Happy Birthday Megan Neyer!!
Megan Neyer (USA)
Honor Diver (1997)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES: boycott; 1982 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (springboard); 1983 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 4th (platform); USA INTERNATIONAL DIVING MEET: 1980 – bronze (3m springboard), silver (platform), 1981 – gold (3m springboard), silver (platform), 1982, 1986, 1988 – gold (1m springboard); 1981 FINA CUP: silver (3m springboard); 15 US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 8 indoor (1m, 3m springboard), 7 outdoor (1m, 3m springboard); EIGHT NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: (1m, 3m springboard).
As a relative unknown, this young diver burst into the international spotlight at the 1980 U.S. Olympic Trials when she placed first in both the 3m springboard and 10m platform events, knowing full well that the U.S. team would not compete in Moscow at the boycotted Games. She used one of the world’s hardest lists in women’s diving with a total degree of difficulty at 22.8, matched only by USA’s Chris Seufert and 1980 Olympic Champion, Irina Kalanina of the Soviet Union. She captured the top spot in platform and springboard diving, becoming only the third person in U.S. History and the first person in two decades to accomplish the double win at a U.S. Olympic Trials, following Hall of Fame divers Pat McCormick (1952 & 1956) and Paula Jean Myers Pope (1960).
Raised in Ashland, Kentucky, Megan moved to Mission Viejo, California to continue her diving with Hall of Famer, Coach Ron O’Brien at the Nadadores. Ron helped to guide her through a decade of diving competition that saw her become the best female diver in the world.
Her success has been her consistency of success. Over a ten year period from 1978 to 1988, she won numerous U.S. National Championships, NCAA Championships, a World championship and other major international competitions.
Unable to compete at the Moscow Olympics, Neyer traveled with the U.S. Team for a dual meet with the National Team of China. She won silver in the springboard as well as at the FINA Cup and the FISU Games at Bucharest, Romaine. While a freshman at the University of Florida, she won both the 1m and 3m springboard NCAA Championship, the first of four years, setting an NCAA Record of eight individual diving championships within a four year period. This record still stands today. Because of her enormous springboard successes, Swimming World magazine voted her the 1981 Springboard Female World Diver of the Year.
At the Guayaquil World Championships in 1982, Megan became the best in the world again, winning the gold medal in the 3m springboard. She won the USA International as the only non-Chinese winner in the four combined women’s and men’s events and two points over Canada’s Hall of Famer, Sylvie Bernier. She also won both U.S. National Championships, the Australia Day International Meet and a Mission Viejo vs. Mexico dual meet. Again Swimming World selected her as the Springboard Female World Diver of the Year, 1982.
Blonde hair, 5 foot 2, eyes of blue, Megan Neyer was the envy of everyone. But in 1984, she failed to qualify for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team. She was crushed and took a rest from diving for a year and one-half. It would be a time to heal an injured shoulder, spend time with her family after the death of her father, and to release the pressure cooker feeling around which she had put herself.
Upon returning, she immediately went right back to winning: two National Championships in 1986 and 1987. Surgery performed on her bad shoulder kept her from making the 1988 Olympic team, but she did win another National Championship in the 1m springboard competition.
Megan Neyer will be remembered as a pillar of consistency throughout her long career. She won a total of 15 U.S. National Championships, and while maintaining a 3.5 grade point average in psychology at the University of Florida, she became the all-time winningest collegiate diver in the history of swimming and diving, both male and female. “I thrive on the individualized nature of diving. I’m a performer and I know that,” said Megan. With her advanced degree in the counseling field, Dr. Megan Neyer is the Director of Performance and Wellness Counseling at the Homer Rice Center for Sports Performance at Georgia Tech in Atlanta.
Happy Birthday Ellie Daniel!!
