Passages: Iris Cummings Critchell, Oldest Survivor of 1936 Olympics, Dies at 104

Photo Courtesy: Iris Cummings / San Francisco Examiner
by Matthew De George – Senior Writer
28 January 2025, 02:41pm
Passages: Iris Cummings Critchell, Oldest Survivor of 1936 Olympics, Dies at 104
Iris Cummings Critchell, a swimmer who was the last surviving athlete from the 1936 Olympics, died on Jan. 24. She was 104 years old.
Cummings Critchell’s death was confirmed by Harvey Mudd College, where she spent three decades as an instructor after a pioneering career in aviation.
She has long been the last surviving athlete to have competed in the 1936 Olympics, hosted by the Nazi regime in Germany. Cummings Critchell was living in Claremont, California, at the time of her death. She had turned 104 on December 21.
Cummings’ moment on the Olympic stage was brief. She finished fourth in her heat of the 200 breaststroke at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Her time of 3:21.9 ranked 18th overall, with two heats of seven swimmers each advancing to the semifinals.
No Americans made the final in a meet where the American women managed just three medals, all bronze, in four individual events and one relay.
Cummings was born and raised in Los Angeles, inspired to begin swimming after watching her hometown host the 1932 Olympics. She joined the Los Angeles Athletic Club in 1934 and was a national champion by the next year.
She won the national title in the women’s 200 breaststroke at the 1936 national championships, though she had to raise her own funds to travel to Berlin.
With the prospect of a looming world war clouding the possibility of the 1940 Olympics (originally awarded to Tokyo) being held, Cummings retired from competitive swimming in late 1939.
Cummings had a fascinating career as a pilot, again piqued by an experience as a spectator, this time at a 1928 air show hosted by the U.S. Army Air Corps’ stunt flying team, the Musketeers. She was one of the first people accepted in 1939 to Civilian Pilot Training Program, instituted by the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) with USC as one of its chosen instructional institutions, flying out of Mines Field, which would become LAX. She received her private pilot’s license in 1941 as a senior at USC, from which she graduated with a degree in physical sciences and mathematics.
At a time when women could not serve in combat, Cummings first served as an instructor for the CAA at Brackett Field in La Verne, then joined the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in 1942 as part of its second class for training in Houston. It was absorbed into the Women Airforce Service Program (WASP). She served in the 6th Ferrying Group, based out of Long Beach, California, until the unit’s deactivation at the end of 1944, flying 18 varieties of military aircraft. She met her husband, fellow pilot Howard Critchell, while both were in the service. They remained married for 70 years through his death in 2015.
Cummings continued in the aviation industry for decades. In 1957, she won the All Woman Transcontinental Air Race, one of 15 times that she competed in the race, finishing in the top 10 on five occasions. She began as an active member of the Ninety-Nines organization for female pilots in 1952.
After her military service, Cummings taught and developed curriculum for USC’s College of Aeronautics, teaching courses in primary aircraft operation and for commercial pilots and instructors. The USC Aviation Safety and Security Program was the first of its kind when launched in 1952. In 1962, she and Howard established the Bates Aeronautics Program at Harvey Mudd College. Cummings spent 28 years as the director of the program until 1990 and continued teaching after retiring to emerita status through 1996.
Cummings was elected to the National Flight Instructors Hall of Fame in 2000 and to the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame in 2007. She was designated an Federal Aviation Administration Wright Brothers “Master Pilot” after 50 years of instruction, including more than 20 as a designated pilot examiner for the FAA, in 2006. She was inducted to the California Aviation Hall of Fame at the Museum of Flying in 2015.
Iris Cummings Critchell is survived by a daughter, Sandie Clary; a son, Robin Critchell; three grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family asks for gifts in Cummings Critchell’s name to be made to Harvey Mudd College, Office of College Advancement, 301 Platt Blvd., Claremont, CA, 91711.
Throwback Thursday: The Early Training That Led Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman to Hall of Fame (Sample Sets)

