On this day 130 years ago, the great Yale man, Robert H. Kiphuth was born !!
ROBERT J. H. KIPHUTH (USA) 1965 Honor Coach
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1932, 1936, 1948 (U.S. Olympic Men’s Swimming Team Head Coach); Yale University Swimming Coach for over 30 years, winning 200 consecutive meets, National AAU Team Championships, NCAA Championships; Introduced dry land exercises to swim training; National AAU Treasurer; AAU Youth Fitness Director.
On numbers of dual meet victories (only 10 losers in 42 years), numbers of Eastern Intercollegiate titles (38), numbers of times as U.S. Olympic coach (5), numbers of swim trips overseas (33), and numbers of AAU National Team Championships (14), no coach has been so successful as Yale’s Bob Kiphuth. Perhaps the highlight of his career was Kiphuth’s 1948 Men’s U.S. Olympic swimming team, the only team in history to win first place in every event.
Kiphuth came from humble beginnings in Tonawanda, New York, and while this Buffalo area has never been famous for swimmers, it is another Oxford, Ohio, as a spawning ground for coaches, including Kiphuth, Matt Mann, Uhro Saari, George Breen and Harry Hainsworth. Originally an exercise-gymnastics-fitness instructor, Kiphuth came down from the gym to take over the swim team at the old Carnegie Pool when Matt Mann left Yale after 1917. His success was instant and continual.
More than any other coach, Kiphuth was responsible for adding dry land exercises and cross-country running to swimming programs. His success changed the long entrenched theories that swimming muscles had to be soft and trained only in the water. Kiphuth was accepted in Physical Education circles where his articles and several books made universal knowledge the techniques that had been kept secret in a few coaches’ minds. He was the first editor and publisher of “Swimming World” magazine.
As Athletic Director and Physical Education professor at Yale, as a much traveled ambassador of swimming, Kiphuth played a key roll in sports administration, coordination and politics helping to break down much of the traditional thinking that a coach is a trainer that should be seen and not heard. Kiphuth was a founder of the Council for National Cooperation in Aquatics, a charter Vice President of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, a director of the Boys Clubs of America, the National Art Museum of Sports, the President’s Fitness Council, National Swim Chairman of the AAU and many other executive-administrative functions other than coaching.
At Yale, he was a counselor to his many great swimmers out of the water but a very tough taskmaster to both swimmers and staff in his famous Payne-Whitney exhibition pool where his swimmers Jimmy McLane, Alan Ford and Jeff Farrell set many of the world records.
Kiphuth was a collector who filled his halls with pictures, clippings and trophies. When his bicycle was parked in the granite hallway of Payne-Whitney it meant the boss was in.
Birthday thoughts for the late Roland Matthes
ROLAND MATTHES (GDR) 1981 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1968 gold (100m, 200m backstroke), silver (relay); 1972 gold (100m, 200m backstroke), silver (relay), bronze (relay); 1976 bronze (100m backstroke); WORLD RECORDS: 19; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1973 gold (100m, 200m backstroke), silver (relay), bronze (relay); 1975 gold (100m backstroke); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1970 gold (100m, 200m backstroke; medley relay), silver (100m freestyle), bronze (freestyle relays); 1974 gold (100m, 200m backstroke), silver (100m butterfly), bronze (relay); EAST GERMAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 22; U.S. OPEN RECORD: 1
Roland Matthes, like that other great backstroke Hall of Famer Adolph Kiefer, is known as much for how long he did it as for what he did, which was to stay unbeaten in world competition for seven years between 1967 and 1974. During this period he broke the 100 meter backstroke record 7 consecutive times and the 200 meter backstroke record 9 times. This supreme swimmer from East Germany was the best in the world on his back winning both the 100 and 200 backstroke in 2 Olympics — back to back (1968 and 1972). He was also a world class butterflyer and freestyler winning the silver medals in the European Championships in both. His final act in swimming was the “world’s fastest marriage” as he joined forces with superstar Kornelia Ender in May, 1978.