Ellie Daniel (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1997)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1968 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4x100m medley relay), silver (100m butterfly), bronze (200m butterfly); 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (200m butterfly), 6th (100m butterfly): WORLD RECORDS (8): 3 (200m butterfly), 5 (4x100m medley relay); 1967 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (100m butterfly, 4x100m medley relay); AAU NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (7): 4 short course (100yd, 200yd butterfly), 3 long course (100m, 200m butterfly); NATIONAL RECORDS (4): butterfly; ATHLETE LIAISON TO US OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: 1976 Olympic Games, 1975 Pan American Games; USOC BOARD MEMBER: 1977-1980.
As an international swimmer, this fierce competitor burned the candle from one end to the other in terms of age, beginning at age 13 and competing through the ripe old age of 22 during an era when most female swimmers retired before they graduated from high school. She competed and trained after high school with her club team, before women’s college swimming was popular.
Focused on her goals, Ellie knew exactly what she wanted and went after it.
Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ellie got an early start on the Vesper Boat Club Swimming Team, which was coached by Hall of Famer Coach Mary Freeman Kelly. At age 11, in 1961, she knew she wanted an Olympic gold medal. She watched Sharon Stouder win the 100m butterfly, Ellie’s favorite event and the 4x100m medley relay in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. She set her own sights to Mexico City in 1968. Between 1964 and 1968, FINA had added the 200m butterfly to the Olympic list, allowing Ellie the opportunity to swim her favorite event.
Her family moved to California, and Ellie began swimming for Hall of Fame coach Sherm Chavoor. By the age of 13, she had made the commitment to train as hard as possible. Her first international competition came in 1967 at the age of 17 in Winnepeg, Canada at the Pan American Games. She won a gold medal in the 100m butterfly, narrowly defeating Canada’s Elaine Tanner and Marilyn Corson. On the 4x100m medley relay she set her first world record with a relay time of 4:29.97, this being the first Pan American Games in which times were measured in 1/100s of a second.
This set the stage in Ellie’s mind for the 1968 Olympics. She qualified for the US Team in three events, winning medals in each of them. Her first day of competition she swam in the 4x100m medley relay where she and her Hall of Fame teammates Kaye Hall, Catie Ball and Sue Pedersen beat Australia for the gold medal. This was Ellie’s favorite race, and she says it was her best swum race. Then it was the 100m butterfly where Ellie won the siler medal and finally the 200m butterfly where she won the bronze behind the great Ada Kok of Holland.
But her best year was yet to come. After Mexico City, she made up her mind to prepare for 1972 – the Munich Olympics, even though she would be 22 years old, an age that, at that time, was considered to be “over-the-hill” for female swimmers. She proved the skeptics wrong when, on her way there, she set three world records in the 200m butterfly and another two world records in the 4x100m medley relay, all within a two month period in 1971. She qualified for the 1972 Olympic team, winning the bronze medal behind the USA’s Karen Moe and Lynn Collela, all within a second of each other, but not without holding the Olympic record for a short time between prelims and finals and swimming six seconds faster than her 1968 Olympic time.
After two Olympic Games, four Olympic medals, eight total world records, seven US National Championships and 10 years of training, Ellie Daniel retired from active competition, but not from her involvement in the sport.
In 1973, she was a member of the first US athletic team to follow the Ping Pong Team to China for six weeks of swim exhibitions, clinics, racing and good will. As team manager, Al Schoenfield said, “This trip was the first to open a dialogue between the two countries.”
In 1975, at the Mexico City Pan American Games, and again in 1976, at the Montreal Olympic Games, Ellie was elected by the United States Olympic Committee to serve as athlete liaison for all sports between the US athletes and the USOC administrators. From 1973 through 1980, she was an Athletes Advisory Council member and from 1977 through 1980, she was a United States Olympic Committee Board member. In helping to prepare for the 1984 Olympic Games, she served on the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee, Cultural/Fine Arts Commission, Olympian Advisory Commission, Olympic Spirit Team and the LA Olympic Committee Speakers Bureau.
A champion athlete during her competitive days, Ellie continued to participate in the sport by championing athletes’ causes worldwide.
Happy Birthday Tiffany Cohen!!
Tiffany Cohen (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1996)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (400m and 800m freestyle); 1982 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (400m freestyle); 1983 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (400m and 800m freestyle); 14 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 400m, 800m 1000yd, 1500m freestyle.
