Happy Birthday Candy Costie!!
Candy Costie (USA)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (1995)
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (duet); 1982 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (duet); 1983 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (duet), silver (team); 4 US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: (duet); 1 NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP.
Candy Costie is an attractive, highly-spirited, athlete with an infectious smile who is artistic by nature. Fortunately, at the age of nine, she was able to find the perfect sport to devote all of her God-given attributes–synchronized swimming.
Candy is best remembered for being part of the dynamic pair that she and her partner, Tracy Ruiz, were throughout their year of swimming together. Candy and Tracy first teamed up when they were ten years old. In the crystal blueness of the water, their artistic movements captivated the judges and their audiences again and again. During their ten year partnership, only twice did she and Ruiz ever finish lower than first place in the duet event, taking silver medals in the 1980 US Nationals and 1982 World Championships.
Candy and Tracy are one of the most decorated synchronized duets to date. They have won four US National Championships, one NCAA National Championship, and a 1983 Pan American Games gold. The culmination of their career happened in the summer of 1984 –when, for the first time in history, the duet event was presented at the Olympic Games. Candy and Tracy approached the crowd and swam with such beauty, spirit and grace that no one could deny the team their right to the first Olympic Games gold medal in synchronized swimming.
Shortly after her historic Olympic experience, Candy retired. Though her athletic career has past, her name lives on through the many products she has endorsed, her appearances as a sports commentator, and her video, “The Water Workout.” Candy is remembered for helping to raise synchronized swimming — a sport which requires strength, co-ordination, and artistic composition, to new levels of popularity.
Eleven years since her retirement, Candy Continues to find new goals to reach. Her strokes no longer land in the water but rather on canvas, exploring her artistic talent at her art studio, the Desert Fish, in Arizona. Candy is the mother of two children and recently expanded her family to include two more youngsters when she married Fred Merrill, Jr.
Decision Day Fast Approaching On New World Leading Aquatics Centre In Time For Brisbane 2032 Olympics
by IAN HANSON – OCEANIA CORRESPONDENT
10 March 2024, 07:15pm
Decision Approaching For New World Leading Aquatics Centre In Time For Brisbane 2032 Olympics
The debate around whether or not the Brisbane 2032 Olympics should be swum in a new world class Aquatic Centre or in a temporary facility at the planned Brisbane Arena is finally starting to hot up – and it’s one gold medal swimming bosses are desperate to win.
Enter into the race, dual Olympic champion and one of Queensland’s favourite swimming sons Grant Hackett and a renewed push from National governing body Swimming Australia who first entered the fray some 12 months ago – continuing to making a splash behind closed doors in what would be a far-reaching decision for the sport down under.
This week officially throwing their support behind triple Olympic medallist and Brisbane developer Mark Stockwell’s on-going public push to secure a new Aquatic Centre and a swimming legacy for the country’s number one Olympic sport.
Stockwell, Hackett and Swimming Australia all declaring: “Brisbane deserves a new world-leading Aquatic Centre.”
With Swimming Australia also keen to make Brisbane the new national home of swimming.
“When the opportunity arose to win the Olympics and Paralympics for Brisbane there was a general feeling of ‘let’s win the rights to host the Games and then we will come back and review the plan in all its detail,’ said Stockwell.
MAKING AN IMPRESSION: Australian Swimming bosses hoping for a gold medal decision on a new Aquatic Centre in Brisbane. Courtesy Courier Mail.
“This has not happened, and in talking to most presidents of Olympic and Paralympic sports the direct consultation never took place.
“There has been no indication that the construction of a permanent Aquatic facility has ever genuinely been considered by the government as an alternative venue to Brisbane Live Arena (and a temporary pool).
“This new Aquatic Centre facility and an upgraded Brisbane Aquatic Centre facility at Chandler can be used by swimming, diving, water polo, artistic swimming and Snow Australia.”
Stockwell also making the point that the new Aquatic Centre would be an ideal main venue for Brisbane to host the 2031 World Aquatics Championships – 12 months before the Games – an event previously hosted in 1991 and 1998 in Perth and 2007 in Melbourne.
