 Honor Water Polo Player
FOR THE RECORD: 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold
Hungary is a land of thermal springs and although landlocked, swimming and water sports are ingrained in their culture. This love of water led to an early domination of international swimming and diving competitions in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1920s, it was water polo that came to symbolize Hungary’s unique strengths and individuality. From 1928 to 1980, the Hungarian National Water Polo Team dominated the sport like no other nation, reaching the podium at twelve consecutive Olympic Games. During this streak the Hungarians won six gold medals, three silver medals, three bronze medals, and back to back titles twice: 1932 and 1936 and, 1952 and 1956. It came to be that anything less than the gold medal was considered a failure.
So it became something of a national catastrophe and source of embarrassment when the pride of Hungary failed to medal in four consecutive Olympic contests. After finishing fourth in 1996, the Federation reached out to a young coach, who had made a name for himself coaching in Italy and Australia, to rescue the program.
Denes Kemeny started by building his team around two young men who had helped Hungary finish fourth at the 1996 Games in Atlanta: Tibor Benedek and Tamas Kásás.
Benedek was one of the most talented youngsters to ever play the game. He had joined the National Team as a teenager prior to the 1992 Olympic Games. His speed, quickness, rifle left arm and goal-scoring in Barcelona earned him the Hungarian Player of the Year titles in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Tamas Kásás took up water polo at the age of six, being taught by his father Zoltan, a famous coach and silver medalist in 1972. Because of his world-class swimming speed, defensive skills, accurate shooting and passing he would come to be regarded as one of the world’s best defensive and all around players of his era.
Born in Szeged, Tamás Molnár was selected for the national team in 1997. He was a powerhouse at the all-important center position and could score or draw exclusions against the best defenders in the world.
The youngest to join the team in 1997, was 19-year old Gergely Kiss. He was not only a brilliant left-hander and center defender, but at 6’6”, 245 pounds, he was one of the most physically intimidating players in the sport.
It was 1998 when Péter Biros joined the team. Born in Miskolc, Biros had combined water polo with handball until the age of 17. He could play any position and could score from anywhere in the pool.
The final piece of Kemeny’s team was the goalkeeper, 21-year old Zoltán Szécsi. Standing 6’6” tall, he had learned to swim as an infant, but grew up playing a variety of other sports, like basketball and tennis, which was good training for his position.
Kemeny’s new approach brought immediate results, as the Hungarians won gold at the 1997 European Championships, silver at the 1998 FINA World Championships and gold at the 1999 World Cup.
At the 2000 Sydney Games, Hungary regained its Olympic water polo success by winning their first Olympic medal in 24 years, and their record seventh water polo gold medal, by routing Russia, 13-6.
Four years later, at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Gergely Kiss scored four goals, including the game-winner in an 8-7 come-from-behind victory over Serbia-Montenegro to defend their title.
In Beijing, at the 2008 Olympic Games, the Hungarians faced off against the surprising team from the USA. In a wild shoot out, the Magyars took command in the fourth quarter for a 14-10 victory.
The win gave Hungary an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic title. While a total of 21 players won Olympic gold medals playing for Hungary over the period of 2000 to 2008, only six own three by themselves. It is to them, and their coach, that we honor the Hungarian Men’s National Water Polo Team as the first team to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Happy Birthday Franziska van Almsick !!!
Franziska van Almsick (GER) Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (200m freestyle, 4x100m medley relay), bronze (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (200m freestyle, 4x200m medley relay), bronze (4x100m freestyle relay); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay); TWO WORLD RECORDS: 200m freestyle; FOUR WORLD RECORDS (25m): 50m freestyle (1), 100m freestyle (2); 200m freestyle (l); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m freestyle), silver (4x200m freestyle relay), bronze (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay), 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4x200m freestyle relay), silver ( 4x100m freestyle relay); 1993 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay), silver (200m butterfly); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle,400m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay) silver (50m freestyle), 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay), silver (4x100m medley relay), 2002 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle relay, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay); WORLD SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1993; GERMAN SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR: 1993, 19995, 2002; EUROPEAN SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1993, 1994, 2002; WORLD SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1993.