16 January 2025, 12:09am
Throwback Thursday: The Early Training That Led Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman to Legendary Status (Sample Sets)
Together, Michael Phelps and Bob Bowman forged the most successful athlete-coach relationship in the history of the sport. Here is a look at some of the early workouts that led to Phelps’ stardom.
By Bob Bowman (with Michael J. Stott) – From 2003
I think it was pretty clear from the beginning that Michael Phelps was a special swimmer. When he joined us at North Baltimore Aquatic Club as a 7-year-old, he was a baseball/soccer/lacrosse athlete. His first year, he just did a 60-minute, once-a-week stroke clinic with our aquatics director, Cathy Lears.
His training and intensity escalated from there, to where, by the time he was 10 and setting NAG records, he was better than many of the older swimmers. Obviously, we had to do some rapid lane promotions.
To those who knew the Phelps aquatic heritage, his prowess was no surprise. His oldest sister, Hilary Phelps, was a national-level swimmer. His second sister, Whitney Phelps, was also a 200 flyer. She made the 1994 World Championship team that competed in Rome. (She still held the 11-12 NAG record in the 100 yard fly at the time this article was printed.) So, in many ways, swimming excellence has been a family trait.
And while it is also tempting to think of Michael only in terms of the fly and IM, a review of his record reveals a litany of national rankings in the free and back as well.
Supportive parents have aided his climb immensely. They had been through the drill with the older daughters. Then there’s Michael’s physique: at 6-4, he is mostly torso with a large chest and long arms. It’s a body great for swimming. He is very flexible throughout the shoulders, upper body and especially in the ankles.
Michael is much more disciplined than he was in his earlier days. He was, and is still, a pretty strong-willed kid. Back then, he didn’t understand he might have to do some things he didn’t want to do, like train, sit still, pay attention and not talk. He was very energetic as a young boy.
These days, he’s modified his behavior – either voluntarily or involuntarily.
“I think part of that modification started when I pulled him out of the pool and told him, ‘You’ve got a stroke that is going to set a world record some day, and you are going to do it in practice.’” – Bob Bowman
Keenly Competitive
Michael has an athletic mentality second to none. He is keenly competitive and that’s what drives him. In competition, he is incredibly focused and able to relax. The higher the level of competition, the better he is. That’s something you just don’t see very often.
What he needs to work on is the same thing he had to work on as a child: to strengthen the connection in his mind between what happens on a daily basis and how that affects what’s going to happen when he gets in the big meet.
He’s better now and better than 90 percent of the the population, but he still has those days – about once every six weeks – when he’s tired, and it’s a struggle for me to get him to do things and maintain the same intensity in workout that he gives in the big meets.
In 2002, he had an excellent summer, setting a world record in the 400 meter IM, taking four events at the Phillips 66 Summer Nationals, notching American records in the 200 IM and 100 fly and swimming the fastest fly leg ever in a 4 x 100 world record medley relay victory.
In addition to water work, we religiously incorporated a “Mike Barrowman medicine ball routine” into his dryland routine, and we did a three-week stay at altitude in Colorado Springs. He’s followed his long course success with the best fall and winter he’s ever had by far.
Typically, for the last three or four years, Michael has had very good summers. Then there have been down periods in the fall where we’ve had to work hard to crank him back up to a good mental mode.
That has not been the case this year. This fall and winter, Michael has worked hard on the backstroke. In fact, he’s gotten really good. Recently, he finished a 15 x 200 yard back set with a 1:45. Not too bad! And his breaststroke, while still not flashy, is greatly improved.
We continue to develop Michael as a complete swimmer. That means some emphasis on the distance freestyle. On Halloween, he whipped off a 5,000 free for time in a 46:34. That’s under a 9:20 per 1,000 average. I was impressed with that. In fact, it is probably the most impressive thing he’s done, and it might be one of the most impressive things he ever does.
That’s the kind of thing I’m not sure you can ever replicate, but it’s neat to give him some confidence, particularly since he has to swim against some of the super distance guys.
This is the third year we have approached the training cycle from a yearly perspective. It’s not our style at NBAC to talk about the results of success.
We are always interested in the process. Michael didn’t understand the scope of it until his breakout spring nationals performance in Seattle in 2000 when he went from a 2:04.68 to 1:59-flat and set a 15-16 NAG record in the 200 meter fly. After that, the secret was out.
Setting Goals
These days, Phelps sets goals for himself. Our eyes are on one medium and one long-range goal: World Championships in July in Barcelona and 2004 Olympic Trials and Games.
In Spain, he will swim a full program that mimics the Olympic schedule, except that, there the 400 IM, will be on the last day rather than the first. That’s a full plate: six days of prelims, semis and finals in the 100-200 fly, 200-400 IM, 800 free relay, 400 medley relay and, hopefully, a berth on the 4 x 100 free relay.
To get ready for that, we have concocted a training program that began with a fairly high-mileage fall, a 70-80,000 mixture of yards and meters per week.
There was also 30-45 minutes of dryland six days a week. September through December, we focused on structural adaptation.
Photo Courtesy: Swimming Technique Magazine
With that, we are looking to stimulate major physiological growth that will make him go faster. At this stage, we don’t emphasize fine-tuning. Instead, we have spent a lot of time on endurance work, improving technical issues and gaining strength–putting money in the bank.
We’ll continue that regimen through spring nationals. From April through May, we’ll focus on functional adaptation, working on coordination plus speed and racing-specific elements for the World Championships. With all his success, it is easy to overlook that Michael Phelps is only a 17-year-old, especially given that he is in his second year as a professional and drives a Cadillac Escalade.
But, he’s earned it, and he’s in the process of maturing and securing his financial future. This spring, he’ll graduate from Towson High School. In the fall, he’ll be attending classes at Loyola College in Baltimore and continue to train with us at North Baltimore.
Check the accompanying charts for some typical early-mid. and late-season workouts Michael Phelps has done during the 2001-2002 short and long course seasons.
Photo Courtesy: Swimming Technique Magazine
Note from the Publisher: When this article was published in 2003, Bob Bowman was the senior coach at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club in Maryland. Bowman is now the head coach at the University of Texas. Michael Phelps is retired as the greatest Olympic athlete of all time, winning 28 Olympic medals.
IOC Will Provide Gary Hall Jr. with Replacement Medals for Those Lost in L.A. Wildfires