Sarah Thomas to receive the 2021 Poseidon Award
FORT LAUDERDALE –
The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) will recognize Sarah Thomas for her high-level achievement in marathon swimming with the 2021 Poseidon Award. The Award will be presented to Sarah during a future International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Induction and Award Ceremony. The Poseidon Award is presented annually by International Swimming Hall of Fame to the organization or individual for high level achievement from personal effort or initiative in a field of endeavor that contributes to the performance of marathon swimmers or to the development and status of Marathon Swimming to the world.
This year’s award honors Sarah Thomas. In 2019, she was the first swimmer to ever complete a 4-way English Channel Swim (132 km in 54 hours and 10 minutes). Additionally, she has completed two other long swims; Lake Champlain (168.3 km in 67 hours and 16 minutes) in 2017 and Lake Powell (128.7 mk in 56 hours and 5 minutes) in 2016. This trio of swims are the top three longest, current neutral swims in history. In 2017, Sarah was diagnosed with breast cancer, for which she underwent aggressive treatment of chemo, surgery, and radiation therapy. Six months following the completion of cancer treatment, Sarah completed the epic Cook Strait swim in New Zealand and six months after that, she finished her 4-way English Channel swim. Her courageous comeback has been an inspiration for many and generated great media coverage for our sport: ESPNw, Sports Illustrated, Inside Edition, Good Morning America, Good Morning Britain, etc.
She was also the Race Director for the unique Cliff Backyard Ultra Marathon Swim (USA) in 2018 and 2019.
She was inducted as an Honor Swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF) in 2018. For her substantial contributions to marathon swimming on the international stage, Sarah has been awarded the 2021 Poseidon Award.
For additional information, please call Ned Denison in Ireland, (+353) 87-987-1573, or ISHOF at (954) 462-6536, or visit http//:www.ishof.org
Happy Birthday Mel Stewart !!!
MELVIN STEWART (USA) 2002 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPICS: gold (200m butterfly), gold (4x100m medley relay), bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: 5th (200m butterfly); ONE WORLD RECORD: 200m butterfly; 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m butterfly); 14 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 7-200m butterfly, 6-200m butterfly, 1-100y butterfly; TWO NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 200m butterfly.
Melvin Stewart was known as the greatest 200m butterfly swimmer of his era. Not only did this 14-time National champion win the 200m event at the 1991 Perth World Championships, defeating legendary Hall of Famers Michael Gross of Germany and Tamas Darnyi of Hungary, he became the gold medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in Olympic record time, 1:56.26. Stewart won a second gold as a preliminary heat member of the 4x100m medley relay and a bronze on the 4x200m freestyle relay. In his first Olympic Games at Seoul in 1988, he placed fifth in the 200m butterfly. Stewart held the world record at 1:55.69 from 1991 to 1995 when it was broken by Denis Pankratov of Russia.
It all began for Stewart in 1974. Under the direction of Coach Frankie Bell at the Johnston Memorial YMCA pool in Charlotte, North Carolina, he won National YMCA titles. Bell taught him stroke technique and built his love for the sport, motivating the already inspired youngster with a banana split every time he won. By age 10, he was ranked among the top 10 in the nation in his age group in 16 events. “Little Melvin,” as he was called, grew up on the grounds of Heritage USA, the PTL Ministries Theme Park and religious retreat where his father was recreation director of Jim and Tammy Bakker’s Heritage Church and Athletic Director of his school, Heritage Academy.
Mel became a butterfly side-breather, preferring this unconventional breathing technique to the more traditional head up breathing common to most butterfly swimmers. At 6’1”, 180 lbs., he was a natural. He had flexibility, quick hands and feet, great turning ability and tremendous kicking power. His arms reached from lane rope to lane rope.
In need of some academic tutoring, his mentor, George Baxter, enrolled Stewart at Mercersburg Academy, a small boarding school known for its academics and competitive swimming teams. In his three years there, Mel became an honor student and a leader.