Growing up in Berlin, Germany in the former GDR, “Franzi” loved swimming, joined a team and by the time the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, she was ready to burst onto the international swimming scene. At age 14, at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, she was the youngest participant of the re-united German team, and sensationally won the 200m and 1 OOm freestyle silver and bronze medals, as well as silver and bronze medals on Germany’s medley and freestyle relays. She set the 200m freestyle World Record at the 1994 World Championships in Rome, breaking an eight-year record held by Heike Friedrich, the last of the GDR swimmers. She broke her own record in 2002 in Berlin. Overall, her 200m freestyle World Record stood for 13 years until broken by Federica Pellegrini of Italy in 2007. Franziska held the record longer than any other female in that event except for Hall of Fame swimmer Ragenhild Hveger of Denmark from 1938 to 1956.
Competing in another three Olympic Games, she won a total of 10 silver and bronze freestyle medals, the most of any female swimmer until surpassed by Hall of Farner Jenny Thompson (USA) with 12 medals, also in 2004.
Swimming for SC Dynamo Berlin, she competed at four European Championships between 1993 and 2002 winning 18 gold and silver medals. She is a three-time German Sports Woman of the Year, (1993, 1995, 2002), two-time European Swimmer of the Year and the 1993 World Swimmer of the Year.
Passages: Clara Lamore Walker, 1948 Olympian, Masters Hall of Famer, Dies at 94
by DAN D’ADDONA — SWIMMING WORLD MANAGING EDITOR
02 April 2021, 01:51pm
Clara Lamore Walker, who swam for the United States at the 1948 Olympic Games in London and is a Masters Hall of Fame honoree at the International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) died at age 94 on Friday.
She won three national championships, and later in life set hundreds of national and world swimming records in several masters age groups.
Walker died Friday of natural causes at an assisted living facility in North Smithfield, Rhode Island, according to her great-niece, Alyssa Kent.
She participated in the 200-meter breaststroke in the Olympics when she was 22 years old, but swore after her last heat that she was giving up competitive swimming for good — which turned out to be far from the truth.
Born in Providence in 1926, Walker was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1995 as a Masters honoree, and the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 1968.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
From her ISHOF page:
When Clara Lamore Walker climbed out of the pool at the 1948 Olympic Games in London after swimming the 200m breaststroke as a member of the United States Women’s Olympic Team, she swore she would never do it again. At 22, she had been swimming ten years and had had enough. After all, she was the winner of three US National Championships. She had done it.
It lasted for 33 years, until her doctor recommended she start swimming to relieve the pain from a bad back. She was 54 a t the time. She had worked for the telephone company, spent seven years in a cloistered religious order and became the first female graduate of Providence College in Rhode Island. She was married to Doneal Walker, a Naval officer and traveled through Europe with him for seven years until he died unexpectedly in 1970. She then taught school and became a guidance counselor at Western Hills Junior High School. It was then that she got back in to the pool – for therapeutic reasons. Wasn’t much, just three days a week for a few months. But after she entered her first swim meet, maintaining somewhat the same stroke that Coach Joe Whitmore had taught her years before, she set a US National record in the 50 yard breaststroke in the 50-54 age group. It inspired her and re-enthused her to train hard. It was as if all the years away from the water didn’t matter. It was as though she were alive again back in the Olneyville Boys Club, her world defined by the borders of the pool.
Once again swimming became everything to Clara Lamore Walker. Before she graduated from the 55-59 age group, she had set more than 103 national records. currently, she holds every world and national record in the 65-69 age group except in the butterfly. And she did the same thing when she was in the 60-64 age group. Her records and her achievements follow her through time.