by Swimming World Editorial Staff
13 January 2025, 06:55am
IOC Will Provide Gary Hall Jr. with Replacement Medals for Those Lost in L.A. Wildfires
As Gary Hall Jr. ran through his home last week before evacuating the Pacific Palisades residence due to the Los Angeles wildfires that have devastated Southern California, the three-time Olympian focused on grabbing a handful of items. He picked up his dog, the insulin to treat his diabetes, a painting of his grandfather and a religious artifact given to him by his daughter.
Left behind were the 10 Olympic medals won by Hall between the 1996, 2000 and 2004 Games.
“I was getting pelted by embers on that first run,” Hall told the Los Angeles Times. “So I grabbed my dog and some dog food and that was it. Could I have stayed 30 seconds longer and maybe got the medals? I wasn’t willing to take that risk.”
One of the greatest swimmers and a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Hall Jr. will always have the memories of his Olympic accomplishments. And in the future, Hall Jr. will also have replicas of the 10 medals he earned while representing the United States on the biggest stage in his sport.
International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach took to social media over the weekend and noted that the IOC will provide Hall Jr. with copies of the medals he won in Atlanta, Sydney and Athens. Among the medals will be golds to reflect the back-to-back titles he claimed in the 50-meter freestyle in 2000 and 2004.
Donations to support Hall Jr. can be made at the link below, while donations to the thousands affected by the wildfires can be made to the American Red Cross.
Historic Set: An Appreciation and Breakdown Of the Legendary 100 x 100s Of Olympic Champion And ISHOF Honoree Mike Bruner (Splits Included)