And while Stockwell has been the one to continue to fight the good fight for a new Aquatic Centre, with a page one story and another column today in Queensland’s popular daily masthead The Courier Mail, Hackett has also weighed in, agreeing that the value of what a new facility would mean to the sport is a no brainer.
“Throughout our consultation phase, we heard confusion and disappointment from the swimming community and other stakeholders that Brisbane 2032 would not deliver a venue legacy outcome for swimming,” revealed Hackett.
“There is no doubt that a permanent venue will inspire future generations of swimmers and bring the community closer to the Games and their legacy.”
A 60-day review into the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Venue Master Plan is in its final laps, with former Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk, at the helm of a review team due to hand down its findings next Monday, March 18 – after consulting with a broad range of stakeholders.
With Swimming Australia actually presenting to the Brisbane 2032 Independent Review Panel into Venue Plans last month with Hackett’s support from a committee that also includes Australian Paralympic legend Ellie Cole, Sydney 2000 silver medallist and Swimming NSW CEO Kirsten Thompson and World Aquatics Vice President and Australian Olympian Matt Dunn.
Swimming Australia certainly welcoming the Queensland Government’s Independent Review of Brisbane 2032 Venue Plans and renewed calls for the Games to deliver a new permanent world class Aquatic facility – and to make Brisbane the its long overdue National home.
In a statement on its website, Swimming Australia said it has made it clear it considers plans for temporary pools at the proposed Brisbane Arena are a missed opportunity for the Games to deliver a much-needed, world-class Aquatic facility for Brisbane, Queensland and the nation.
“A new world-class and permanent Aquatic facility constructed in time for Brisbane 2032 Games would deliver a more cost-effective venue solution, an enhanced community legacy outcome and address existing gaps in the aquatic infrastructure network.
“A new permanent Aquatic Centre could deliver lasting legacy benefits for swimming, aquatic sports, the broader community, and the Queensland economy.
“Re-configuring with reduced seating capacity post-Games, following the successful lead of Sydney, Beijing, London, and Tokyo as previous Host Cities.
“It would also be utilised before and after the Games to host local, State, National and International events, and contribute to Queensland’s visitor economy for decades to come, inspiring greater swimming participation and be a leading hub for high performance programs and sport science innovation.
“With accessibility for the community year-round for a range of sport and recreation activities, including carnivals, lap swimming and learn to swim programs.
“Swimming Australia is committed to working collaboratively with the Government and other partners to realise this vision and to determine a location and design that serves the Games and meets the future needs of our sport and other user groups.”
For swimming in Brisbane, Queensland and Australia’s sake, let’s hope some common-sense prevails…..!
Happy Birthday Jozsef Szabo!!
Jozsef Szabo (HUN)
Honor Swimmer (2012)
FOR THE RECORD: 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m breaststroke); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke); 1987 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke), silver (4x100m medley); 1989 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (200m breaststroke).
In Jozsef Szabo’s competitive swimming days, he became part of a family of swimmers and teammates. Like a family, each member had a role. He was known as the clown, to provide and keep everyone in good spirits and laughs.
Under Coach Tamas Szechy, most of the swimmers had one thing in common, they were great breaststroke swimmers. Szabo was no exception. Along with Norbert Rozsa, Tamas Darnyi and Karoly Guttler, he became one of the greatest breaststroke swimmers in the world.
Szabo swam at the Budeapesti Honved Sportegyesulet. He burst onto the international scene at the 1986 Madrid World Championships, winning the 200 meter breaststroke, and repeating it in the next year at the 1987 European Championships in Strasburg, Austria.
Tall for an elite breaststroke swimmer at 6’1”, and weighing 180 pounds, Szabo surprised the world when he won the Olympic gold medal at the 1988 Olympic Games, defeating Nick Gillingham of Great Britain and Sergio Lopez of Spain in the 200 meter breaststroke, only .18 seconds off Canadian Victor Davis’ world record.
All totaled, Szabo won one Olympic gold medal, one World Championship gold medal and three European Championship medals, one gold, one silver and one bronze.
Happy Birthday Michelle Calkins!!