She swam at a time when Tracy Wickham of Australia held all the world records in the 400m, 800m and 1500m freestyles and most of them for a period of nine and one-half years. But Tiffany Lisa Cohen (TLC for short) was a competitor, and she raced whomever was next to her. Said her coach Mark Schubert, “Tiffany has that great ability to rise to the occasion when the gun goes off.”
Cohen joined the Mission Viejo Swim Team in 1980 and swam her first U.S. Nationals one year later in Brown Deer, Wisconsin, winning the 400m freestyle, the first of fourteen U.S. National Championships in the 400m, 800m 1000m and 1500m freestyle events.
In only her second complete year of competition, she won the bronze medal in the 400m freestyle behind GDR swimmers Carmela Schmidt and Petra Schneider at the 1982 World Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador. The following year her international competitions were at the Caracas Pan American Games where she won gold medals in the 400m and 800m freestyles and the Pan Pacific Championships where she again won the 400m and 800m freestyles.
Tiffany likes to be the leader both in and out of the water. She sets a good example and has a good attitude about competing in sport and life. She enjoys helping people and has that burning desire to succeed.
So when the Olympic Games of 1984 came, she was ready to take on the world and particularly East Germany’s Astrid Strauss who narrowly defeated Tiffany earlier in the year at the U.S. Swimming International. But the head to head competition was not to happen as the GDR boycotted the Games. Tiffany swam to an American record by winning the 400m freestyle and an Olympic record by winning the 800m freestyle, only 33 one-hundredths of a second short of Hall of Famer Tracy Wickham’s world record. It was an Olympic performance of which to be proud.
Following the Olympics of Los Angeles, Tiffany continued to compete and win, helping her Mission Viejo team on its way to a record number of national championships. She attended the University of Texas, winning five NCAA National titles for her team and coach Richard Quick. Said Quick of Cohen, “Tiffany has the mark of a champion. Just to swim well isn’t enough. She doesn’t like losing.”
In 1987, Tiffany retired from competitive swimming to battle bulimia, an eating disorder. She has embarked on a campaign to educate the public about the perils of eating disorders. She and her husband Bill are expecting their first child, and she will continue her lecturing career and concentrate on being a full-time mom. That’s Tiffany – focused both in and out of the water.
Happy Birthday Dr. Ferenc Salamon!!
Dr. Ferenc Salamon (HUN)
Honor Contributor (2019)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: more than 70 YEARS IN WATER POLO : Player, Referee, Administrator; FINA TWPC MEMBER: 1972-2000; LEN WATER POLO COMMITTEE MEMBER: 1970-2004; WATER POLO REFEREE AT EVERY OLYMPIC GAMES FROM 1972, EVERY WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FROM 1973, EVERY EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP 1970, EVERY FINA WORLD CUP FROM 1979; EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER OF HUNGARIAN WATER POLO AND SWIMMING ASSOCIATIONS: 1968-HONORARY MEMBER FOR LIFE
Hungary is a land of thermal springs and although landlocked, swimming and water sports are ingrained in its 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 1920’s, it was water polo that came to symbolize Hungary’s unique strengths and individuality. So, it was natural for a boy born in 1930 to want to play water polo.
Dr. Ferenc Salamon was a swimmer who started playing water polo late, at the age of 19, in 1949. He was a talented athlete and his development was rapid. In 1952, he joined the Hungarian National Team and was a member of the silver-medal winning team at the World University Games in Paris in 1957. Although Dr. Salamon retired as a player in 1966, he has remained active in water polo for almost 70 years.
Two years after his retirement as a player, he became an internationally certified referee and immediately began officiating all types of competitions, including the 1970 European Championships, 1972 Olympic Games and the very first FINA World Championships in 1973 in Belgrade. He continued officiating major events, such as the European Championships for 34 years, the Olympic Games for 28 years, the World Championships for 26 years and the FINA World Cup for 21 years.