He followed his Mercersburg coach John Trembley to the University of Tennessee and swam on to international stardom one year later, winning the 200m butterfly at the Goodwill Games of 1986. He repeated with Goodwill Game wins in 1990 and 1994 in Moscow, and at the Pan Pacific Championships of 1987, 1989 and 1991. While at Tennessee, he won two NCAA titles in the 200y butterfly.
Stewart holds the record in United States Swimming for winning the most national championships (14) in one event (200 butterfly), more than any other male swimmer in USA history.
After failing to qualify for the 1996 Olympic Team, Mel began to pursue his second dream of acting. He appeared in plays, movies and television shows. He served as an ABC Sports field reporter, hosted ESPN’s “American Outback” and appeared in “Pentathlon,” starring Dolph Lundgren. Stewart was also a hotel lifeguard in “Baywatch.” He is a partner, producer and writer for Symbiotic Entertainment.
*write-up from 2002
Happy Birthday Britta !!!
Britta Steffen (GER) 2019 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (4x200m freestyle); 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle); 2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle), bronze (4x100m medley); 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): silver (4x200m freestyle), bronze (100m freestyle); 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): bronze (4x100m freestyle); 2000 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): silver (4x100m freestyle); 2012 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): gold (100m freestyle; 5 WORLD RECORDS
She was winning youth championships in Germany at age 14 and was quickly becoming one of the top junior swimmers in all of Europe. At the 1999 European Junior Championships when she was just 15, Britta Steffen won six gold medals.
A year later, Steffen was selected to compete for Germany at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games in both freestyle relays. She led off Germany’s 4x200m freestyle prelim relay and watched as her teammates raced to the bronze medal in the final, earning her first major international medal at the senior level.
In 2004, Steffen missed qualifying for the Olympic Team by six hundredths of a second in the 50m freestyle, but still picked up a relay spot to compete in Athens. She again swam on the prelims relay in the 4x100m freestyle, but injured her foot and was unable to compete during the rest of the Games.
After a heartbreaking Olympic experience, Steffen returned home to begin her studies and work on her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering, adding on to an already rigorous training schedule.
Steffen had to start practice later than all her teammates, because of her studies, and often had to practice alone. With the continuous work load, she was constantly tired and ended up bedridden with a severe cold. She decided then that maybe it was time to quit swimming.
One of Britta’s biggest struggles in swimming was her inability to put her swims together in competitions when it mattered the most. She knew that if she was going to come back to swimming, she was going to have to get out of her own head. She met with a sports psychologist, who specialized in high performance and health. She was able to help Britta make changes with her training as well as her relationship with her coach.
With this new mental training, Steffen hoped she would lead her swimming career on a new path and in 2006 at the European Championships, Steffen set a world record in the 100m freestyle and was on two world record setting freestyle relays for Germany, swimming one of the fastest relay splits in history. For these efforts, Steffen was honored as Swimmer of the Year by the German Swimming Federation.
After her seemingly meteoric rise to the top of the world rankings, Steffen was accused of doping by the international media, even though she had never failed a drug test. To hush these rumors, Steffen volunteered to take examinations to ensure she was clean and all of the tests came back negative.
Steffen struggled to return to her form as the best sprinter in the world after her spectacular 2006 performances. At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, she only managed a bronze in the 100m freestyle and a silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Leading into the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Steffen was hardly a medal favorite.
She silenced all of her doubters when she won the 100m freestyle at the last stroke to win Germany’s first Olympic gold medal in swimming since 1992. Two days later, she won her second gold medal of the Games in the 50m freestyle, winning again at the very last stroke.
After the Olympics in 2008, she continued her momentum with two new world records at the 2009 World Championships in the 50m and 100m freestyles, but after 2009 her career would never be the same.
Illnesses and injuries kept her off the podium at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics and Steffen retired from swimming in September 2013. Today, she hosts TV programs and is involved in social projects for young children.
Happy Birthday Aleksandr Popov !!!