22 December 2024, 02:15am
A Look and Breakdown Of the Legendary 100 x 100s Set Of Mike Bruner
A tradition at some clubs during winter training is for athletes to complete a 100 x 100 workout. The set is an Ironman/Ironwoman accomplishment. So, as some swimmers prepare to tackle this grinding set, we visit the archive for a look at Olympian Mike Bruner and his conquest of the workout.
About eight months before he set a world record in the 200-meter butterfly (1:59.23) and won a second gold medal in the 800 freestyle relay at the 1976 Olympics, Mike Bruner completed an aquatic first – swimming 10,000 yards in under 100 minutes.
It was in the halcyon mid-1970 days of mega-yardage workouts embraced by the likes of American coaches Mark Schubert, Sherm Chavoor and Dick Shoulberg, along with Australia’s Laurie Lawrence.
Early in the 1970s, Marin Aquatic Club’s Rick DeMont, coached by Don Swartz, had been holding splits on 100 yards under a minute on long swims. In a plan to boost the growing profile of his De Anza Swim Club and inspire his swimmers, head coach Bill Rose cooked up a challenge to Bruner that nobody had ever done – average under one minute for an entire 10,000 yards…with a caveat: Should he fail to average under 1:00 per hundred, he would have to stop the set at that point.
With game on, a reported 700 people lined the pool deck to cheer him on. Cronus Watch Co. was also on hand to provide the official timing for the Guinness Book of World Records attempt.
Bruner, a future Hall of Famer, hit the water at about 4 p.m. on Nov. 21, 1975, and emerged successfully after an elapsed 1:39:18.59.
Mission accomplished!
Rose, scheduled to speak at the Western States Coaches’ Clinic and never one to miss a marketing opportunity, rushed to catch a plane to L.A. That evening he related, that as a part of the team’s annual Swim-a-thon, one of his swimmers had done “extra.” He then read off Bruner’s 1,000 splits starting with a 9:47.89 and ending with 9:40.31. (See Rose’s complete log at the end of the story).
Over the years, Rose has frequently coaxed his swimmers to undertake extraordinary challenges. Within months of taking over the Mission Viejo Nadadores in 1992, he inaugurated an annual 50 x 500 on 6:30, an event in which 14-year-old Bart Kizierowski prepared for with a dozen donuts and three quarts of chocolate milk. In February 2004, Nadadores National Team members Larsen Jensen, Justin Mortimer and other swimmers charged through 20 x 1500 meters on 18 minutes.
“According to the world, that 20 x 1500 is the daily thing we do,” says Rose. “Nothing could be further from the truth, but if people want to think of us that way, go right ahead.”
Mike Bruner’s plunge into the unknown (see below) shows the running time and 100 split for each 100 yards swum (with the 1,000-yard splits listed in boldface). Bruner’s average split per 100 was between 59.58 and 59.59 seconds.
Photo Courtesy:
Dressel Family Growing as Caeleb, Meghan Announce They are Expecting Second Child

Photo Courtesy: Meghan Dressel via Instagram
by Dan D’Addona — Swimming World Managing Editor
27 November 2024, 01:01pm
Dressel Family Growing as Caeleb, Meghan Announce They are Expecting Second Child
The Dressel family is growing by one.
Caeleb Dressel and his wife Meghan Dressel announced they are expecting their second child.
“OOPS! We did it again. We are overjoyed to share our family is growing again🥰 Baby Dressel #2 coming in June! 2 under 2 here we go,” Meghan Dressel posted on social media.
The couple welcomed their first child into the world earlier this year. August Wilder Dressel was born, Feb. 17, 2024.
The couple was married in 2021 on Valentine’s Day weekend in Florida.
Dressel won three individual Olympic gold medals in Tokyo, then took nearly a year away from the pool before qualifying for the Paris Olympics in the 100 butterfly, 50 freestyle and a relay swimmer in the 100 free. He won two gold medals and one silver medal on relays for the U.S. in Paris.
In three Olympic games, he has earned a total of nine gold medals and a silver medal. He is a 21-time world champion and set numerous records at the NCAA level where he won 10 national titles for the University of Florida.
Dressel is hoping to swim the 50 free in Los Angeles in 2028 as the Olympic coda to his career.
“It has always been one of my dreams to compete on American soil at a championship meet. So, yes, my eyes are on 2028,” he told the AP. “I don’t think it’s going to be a full-event lineup. I think maybe just the 50 free, put a little bit more muscle on, don’t have to be in as good a shape. So maybe look forward to just doing the splash-and-dash. That might be a good time for me.”
Happy Birthday Britta Steffen!!