Salamon has served as a member of the European Swimming League Technical Water Polo Committee for 34 years, uninterrupted, from 1970-2004, and has also been a member of the FINA Technical Water Polo Committee for 28 years, from 1972-2000.
During these many years of service, Dr. Salamon’s contributions to the organization have been exemplary and he has been helpful in the various areas of aquatic sports, including organizing, directing, and participating in many world and other international events, tournaments, conferences, clinics and congresses between 1970 and 2004. They include ten Olympic Games, all World and European Championships, FINA World Cups, Youth World Championships, and numerous Olympic and World Championship qualification tournaments during these years.
Salamon is also a Masters Committee Member of FINA and is on the Awards Commission of the European Swimming League. In his role as Masters Committee Member, he participated in the FINA Masters World Championships in the 2014, 2015 and 2017 Games and is also a member of the recent action committee for the upcoming 2019 event.
He has offered numerous proposals, amendments and advice for the technical committee with the intention to improve and further develop the game. Some of his suggestions influenced the entire sport of water polo including the regulation regarding the 55-year age limit for acting referees; introduction of experimental tournaments, and the 1970’s system to supervise officials.
In addition to the many hours he devotes to the sport of water polo, Dr. Salamon is a Chief Hospital Physician. His medical and professional publications appear regularly in the FINA Magazine.
Dr. Salamon was presented the FINA and LEN gold and silver pins for his extraordinary work and dedication to the sport of water polo. He was awarded an Honorary Life Membership in LEN and to the Hungarian Swimming Federation. He has been bestowed with the honors of the Hungarian Sports Award, the Sport of the Hungarian Republic, and the Olympic Award, presented by the Hungarian Olympic Committee.
Happy Birthday Michael Read!!
Michael Read (GBR)
Honor Open Water Swimmer (2011)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: KNOWN FOR MOST OF 26 YEARS (1979-2005) AS KING OF THE ENGLISH CHANNEL (33 CROSSINGS); FIRST TO SWIM 4 WAY LAKE WINDERMERE (42 miles, 26h 3m), HUNSTANTON – SKEGNESS-HUNSTANTON (40 MILES), MORA TO AMPOSTA (SPN) (65 KM) AND ENGLISH CHANNEL SWIM SIX TIMES IN ONE YEAR (1984); COMPLETED CROSSINGS AROUND ISLE OF WRIGHT (60 MILES), LOCH LOMOND (22 MILES), LOCH EURN (16 MILES), LOCK TAY (16 MILES), JEBLE TO LATAKIA SYRIA (25 MILES), EVIAN TO LAUSANNE (25 KM) AND NOEL RIVER INTERNATIONAL; CHANNEL SWIMMING ASSOCIATION (CSA) COMMITTEE (1973) AND CHAIRMAN SINCE 1993; 1960 OLYMPIC TEAM: 4x200m freestyle relay alternate.
Mike Read was an English school-boy butterfly champion who earned a position on Great Britain’s 1960 Olympic Team in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay. But he loved swimming in the open water and between 1960 and 2000, he swam in more than 150 British Long Distance Swimming Association Championships setting more than 25 records. He was the 25 Kilometer Lake Windermere International Champion in 1970 and the first person to swim four lengths of Lake Windermere in succession, a total of 42 miles in 26 hours. In total, Michael Read has completed England’s longest lake Windermere 39 times.
He was only the second person to swim around the treacherous waters of the Isle of Wright, 60 miles in 24 hours 36 minutes. In 1975, he became the first to swim Humstonton to Skegness and return, 40 miles in 16 hours 4 minutes. In 1979, he swam the English Channel six times in one season to capture the title King of the Channel. According to Channel Swimming Association Records, he retains the title today with 33 Channel crossings.
During the 1970’s, the Scottish Lochs became a target including 24 mile Loch Ness at 42°F in 14 hours 24 minutes, as well as Lochs Lomond, Earn, Rannoch and Tay. He was the first to swim from Mora to Amposta, Spain, 65 kilometers. Other swims include lake and sea crossings in Greece, Holland, Italy, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Egypt, Syria, Turkey, Tunisia and the USA.