Clara Lamore Walker had been undefeated in competition for over ten years. She has been selected the Outstanding Masters Swimmer in her age group for the past eight years and has been the holder of 184 world records and 468 national records, more than any other Masters swimmer in the world, male or female.
Happy Birthday 1976 Double Olympic Gold Medallist and ISHOF Honor Swimmer Brian Goodell
BRIAN GOODELL (USA) 1986 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1976 gold (400m, 1500m freestyle); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1979 gold (400m, 1500m freestyle, relay); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1975 silver (1500m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: 5 (400m, 1500m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS: 8 (400m, 1500m 500yd, 1650yd freestyle, 400yd individual medley); NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: 9 (500yd, 1650yd freestyle; 400yd individual medley); AAU NATIONALS: 10 (500yd, 1000yd, 1500yd, 400m, 800m, 1500m freestyle); 1977 World Swimmer of the Year.
Brian Goodell “was a coach’s dream possessing uncanny determination and talents” says his coach Mark Schubert. Schubert’s record for team championships with the Mission Viejo Nadadores is unsurpassed in American swimming. He went into high gear with the emergence of Goodell. The same could be said for Goodell’s college swimming at UCLA where Coach Ron Ballatore says, “He had a will to win the I’ve seen in few other athletes. He can summon up those hidden reserves and turn it on when somebody is after him, like few others.”
Goodell came to Mission in 1972 not yet a world class athlete. He won a silver in the World Championships in 1975. But from there on in we can speak only of golds. Goodell attributes his incredible training regimen to a fantasy he and Jesse Vassallo used to indulge during those incredible dawn practices with steam coming off the water. They would play games; imagine the world’s best in the next lane and a huge crowd cheering from the imaginary grandstand at the Olympics. With such self-styled inspiration, Goodell set goals for his training and his future races that were unconquerable to others. He believed he did it and he won — until after the incredible boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics when Goodell announced matter of factly, “I’ve accomplished all that I’ve really want to” and retired.
In the years between, he was twice honored as the world’s top male swimmer (1977 and 1979), set five World and eight American records, won nine NCAA and 10 AAU Nationals and won two Olympic gold medals in world record time in individual events. Alongside the world’s best swimmers, one can’t help but wonder if he looked up at the Olympic crowd and fantasized he was swimming through the predawn fog at morning practice. . .
Passages: ISHOF Honor Swimmer and 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist Ursula Happe Dies at Age 94
by ANDY ROSS
1 April 2021,
Passages: 1956 Olympic Gold Medalist Ursula Happe Dies at Age 94
ISHOF Honor Swimmer and 1956 Olympic gold medalist Ursula Happe of Germany passed away March 26, 2021 at the age of 94.
In the decade of the 1950s, Germany had one female standout in international swimming. She was not only a great swimmer, but she was also a homemaker and mother of two children. That was Happe.
During World Way II, she served in the Female Labour Service and in the War Auxiliary Service. At the end of the war, her family was driven away from its home in Gdansk and was urged to flee to the western part of Germany, where Happe’s mother and two little sisters settled in Schleswig-Holstein and Bremen. Despite all of these hardships, Ursula Happe became Germany’s first post war athletic hero.
Born in 1926, in Gdansk, Ursula started swimming at the age of four and as she grew older began to participate in several age group competitions with varied success. She graduated from school in 1943, having swum for the “Neptun Danzig” Club. In 1949, following her country war duty, she joined the “Neptun Kiel” Club where she won her first of 18 German national Championships in breaststroke and butterfly.
The next year, 1950, she married her swim coach, Heinz Gunter Happe and moved to Dortmund and the swimming club “Schwimmverein Westfalen 1996,” where she again won national titles in the 100m and 200m breaststroke.
In 1952, Ursula Happe qualified to compete at the Helsinki Olympics but did not advance past the semifinal round. That’s when she decided to start her family, and, the next year she had a daughter, Gudrun. Back in to swimming by 1954, she won the German National 200m breaststroke title and the 100m butterfly title. Butterfly had just been recognized by FINA as a separate stroke.