Aleksandr Popov (RUS) 2009 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (100m freestyle), SEVEN WORLD RECORDS: 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle (50m), 50m freestyle, four 100m freestyle (25m); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle), silver (50m freestyle), bronze (4x100m freestyle); 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m &100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle), silver (4x100m medley); 1991 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1993 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m medley, 4x100m freestyle); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m medley, 4x100m freestyle); 1997 EUROPEAN CHAMPONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, bronze (50m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 2001 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 2002 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4x100m medley), silver (100m freestyle); 2004 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m freestyle).
Aleksandr Popov of Russia dominated swimming’s marquee events, the 50m and 100m freestyle and became the world’s premier sprinter during the decade of the 1990’s. He won nine Olympic medals at three Olympic Games from 1992 to 2000 with a total of four gold medals in individual events.
He was the first Olympic swimmer since Johnny Weissmuller in 1924 and 1928 to win back to back sprint races – 1992 and 1996. Volgograd native, Popov moved to Australia to be with his Russian coach Gennadi Touretski, but he never gave up his Russian citizenship competing for the Unified Team in 1992 and the Russian Team thereafter.
Popov held seven World records during his career. His 100m freestyle (long course) record of 48.21 held for six years until broken by Michael Klim of Australia and his 100m freestyle (short course) record of 46.74 held for ten years until broken by Ian Crocker of the United States. He won six World Championship and 21 European Championship gold medals from 1991to2004. He was European Swimmer of the Year in 1994 and 2003.
Read about the Amazing Budd Goodwin who lived quite a life and was born on this day in 1883….
BUDD GOODWIN (USA) 1971 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1904 gold (water polo); U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (19): 1901-1915 (including 500yd freestyle, quarter-mile, half-mile); METROPOLITAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (over 30): included 500yd freestyle, one mile, five mile, Marathon race from the Battery to Coney Island; Congressional Medal for bravery for a sea rescue off Newport News, Virginia.
Budd Goodwin was employed by his father who thought swimming was nonsense if it interfered with work on their Manhattan Island excursion ferry. Budd had to work out during his lunch hour, a routine which consisted of running uptown to the New York Athletic Club, swimming as many laps as he had time for, grabbing a sandwich from the doorman as he ran out the door, and eating his lunch as he ran back down to the docks.
Such a routine must have agreed with Budd Goodwin, who won 19 National AAU gold medals, the first in 1901 and the last in 1915. He won his only Olympic gold medal in water polo at the 1904 Games in St. Louis as his father’s ferry boat routine hardly allowed for trips abroad even in 1908, which would have been Budd’s best Olympic year.
In the first decade of this century, heroes of the sporting world were immortalized on colored cards slipped into each pack of Mecca cigarettes. The back of Budd Goodwin’s card read as follows: “Budd Goodwin, of the New York Athletic Club, is in all probability the best all-round swimmer in the United States, having won over 50 Metropolitan and National championships. Goodwin won his first National Championship at the half mile in 1901. In 1905 he was quarter-mile champion, in 1907, half-mile champion, and in 1908, he probably scored his greatest victories, winning the 500-yard indoor National Championship, the 500 yard Metropolitan championship, the half-mile National Championship, the one-mile Metropolitan, the five-mile and the Marathon race from the Battery to Coney Island.”
Goodwin’s swimming career nearly ended in 1906 with a severe case of blood poisoning that called for amputation of his left arm. Fortunately Dr. Dave Hennen, a NYAC club member, a swim enthusiast, and a famous surgeon, refused to acknowledge such a fate and stopped the flow of poison in a dramatic and unprecedented 80 minute operation in which he dissected the entire forearm, then re-assembled the veins, muscles and ligaments. Dr. Hennen stayed at Goodwin’s bedside four days until the crisis was past. Budd was soon back in the water but not in time to try for the 1906 Olympics, dominated by his NYAC teammate Charlie Daniels and Englishman Henry Taylor, two swimming immortals Goodwin now joins in the Hall of Fame.