In 1978, he was elected Honorary Vice President of the Channel Swimming Association and serves as President today. Mike believes in defending his titles and for over 55 years has done just that.
Happy Birthday Ratko Rudic!!
Ratko Rudic (YUG/ITA/USA/CRO)
Honor Coach (2007)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (player, YUG); 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (coach, YUG); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (coach, YUG); 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (coach, ITA); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (coach, ITA); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: (coach, ITA); 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: bronze (player, YUG); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (coach, YUG); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: gold (coach, ITA); 1970 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: bronze (player, YUG); 1974 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: bronze (player, YUG); 1977 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: silver (player, YUG); 1985 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: silver (coach, YUG); 1987 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: silver (coach, YUG); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: gold (coach, ITA); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP: bronze (coach, ITA); 1987 FINA WORLD CUP: gold (coach, YUG); 1993 FINA WORLD CUP: gold (coach, ITA); 1999 FINA WORLD CUP: silver (coach, ITA); 2003 FINA WORLD LEAGUE: bronze (coach, USA); 2003 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (coach, USA).
Ratko Rudic is regarded as one of the best, if not the best, water polo coach to walk the deck of the pool. In an ongoing career which now spans five Olympic Games, Rudic-coached teams have won three Olympic gold and a bronze medal. With his identifiable burly mustache and his animated coaching mannerisms on the pool deck, he has coached in four countries, Yugoslavia, Italy, United States and Croatia and developed teams and players who have excelled in international play.
As a player in his native Yugoslavia, he played 297 times for the National Team winning European Championship bronze (1974, 1974) and silver medals (1977) and a World Championship bronze medal (1973). He was the team’s leading scorer. A member of the 1968 and 1976 Olympic Teams but unable to play due to injuries, he helped his team win the silver medal at the 1980 Games in Moscow. His Partizan Club was eight times national champions and two times Europe’s top team (1974, 1975).
In 1981, he took the play book in hand and became the coach of the Yugoslav Junior National Team which won silver medals in World Championship and European junior world play. His young players Bukic, Milanovic, Sostar, Simenc, Vicevic and others later formed the core of the National Team during its golden period from 1984 to 1991. Rudic became the Head Coach and met with unprecedented success winning the gold medal at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics and everything in between including World Championships and World Cups.
In the late 1980’s, he took the helm of the Italian National Team and during a ten year period conquered the Grand Slam of water polo winning the four most important consecutive competitions: gold medals at the 1992 Olympic Games, 1994 World Championships, 1993 and 1995 European Championships and 1993 FINA World Cup. Following the Sydney Olympics of 2000, he received the Head Coaching position of the USA Men’s National Team where he developed the Strategic Project Gold Plan to take the US team through the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But in 2005, the President of Croatia called. “We need you to come home,” he said. And Ratko has delivered. After finishing ninth at the 2004 Olympic Games, Croatia finished atop the podium at the 2007 FINA World Championships, proving he is still master of the game.
Happy Birthday Jon Henricks!!
Jon Henricks (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (1973)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1956 gold (100m freestyle; 4x200m freestyle relay); AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1952 gold (400m freestyle), silver (800m freestyle), bronze (1500m freestyle); 1953-1958 (10: 100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay); BRITISH EMPIRE GAMES: 2 medals; JAPANESE NATIONALS: 1 medal; KEO NAKAMA meet: 1 medal; PHILIPPINE NATIONALS: 1 medal; AMERICAN NATIONALS (Outdoor): 1958 (100m, 200m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS: 2; Australian Athlete of the Year: 1955 (named by the Helms Hall of Fame).
Jon Henricks started his swimming career as a distance swimmer, scoring his first real successes in 1952 when he came in 3rd in the Australian 1500 meters, 2nd in the 800, and won the 400 meters. The distance work proved too arduous, perhaps due to a prolonged ear infection that kept Jon off the 1952 Olympic team. With reluctance, his coach Harry Gallagher converted him to sprints. Henricks shocked both his coach and the Australian swimming community by promptly breaking the Olympic record for 100 meters in the Australian Championships of 1953. He subsequently held the fastest time in the world over 100 meters long course for 5 years, winning two gold medals in 1956 (100m and 4x200m). He lowered the existing record by almost 2 seconds.