At the 1954 European Championships in Turin, Happe won the 200m breaststroke, the first German to win that event since 1927, when Pioneer Hall of Famer Hilde Schrader won the event. Ursula also won the bronze medal in the 100m butterfly, the first time this new stroke was initiated into the international scene as a fourth stroke. Four of the five individual titles for women at these championships were won by married women. Ursula was so dynamic in her stroke that in the 1954, Swimming Times’ Bill Juba wrote, “She is a faultless breaststroker with particularly good turns and a following glide.” Later in the year, in an international swimming tournament in Hamburg, Germany, she was first again in the 200m breaststroke.
In 1955, after setting a new West German 100m butterfly record, she retired again to have her second child, a son, Klaus. But again she returned and in 1956, the Olympic year, she set a new German 200m breaststroke record of 2:51.0. Her time was the world’s third all-time best time, just behind her Olympic champion friend from 1952, Hall of Famer Eva Szekely of Hungary. The 1956 Olympic Games of Melbourne were fast approaching.
Once in Melbourne, Ursula finished first in the heats and first in the finals, winning the coveted 200m breaststroke gold medal by beating the 1952 champion and rival Szekely.
Because of her swimming success, Ursula Happe was elected as the German Sportswoman of the Year for both 1954 and 1956 and was awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf, the highest award for peak performance in the German sports organizations, presented to European and Olympic champions. In 1996, she was honored with the “Verdienstorden des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen,” the highest decoration presented for acknowledgement of a service to country and to fellow citizens in the German Federal State. Part of the inscription reads “with her personality and her typical honorable insertion, she gives many young people joy to sport and sporting attainments.”
Happy Birthday Maarten van der Weijden !!!
Maarten van der Weijden (NED) 2017 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (10km); 2008 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (25km), bronze: (5km); 2006 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (10km)
Born in Haastrecht, Netherlands on March 31, 1981, Maarteen van der Weijden, followed in his older sister Etta’s wake in the pool and open water. As a young boy, he liked challenges and at the age of 11 he swam 100x100m in training. From 1998 to 2000 he became a 12-time Dutch national champion at the 1500m freestyle, 400m freestyle, and 5km open water. Then, in 2001, he was diagnosed with acute leukemia and his chances for survival were very small. For the next two years, Maarten had little control over his life and he depended on the medical specialists to guide him through successful chemotherapy treatment and a stem cell transplantation. In 2003 he started to train again and amazingly qualified for the FINA Open Water World Championships in Barcelona. In 2004, he swam across the Ijsselmeer in 4:20.58 hours, breaking the former record by almost 15 minutes to collect 50,000 Euros, which he donated for cancer research. Van der Weijden had his own website named “Maarten van der Weijden zwemt tegen kanker” (Maarten van der Weijden swims against cancer) where he informed his fans about his life and his career. He also collected more money to invest for cancer research. His dream was to become World Champion and over the next few years he trained hard and worked on his tactics. In 2008, he fulfilled this aim when he won the 25km at the World Championships in Seville. He also won a bronze medal in the 5km there and finished fourth at the 10km. This result qualified him for the first 10km open water marathon race at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. There he ended up winning the gold medal on August 21, narrowly edging out David Davies of Great Britain. He thus became the first mens’ Olympic Champion in the 10km open water competition. He announced the end of his professional swimming career during his acceptance speech as Dutch Sportsman of the year in 2008. But that’s not the end of his story.
After writing his own biography, “Better,” in 2009 and a successful career as a finance manager for Unilever, he struck out on his own as an entrepreneur and motivational speaker focusing on healthcare, sports and business. In 2015 he initiated his first “Swim to Fight Cancer” in the cold channel of Den Bosch. It attracted over 500 participants and raised over 500,000 Euros for cancer research. He continues to use swimming to fight cancer, recently swimming the running marathon distance (42km 195m) in the 50m pool of the Pieter van den Hoogenband Swimming Stadium Eindhoven. He has also created a one-man stage show based on his book, “Better.” All one hundred of his shows have been sold out. He has also performed on the TEDx stage in Rotterdam.