Michelle Calkins (CAN)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (2001)
FOR THE RECORD: 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (team); 1978 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet); 1976 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: silver (team); 1976 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (team); 1977 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet); NATIONAL TEAM COACH AND OLYMPIC COACH: 1988 – present.
Coach Debbie Muir of the Calgary Aquabelles had a knack for pairing the two most synchronized swimmers on her team when she paired Michelle Calkins with Helen Vanderberg to win the 1978 World Championships duet in Berlin, Germany. It marked the first time that Canadian synchronized swimmers had won a World Duet Championship, an important milestone in the evolution of synchronized swimming in Canada. In 1977, Michelle and her Hall of Fame partner Helen were named to the Elaine Tanner Award as Canada’s best young female athletes of the year by Sports Federation of Canada. And all this before synchronized swimming became an Olympic sport!
In 1969, Michelle won the ’12 and under’ Alberta Provincial Figures Trophy and was on her way to synchronized swimming stardom. By 1971, she was a member of The Aquabelles Junior National Team Champions and in 1973 a Canadian Junior National Solo Champion. From 1973 to 1978, she won seven Canadian Senior National Championships in duet, team and figures events. Her first international competition was winning the silver medal in the 1973 First World Championships team event in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. She won the silver in the Mexico City 1975 Pan American Games team event. The Pan Pacific Championships of 1976 and 1977 were the warm up to the gold medal performance of the 1978 World Championships. All this was before synchronized swimming was an Olympic event. Also during 1978, she performed in a demonstration of synchronized swimming at the Edmonton Commonwealth Games before synchronized swimming became an official Commonwealth Games event eight years later in 1986.
Michelle’s success was by virtue of her exacting technical skill. Her and teammate Helen’s 1978 combined figures scores were 87.30, a full 2.70 points above the duet silver medalists. She performed creatively and with intensely dramatic routines. Michelle, with partner Helen, instigated the great success of their home club in Calgary culminating ten years later in another goal medal duet win, this time by Carolyn Waldo and Michelle Cameron at the 1988 Olympic Games.
Michelle’s passion for synchronized swimming never diminished and she is now the head coach of her Aquabelles as well as serving as a Canadian National Team coach since 1988. She was the 1996 Canadian Olympic coach when Canada won the silver medal in the team event.
Happy Birthday Daichi Suzuki!!
Daichi Suzuki (JPN)
Honor Swimmer (2022)
FOR THE RECORD: 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: GOLD (100M BACKSTROKE); 1987 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: SILVER (100M BACKSTROKE); 1986 ASIAN GAMES: GOLD (100M BACKSTROKE, 400M MEDLEY RELAY); 1987 UNIVERSIADE GAMES: GOLD (100 & 200 BACKSTROKE) ONE JAPANESE NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: 100M BACKSTROKE
As the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games approached, Japan had gone 16 years without winning a medal in swimming, a sport that it had once reigned as the world’s superpower. As swimming has always been an important part of Japanese culture, dating back to at least the Tokugawa Shogunate of the 15th Century, its performances at the Olympic Games was no longer a source of pride. Enter Daichi Suzuchi.
Suzuki’s parents signed him up for swimming lessons at the age of seven. It took only six months before Suzuki decided that he wanted to be an Olympian. It wasn’t until high school, swimming for coach Yoji Suzuki, that he began to show real promise, and after his junior year he began rigorous training with the hope of making the Japanese Olympic team in 1984. While he did not make the finals in the backstroke events, he was a member of the 400-meter medley relay team. They were the only Japanese men to swim in a final in 1984.
By 1986, Suzuki was one of the Top 10 backstrokers in the world. As he continued training and competing, he began winning. He won gold in the 100m backstroke and in the 400m medley relay at the 1986 Asian Games in Seoul, South Korea. He took silver in the 100m back at the 1987 Pan-Pac Championships in Brisbane, Australia, and at the Universiade Games in Zagreb in 1987, he won gold in both the 100 and 200m backstroke events, beating USA’s up and comer – David Berkoff in the 100.