Country: GER
Honoree Type: 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.
The information on this page was written the year of their induction
Happy Birthday Aleksandr Popov!!

Country: RUS
Honoree Type: 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 theYear in 1994 and 2003.
Popov is a full member of the International Olympic Committee and Vice Chairman of the Athletes Commission within FINA.
The information on this page was written the year of their induction
Happy Birthday Melvin Stewart!!

Country: USA
Honoree Type: 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.
The information on this page was written the year of their induction
Happy Birthday to 2024 Honoree Dana Vollmer!!

Country: USA
Honoree Type: Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (100m butterfly, 4×100mmedley, 4 x 200m freestyle relay); 2016 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4 × 100mmedley relay), silver (4 x 100m freestyle relay), bronze (100m butterfly); 2004OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4 × 200m freestyle relay); 2011 LONG COURSEWORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m butterfly, 4 × 100m medley) silver (4 x100m freestyle relay); 2007: gold (4 × 200m freestyle relay), silver (4 x 100mfreestyle relay, 4 × 100m medley relay); 2013: gold (4 × 100m medley relay),bronze (100m butterfly); 2009: silver (4 × 200m freestyle relay), bronze (200mfreestyle); 2004 SHORT COURSE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4 × 100mfreestyle relay, 4 x 200m freestyle relay), bronze (100m butterfly); 2010: silver (4× 100m freestyle relay, 4 x 100m medley relay), bronze (100m butterfly);
The scene was the 2000 United States Olympic Trials and a 12-year-old girl walkedthe deck of the venerable Indiana University Natatorium with the biggest names ofthe sport. At the time, Dana Vollmer was a young phenom, gathering valuableexperience for the future, and a career that would go down as sensational.
A multi-event talent in freestyle and butterfly, Vollmer’s big breakthrough arrived in2004, when she qualified to represent the United States at the 2004 OlympicGames in Athens. In the home of the Olympics, Vollmer helped the United Statescapture the gold medal in the 800-meter freestyle relay, a world record making thevictory that much sweeter.
After representing the U.S. in additional international competition over the next fewyears, Vollmer failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. It was atough blow for Vollmer, but it hardly deterred her career. She immediately bouncedback and embarked on the most-successful stint of her career.
At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Vollmer was the bronze medalist in the200 freestyle and contributed to the United States’ silver medal 800 freestyle relay.By the next World Championships in 2011 in Shanghai, Vollmer was the worldchampion in the 100 butterfly and a key cog on multiple American relays.
The stage was set for Vollmer to excel at the 2012 Olympics in London.
Eight years after making her Olympic debut, Vollmer was a triple gold medalist inLondon, as she helped the U.S. to titles in the 400 freestyle relay and 400 medleyrelay. Her shining moment arrived in the 100 butterfly, where Vollmer struck goldwith a world-record time of 55.98. The effort made her the first woman to breakthe 56-second barrier in the event.
“Coming back from 2008, I didn’t know if I was going to swim,” Vollmer said at thetime. “I had worked for so many years to reach that one goal, but along the way I had a shoulder injury, a back injury, and I was having to deal with fatigue and somuch pressure that I just wasn’t having fun with it at all…The past eight years,there were good times and there were bad times. I feel like it all finally paid off.”Vollmer followed her Olympic crown with a bronze medal at the 2013 WorldChamps and made her third Olympic appearance at the 2016 Games. In Rio deJaneiro, Vollmer once again delivered on the big stage, securing the bronze medal.She added a gold medal in the 400 medley relay and a silver medal in the 400freestyle relay.
Vollmer retired in 2019 as a seven-time Olympic medalist, 10-time medalist at theWorld Championships and with 35 medals earned in international competition. Yetwith all those accolades, the one title she’s most proud of is she the only “Mother”in the sport of swimming to win an Olympic gold medal.
The information on this page was written the year of their induction
Happy Birthday Sue Gossick!!

Country: USA
Honoree Type: 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.
The information on this page was written the year of their induction