On this day in 1905, Coach Ray Daughters was born……
RAY DAUGHTERS (USA) 1971 Honor Coach
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1936, 1948 (U.S. Women’s Swimming Coach); 1952, 1956, 1964 (Official Swimming Photographer); 1960 (Manager of Men’s Swimming Team); Chairman AAU Men’s Swimming Committee (1957-1959); Chairman U.S. Men’s Olympic Swimming Committee (1960); Coached Washington Athletic Club swimmers to 30 world records, 301 American records, 64 national championships.
Ray Daughters, the late, great coach of the Washington Athletic Club, lived most of his life in Seattle, moving there from Denver when he was ten. He grew up near water and was the sprint and distance swimming champion of the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900s. When the Illinois Athletic Club’s record-breaking men’s swimming team, coached by Hall of Famer Bill Bachrach, exhibited in Seattle in 1914, Daughters finished a close second to Arthur Raithel, then the national 500 yard freestyle champion. During World War I, as Chief Petty Officer at the Seattle Naval Training Station, he was in charge of swimming, during which time thousands of men were taught to swim.
Daughters’ two most famous swimmers were Hall of Famers Helene Madison and Jack Medica, the USA’s top freestylers in the 1932 and 1936 Olympics respectively. His other Olympic swimmers were Marylou Petty, Olive McKean and Nancy Ramey. His W.A.C. swimmers over the years held 30 world records, 301 American records and won 64 National Championships.
Daughters started coaching at the Seattle Crystal Pool where he produced Helene Madison and then move d to the Washington Athletic Club when it was built in 1930. He became Director of Athletics in 1942 and retired in December of 1964. Internationally, Daughters wore the USA uniform at every Olympics from 1936 through 1964. He served as Women’s swimming coach in Berlin in 1936 and again at London in 1948.
In 1952, 1956, and 1964 at Helsinki, Melbourne and Tokyo, he was official swimming photographer. In 1960 he was Manager of the men’s swimming team at Rome. During the years 1957-59, he served as Chairman of the AAU Men’s Swimming Committee and in 1960 was Chairman of the U.S. Men’s Olympic Swimming Committee.
Honor Swim Coach Eddie Reese: The End of an Era
by DAN D’ADDONA — SWIMMING WORLD MANAGING EDITOR
29 March 2021, 01:08pm
Commentary: Eddie Reese Era Ended On a High Note; His Legacy Measures Far Beyond Title Banners
Just two days after guiding the University of Texas to its 15th NCAA title, legendary coach Eddie Reese announced on Monday that he is retirng as coach of the Longhorns after 43 years at the helm in Austin. The following commentary was written by Swimming World’s Dan D’Addona following Texas’ latest championship march.
Eddie Reese won his first NCAA title as Texas swimming coach 40 years ago. Fittingly, on the 40th anniversary of that premier championship, the Longhorns won again. He led the Longhorns to plenty in between, too, with the 2021 title the 15th for Texas and for Reese in those 43 seasons, who has now led the Longhorns to a title in five different decades.
Fifteen titles is more than any other coach or program in history, which cements Reese’s legacy as the greatest college swimming coach of all time.
But his legacy isn’t necessarily the championships, but the non-championship seasons.
Reese has coached 43 years. In addition to the 15 NCAA titles, his Texas teams have been runnerup 12 times and third place seven times. The Longhorns have been in the top 10 in the nation for a stunning 40 consecutive seasons and have won 41 consecutive conference championships.
That means in 43 seasons, 27 of them have seen a top-two finish and 34 top-three finishes. The Longhorns have won 140 event titles during that span.
It is simply a dynasty.