Goodwin won a Congressional Medal for bravery (the USA’s highest peacetime award) for a daring sea rescue off Newport News, Virginia. He ended his competitive career in 1922 but was still swimming well into his seventies. Retired and living in Palm Beach, Budd would walk a couple of miles to St. Edward’s church every morning, then on the way back he would stop at the Breakers Golf Course and pull a midiron and ball out of the bushes where he would have them hidden — and do nine holes in better than the average golfer and never lose the ball. He would re-hide his club and ball, then come to the Sea Spray and swim a mile in better than average time. He was Palm Beach County’s first Red Cross 50 mile recipient.
Budd Goodwin’s son was a national amateur golf champion but no one ever found out whether he was forced to do it the hard way or whether Budd let him sharpen his putting with daily practice on the deck of the family ferry boat
Petar Stoychev to Receive the 2020 Poseidon Award
FORT LAUDERDALE – The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) will recognize Petar Stoychev for his high-level achievement in marathon swimming with the 2020 Poseidon Award. The Award will be presented to Petar, on Saturday evening, during the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Induction and Awards Ceremonies, on May 2nd in New York City.
The Poseidon Award is presented annually by the International Swimming Hall of Fame to the organization or individual for high level achievement from personal effort or initiative in a field of endeavor that contributes to the performance of marathon swimmers or to the development and status of Marathon Swimming to the world.
This year’s award honors Petar Stoychev. As a swimmer he has won an unprecedented eleven consecutive FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix titles, with over 60 victories in individual professional marathon swims, including the 42 km (26-mile) Traversée Internationale du Lac Memphrémagog in Canada, the 36 km (22.5-mile) Around the Island Swim in Atlantic City, USA, the 32 km (20-mile) Maratona del Golfo – Capri Napoli in Italy and the 57 km (36-mile) Maratón Sante Fe – Coronda, Argentina. He was the 2011 FINA 25km World Champion and has six FINA World Championship medals. He competed in four Olympics in both the pool and Open Water and was the flag bearer for the Bulgarian Olympic Team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Petar was the first swimmer to cross the English Channel in under seven hours and has set Ice Swimming World Records.
He has served as a swimming administrator/coach for the last 10 years. From 2009 to 2017 on the FINA Athletes Committee, in 2013 as Sports Minister in Bulgaria, a Board Member of the International Ice Swimming Association, coaching other professional swimmers and Team Manager of his club Levski.
He was inducted as an Honor Swimmer in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF) in 2008 and inducted as an Honor Swimmer in the International Swimming Hall of Fame 2018. For his singular contributions to marathon swimming on the international stage, Petar has been awarded the 2020 Poseidon Award.
For additional information, please call Ned Denison in Ireland, (+353) 87-987-1573, or ISHOF at (954) 462-6536, or visit http//:www.ishof.org
Happy Birthday Honor Diver Sue Gossick !!!
SUE GOSSICK (USA) 1988 Honor Diver
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 4th place (springboard); 1968 gold (springboard); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1967 gold (springboard); AAU NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 5 (springboard); 1966, 1968 WORLD DIVER (springboard); 1967 Los Angeles Times “Woman of the Year”; Women’s Southern Pacific Association Springboard Diver of the Year: 1964-1968.
By the time Sue Gossick came along as a member of the 1964 and 1968 Olympic teams, Southern California diving had gone into a partial eclipse. She and her coach Lyle Draves proved it was a short eclipse. She was a medalist in 21 of 24 national springboard diving championships she entered beginning in 1962. Sue Gossick was coached early on by her father Dr. Gustav Gossick.
Placing fourth in the 1964 Games at Tokyo, Gossick won the 1966 pre-Olympics against the world’s best at Mexico City but almost didn’t make the team when she hit her hand on the board during the U.S. Olympic trials in 1968. Despite a back injury, which had kept her out of the pool for five weeks, she made it to the 1968 trials and finals and took the gold — thanks to treatments from the team doctor of the Los Angeles Rams.
At age nine, Miss Gossick was singled out by the U.S. Olympic Development Committee in 1957 as a “future Olympic champion” and 11 years later she made believers of them and their brash projection. In between, she won the U.S. Nationals five times, a gold medal in the 1967 Pan American Games and was the Southern Pacific AAU’s Springboard Diver of the Year four times. She won world diving first place ratings in 1966 and 1968. After she won the gold at the Mexico City Olympics at age 20, she was honored as the youngest ever “Woman of the Year” by the Los Angeles Times.