During that time, he won ten Australian Individual Championships in those events, two British Empire Games medals establishing new records in 1954, the Japanese Nationals, the Keo Nakama meet in Hawaii, the Philippine Nationals, and broke two American records while on a visit in 1954. In 1958, he won the American National (outdoor) 100 and 200 meters. He was named Australian Athlete of the Year by the Helms Hall of Fame in 1955.
As a freshman at U.S.C. he teamed with Murray Rose, Don Reddington, Tom Winters, and Denis Devine, a five man Freshman team that broke the New Haven Swim Club’s dynastic grasp on the indoor AAUs. Daland had been a former Yale assistant considered least likely to succeed. This U.S.C. frosh team grew to a giant machine in the late fifties and early sixties, dominating the Pacific 8 Conference and winning four consecutive National Collegiate titles.
In 1960 Henricks made another attempt at the Olympics, winning the Australian trials handily. His attempt came to grief over what was euphemistically referred to as the “Roman Tummy”, and John Devitt and Lance Larson were left to battle it out. He had mixed feelings viewing that race, as both were teammates; Lance on Jon’s U.S.C. team, John Devitt on his Australian team. The fastest man in the world, at that time, Jeff Farrell, also glumly watched the race from the sidelines.
Jon Henricks did win in another way in 1960, marrying an American girl – the former Bonnie Wilkie, sister of one of his U.S.C. teammates Mike Wilkie. Both the Australian and American teams attended the wedding, which produced the historic picture of Lance Larson and John Devitt hugging each other.
Happy Birthday Jozsef Nagy!!
Jozsef Nagy (HUN/USA/CAN/ESP)
Honor Coach (2014)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES: Assistant Coach (HUN); 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: Assistant Coach (HUN (boycott); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: Unofficial Coach (USA); Coach of 1990 European Record Holder, Sergio Lopez; 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: Coach of 200m breast-stroke gold medalist, Mike Barrowman, Assistant Coach (SPN); 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES: As-sistant Coach (CAN); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach (USA); 2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2010 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): Assistant Coach (CAN); 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2012 WORLD CHAMPI-ONSHIPS (SC): Assistant Coach (CAN); COACH OF TWO WORLD RE-CORD HOLDERS SETTING NINE WORLD RECORDS AND ONE RE-LAY WORLD RECORD; COACH OF THREE SWIMMERS WINNING ONE GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE MEDAL AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS; 37 YEAR HISTORY OF NUMEROUS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HUN, USA, SPN, CAN; 2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2007 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: Assistant Coach (CAN); 1985, 1991, 1987, 1999, 2000 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach; FOUR-TIME CANADIAN COACH OF THE YEAR (Female).
He was born and raised in Hungary and may know more about the breaststroke than anyone in the world. Not surprisingly, Jozsef Nagy was a breaststroker himself. He won the Hungarian Jr. National Championship in 1973 and com-peted for Hungary internationally. After he retired from swimming in 1976, he studied physical education at the University of Budapest and earned a presti-gious Master Coach certificate. During this time, he read an article on the pat-tern of ocean waves by Nobel physicist Richard Feynman. Applying principles of physics to swimming, the idea for “wave-action breaststroke was born. It was originally just a theory, created on paper – but then proven in “practice” by Janos Dzvonyar, who placed 5th in the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980.
Until Nagy came along, breaststrokers glided along the surface like al-ligators. Their bodies rode low in the water, with only their backs and the crowns of their heads visible. In the 1980’s, breaststrokers began to resemble buoys bobbing in the water as the stroke became more vertical.
In 1986, Nagy moved to the United States and began coaching Mike Bar-rowman, the first swimmer to perfect “the wave” by channeling his power into smooth, undulating motions.