“Simply put, Eddie Reese is the greatest coach of all time,” Texas’ Carson Foster said. “If it was ever debated before, it is over now. You can’t argue with 15 national championships in five different decades. He and all of our assistants do an incredible job with recruiting, but also developing, and they have created such a culture with the team where there is not a single person who is complacent with anything but a championship, and that is the culture from day one. We don’t accept anything less. Forty years after he won his first, he won his 15th and that is beyond special for all of us and the Texas alum.”
The 2021 season was a special one for many reasons. The Longhorns endured the pandemic virtually unscathed and took back their title after Cal broke their four-peat streak in 2019.
“Every one of them are different because of the makeup of your team and every one of them has to go through different things. These guys have been through the COVID year and that freeze in Austin. There is something special to overcome every year and this group, they went the whole school year with no positive COVID-19 tests,” Eddie Reese said after the meet.
It was also special because all 20 swimmers and all four divers who competed at the championships scored at least one point, meaning the entire team had a hand in the title. It was a meet won by depth as the Longhorns won a diving event, two relays but no individual swimming races, the first time that has happened for a title seam since 2006.
“Something really special about Eddie is he doesn’t really view us as athletes or point scorers. He views us all as human beings and wants what is best for us as human beings, and that is how it has always been. He always cares even during the hard practices. It makes you see the value in yourself and makes everybody want to be the best,” Drew Kibler said. “The culture makes you want to work and where you can take these roads. Eddie has a different way of going about these things and he is just such a phenomenal man.”
And the greatest coach in the history of college swimming.
Happy Birthday Ilsa Konrads !!!
JOHN & ILSA KONRADS (AUS) 1971 Honor Swimmers
FOR THE RECORD: WORLD RECORDS: 100m backstroke (stood for 21 years); 150 yd, 200m backstroke (stood for 11 years).
Between January 1958 and February 1960, the Konrads Kids established 37 world records.
John: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 gold (1500m freestyle), bronze (400m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: included 200m, furlong (220yd), 400m, 800m, quarter-mile, half-mile freestyle; BRITISH EMPIRE and COMMONWEALTH GAMES: 1958 (3 gold medals).
Ilsa: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 4th (400m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: included 800m, 880yd freestyle; BRITISH EMPIRE and COMMONWEALTH GAMES: 1958 (1 gold medal).
John and Ilsa Konrads were born in Riga, Latvia during World War II. With their parents, they fled to Germany in 1944 where John contracted polio in a refugee camp near Stuttgart. The family moved to Australia in 1949 and encouraged the children to swim as therapy for John’s polio. When coach Don Talbot took them over, he found two remarkable young swimmers, coach-able and willing to work as no one before them.
Ten years after migrating to Australia, this most remarkable of all brother and sister swimming acts began to break world records as the celebrated Konrads Kids, the Prince and Princess of freestyle swimming. Thirteen year old Ilsa set the Konrads’ first world records in the 800m and 880 yd. freestyle on January 9, 1958 under coach Don Talbot. Fifteen year old John set the same 800m and half mile records for men two days later, then followed with 200m, furlough, 400m and quarter mile records during the next week. After this week, the swim world, still in shock from Australian dominance in the 1956 Olympics, wondered how anyone would ever catch up. During the next two years, between January 1958 and February 1960, the Konrads Kids established 37 world records.
At the 1958 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, Wales, the Konrads were the first brother-sister act ever to win gold medals, three for John and one for Ilsa. John Konrads won the 1500m freestyle at the Rome Olympics in 1960 and Ilsa was a disappointing 4th behind Hall of Famers Chris Von Saltza and Dawn Fraser.
The Konrads stay at the top was brief but so brilliant it has never quite been equaled. They were the first of the Kiddy Corps that has made the world believe in the ability of very young swimmers to work harder than adult athletes had thought possible. They set multi-world records at an age when most of us are encouraging the mediocrity of our children with “What can you expect — she’s only 13?” The Konrads and their coach, Don Talbot, didn’t know “kids can’t swim that fast.”