Happy Birthday to Mr. 46.06 !!! (Jason Lezak)
Jason Lezak (USA) 2019 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4×100m medley), silver (4×100m freestyle); 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4×100m medley), bronze (4×100m freestyle); 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4×100m freestyle, 4×100m medley), bronze (100m freestyle); 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (4×100m freestyle); 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): gold (4×100m medley), silver (4×100m freestyle); 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): gold (4×100m freestyle, 4×100m medley); 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): gold medal (4×100m freestyle); 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): bronze (4×100m freestyle); 2002 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): gold (4×100m freestyle, 4×100m medley); 2004 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): gold (100m freestyle, 4×100m freestyle, 4×100m medley); 2006 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): silver (4×100m medley), bronze (4×100m freestyle);
From the beginning, Jason Lezak showed great promise in the pool, but he constantly butted heads with his coach, Dave Salo, over his commitment to training. Recruited to swim at UC Santa Barbara, Jason’s problems with authority continued until coach Gregg Wilson finally dismissed him from the team. This was the wake-up call he needed. He loved to swim and compete, and after promising to improve his training habits, he rejoined the team. In his Senior year, he was named Big West Conference Swimmer of the Year,
At the 2000 Olympic Trials, Jason finished fourth in the 100m freestyle. While he failed to qualify individually, his result was good enough to make the 4x100m freestyle relay team, an event Team USA had never lost in the Olympic Games. In Sydney, the Australians pulled off the unexpected upset in their home pool and the USA settled for the silver.
Over the next four years, Jason was the top sprinter in the world, and at the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials in Long Beach, he qualified for the Olympic Games in both the 50m and 100m freestyle.
In Athens, the US freestyle relay team was trying to win back the title it had lost in Sydney four years earlier. Instead, they finished third behind South Africa and the Netherlands. The next day Jason did not swim as well as expected and failed to reach the semi-finals. Individually Jason finished fifth in the 50. Success came when he swam the freestyle leg behind Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, and Ian Crocker to win the medley relay gold medal, in world record time.
In 2006, Dave Salo left Irvine to take the coaching job at USC, leaving Jason without a coach. He began coaching himself and proved by qualifying for his third Olympic Games that he had the discipline to train daily without a team or trainer at his side.
When he finished second in the 100m freestyle at the Olympic Trials in Omaha, he was 32 years old, the oldest male swimmer to make the team and was selected by his teammates as a captain.
At the 2008 Games in Beijing, his first event was the 4x100m freestyle relay. The USA hadn’t won this race since 1996 and this time the USA was not the favorite. That distinction belonged to the team from France, with 100m world record holder, Alain Bernard as its anchorman. Swimming last, and starting nearly a fully body length behind, Jason chased down Bernard in the final 20 yards to win the gold medal by eight-one-hundredths of a second. Jason’s split time of 46.06, is still the fastest 100m split in history.
The next day, Jason won bronze in the 100m freestyle for the first individual Olympic medal of his career. On the final day of competition, he anchored the USA’s world record setting medley relay that gave Michael Phelps his historic eighth gold medal.
Continuing to swim on his own after Beijing, Jason passed up the opportunity to compete in the World Championships to participate in the Maccabiah Games in Israel, where he won four gold medals and celebrated his heritage as a Jewish athlete.
In 2012, at the age of 36, Jason qualified for his fourth Olympic team by finishing sixth at the Olympic Trials in the 100 free. In London, he swam in the preliminaries and helped earn a spot in the final for the silver medal winning U.S. team. In doing so, he became the first male swimmer in Olympic history to win four medals in the same event, in the 4×100m freestyle relay, in four consecutive Olympic games.
Jason ended his Olympic career with a total of eight medals, four gold, two silver and two bronze. Today, Jason is a proud husband and father of three and a popular motivational speaker who is successfully balancing his family life with business opportunities.