By the time the 1988 Olympics came around the next year, Berkoff was the one to beat, unless of course you asked Suzuki or his coach. Suzuki had analyzed Berkoff’s swimming style and noticed Berkoff usually swam faster in the morning. Suzuki decided he would conserve his energy for the finals in Seoul. Suzuki also noticed that Berkoff stayed underwater until the 35-meter mark, known as the Berkoff Blastoff. Yet probably most importantly, and something that was completely missed by most of the swimming world, was that years earlier, at the 1984 Games, Suzuki had already adopted the underwater kick and decided to use it at the Games.
As expected, Berkoff swam fast and broke the world record in the prelims. When it was time for finals, Suzuki was in lane three next to Berkoff in lane four. Suzuki surfaced at about 30 meters after the start, just ahead of Berkoff, who remained underwater for another 5 meters. Berkoff pulled in front at the turn, but Suzuki chased him down over the last ten meters of the race. Instead of his usual arch finish, Suzuki decided to reach straight for the wall to out-touch Berkoff, winning the gold medal in a time of 55.05.
It was the first time Japan had won the gold medal in a backstroke event since Masaji Kiokawa had won it 52 years earlier in Los Angeles in 1936, and the first time in 16 years since that Japan had won a medal of any color in Olympic swimming. It was also the only swimming medal Japan won in Seoul.
Suzuki retired just after the 1988 Olympic Games. He had achieved his dream and decided to focus on his future and career. Among other things, he wanted to help future Japanese swimmers be able to truly focus on swimming, while not having to worry about making a living. That was not possible during his era, as international rules did not allow swimmers to become professionals.
Suzuki became a member of the Japan Olympic Committee, the World Olympians Association, the World Anti Doping Agency and Japan Swimming Federation, eventually becoming the youngest President in its history at 46.
Between his role as President of Japanese Swimming Federation and in his new position as Commissioner, he has helped lead Japan in rebuilding and revival as a world swimming power, as evidenced by its performances in the last two Olympic Games, where Japan won seven medals in 2016 and 11 medals in 2012. Rest assured that the future of Japanese swimming is in the good hands of Daichi Suzuki, Olympic Champion and 2022 ISHOF Honoree.
Happy Birthday David Wilkie!!
David Wilkie (GBR)
Honor Swimmer (1982)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1972 silver (200m breaststroke); 1976 gold (200m breaststroke, silver 9100m breaststroke); WORLD RECORDS: 3 (200m breaststroke; 200m individual medley); AAU NATIONALS: 3 (100yd, 200yd breaststroke; 200yd individual medley); NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3 (100yd, 200yd breaststroke); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1974 gold (200m breaststroke; 200m individual medley), silver (relay); COMMONWEALTH GAMES: 1974 gold (200m breaststroke; 200m individual medley), silver (100m breaststroke); 1970 bronze (200m breaststroke); AMATEUR SWIMMING ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS: 10 (100yd, 200yd breaststroke; 200yd individual medley); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1972 gold (200m breaststroke); 1973 bronze (200m individual medley); 1975 gold (100m, 200m breaststroke), bronze (relay); CANADIAN NATIONAL: 1 (200m breaststroke); SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIPS: 9 (400m freestyle; 100m backstroke; 110yd, 100m breaststroke; 220yd, 200m breaststroke; 200m, 400m individual medley); U.S. OPEN RECORD: 1 (200yd breaststroke).
Born in Ceylon and trained between his two Olympic Games at the University of Miami, David Wilkie is a Scotsman who likes warm weather. He was Great Britain’s first swimming male Olympic gold medalist in 68 years (Hall of Famer Henry Taylor in 1907). This versatile swimmer won Scot national titles in the 400 freestyle and 100 back; Commonwealth, European and American titles in the four strokes, 200 Individual Medley in which he also held the world record, but he was at his best with trademark bathing cap and goggles, bobbing through Scottish, British, U.S. AAU, NCAA, European, Commonwealth and Olympic breaststroke championships. A silver for his second in the 1972 Olympic 200-meter breaststroke at Munich and a gold, silver and bronze at the 1976 Olympics in Montréal with every kind of a record achievement in between, labeled this flying Scot European Swimmer of the Year three times and British Sportsman of the Year. Coached by David Haller in Britain and Bill Diaz in the USA, Wilkie retired after the ’76 Olympics to a successful new hobby in Masters Swimming, where he just naturally trained at his own pace and went right on winning. He works in London with the Sports Aide Foundation, writes books, and works as British representative for Team Arena among other things.