To help Barrowman grasp the idea, Nagy showed him footage of a cheetah on the run. “A cheetah keeps his head down and lifts his shoulders to run,” Barrowman said, “It really did help me to get a mental picture of what the shoulders needed to do in the stroke.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N9Dh1gm05WA%3Flist%3DPLjYWbX54Yv0HVOw5kHd1i5ylYWBNDFnTY
Between 1988 and 1992, Barrowman dominated the 200 meter breaststroke, winning 15 of 16 major national and international competitions and the world record he set at the Barcelona Olympic Games held for ten years.
In addition to Barrowman, Nagy coached swimmers from four different nations to international success including, Roque Santos of the USA, Sergio Lopez of Spain, Gabriella Cespo and Norbert Rozsa of Hungary, and Canada’s Annamay Pierse.
The inventor of the “wave action breaststroke,” Joszef Nagy developed numerous dry land exercises and swim sets that are now widely used and he has generously shared and explained his ideas via articles, speeches and lectures around the world since the late 1980’s.
Happy Birthday Ada Kok!!
Ada Kok (Holland/NED)
Honor Swimmer (1976)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 silver (100m butterfly; 400m medley relay); 1968 gold (200m butterfly); WORLD RECORDS: 10; EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3; “European Swimmer of the Year”: 1963, 1965, 1967.
Ada Kok of the Netherlands helped open the Hall of Fame in 1966 at the first Hall of Fame International Meet, little realizing — after her disappointing second place Tokyo Olympic performances — that she would be inducted as a Hall of Fame Honoree ten years later. Ada won in 1968, then retired to become Speedo’s glamorous European sales representative. By the record and consensus vote, she is considered the all-time premier woman butterflyer.
Happy Birthday Susie Atwood!!
Susie Atwood (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1992)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1968 Olympic team member; 1972 Olympic bronze (100m backstroke); 1972 Olympic silver ( 200m backstroke); WORLD RECORD: 1 (200m backstroke); 3 WORLD RECORDS: relays; 18 AAU (100yd & 200yd backstroke, 200yd & 400yd individual medley); 5 AAU relays; Won 100yd & 200yd backstroke four consecutive years (indoors); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1971 silver (100m & 200m backstroke, 200m individual medley), bronze (400m individual medley); Long domination in the AAU Nationals; Held 200m backstroke World Records three years. AMERICAN RECORDS (Short Course): 9 (100yd & 200yd backstroke, 200yd & 400yd individual medley), 4 relays; AMERICAN RECORDS (Long Course): 2 (100m & 200m backstroke), 5
A dominant figure in United States swimming from 1969 through 1971, Susie Atwood’s record in U.S. National Championships was outstanding. She captured 23 national titles during her career which included a berth on two Olympic teams. A four-time World Record holder in the 200-meter backstroke and as a backstroker on the 400-meter medley relay, her prowess as America’s finest backstroke and individual medley swimmer of her era distinguishes her among the best in swimming history.
Sue began swimming at age seven under Jim Montrella at the Lakewood Aquatic Club in Long Beach, California, becoming one of the most consistent swimmers at the elite level. She is a six-time Bob Kiphuth High Point Award winner at the U.S. National Championships, second only to Tracy Caulkins who won a record 12 times. Sue set a total of 20 American records in the backstroke and individual medley as well as a relay team member.
At age fifteen, Atwood qualified as the top seed in the 200-meter backstroke at the 1968 Games in Mexico City but failed to make the finals. Sue’s disappointing Olympic debut fueled the fire for her road to the ’72 Games in Munich when she placed second to her teammate, Melissa Belote, in the 200-meter backstroke and took the bronze in the 100-meter backstroke. She held the American Record in the 400 I.M., but because of conflicts in the competition schedule, she did not swim the individual medley in Munich. Previous to that she had set the world record in the 200-meter backstroke. She had competed in the 1971 Pan American Games, winning five silver medals and a bronze. Beginning in 1969, she received the World Swimmer of the Year Award six times.
Susie’s contributions to swimming continued after she retired from competition. She went on to become an inspirational speaker and representative for Arena as well as swimming coach at Ohio State University.