Happy Birthday Virginia Duenkel!!
Virginia Duenkel (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1985)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 gold (400m freestyle), bronze (100m backstroke); WORLD RECORD: 1 1964 (100m backstroke); AAU NATIONALS (4): 1962 (200m backstroke), 1963 (200yd, 200m backstroke, 1500m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS (2): 1962 (200m backstroke), 1963 (200yd back); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1963 gold (relay); WOMEN’S NATIONAL COLLEGIATE Titles: 1965, 1966, 1967 (backstroke).
“Ginny” Duenkel won four U.S. Nationals, but none were in the events that she competed in at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. Her two best events, the 200 backstroke and the 1500 freestyle, were not Olympic events. She had to settle for the shorter 100m back and 400m freestyle, neither of which she had won at either the U. S. Nationals or at the U.S. trials. Nevertheless, Ginny had her heart set on winning the 100 back, thereby qualifying for the sure win U.S. Medley Relay. She lost by a look and finished third ( a tenth of a second behind first).
The next day was to be the 400 freestyle and another chance for Duenkel, but a slim chance since she was up against world record holders and teammate Marilyn Romenofsky, the present world record holder who won in the preliminaries.
The race was a honey. Romenofsky, Stickles, Fraser of Australia and Hughes of Canada, all present or former world record holders, finished in that order, but all were behind Virginia Duenkel, the new Olympic Champion who had won her first individual event in international competition.
Nobody can be quite sure what went on in this quiet, gutsy girl’s head, but her brother Bob says he thinks he knows her well enough to be sure that if she’d won the backstroke, she wouldn’t have returned the next day to win the 400.
Ginny won her first Nationals at age 15, finally beating Donna deVarona in the 200 backstroke. In this race, she set her first world record, crashing the time of Japan’s Satoko Tanaka. Ginny accomplished all this and more on one hour a day workouts six times a week with her coach Frank Elm, commuting 50 miles from her home in West Orange, New Jersey to the Summit “Y” in Rutgers.
Happy Birthday Olga Sedakova!!
Olga Sedakova (RUS)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (2019)
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: 4th (solo, duet); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: 4th (team); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 4th (solo, duet, team); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 4th (solo, team); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (solo, duet, team); 1991 WORLD CUP: 4th (solo, team); 1993 WORLD CUP: silver (duet), bronze (solo); 1995 WORLD CUP: bronze (solo, team); 1997 WORLD CUP: gold (solo, duet, team); 1994 GOODWILL GAMES: gold (solo); 1990 SOVIET WOMEN’S CUP: bronze (duet), 6th (solo); 1991 SOVIET WOMEN’S CUP: gold (solo, duet). Nine-time European Championships
The sport of synchronized swimming had been around since the early 20th century when Annette Kellerman and Katherine Curtis were the first performers of the growing sport, but it did not come to the Soviet Union until decades later. When Olga Sedakova was about nine-years-old, she and her twin sister came upon synchronized swimming by pure chance.
Olga’s mother, an engineer, was working at one of the largest aquatic centers in Moscow and it was there that the girls discovered the sport. Olga and her sister were trained by their young coach, Elena Polianskaja. It was clear Olga had raw talent in the sport, but because synchronized swimming was so new to the Soviet Union, it would be years before she would be considered world class.
When Olga was in her mid-teens, Soviet women’s magazine, “Journal Price”, hosted an international competition to celebrate International Women’s Day for Soviet Women, providing a great opportunity for young synchronized swimmers like Olga to see and learn from successful swimmers.
She absorbed as much knowledge as she could and in 1988 at the European Junior Championships, Olga helped the Soviet Union win its first gold medal in the sport. This led to her selection on the national senior team.
After the Olympics, Olga decided to make a change and moved to Zurich, Switzerland to begin training with Kozlova’s coach, Svetlana Fursova. Together, they won Russia its first medal at the world level with a silver in the duet performance at a 1993 FINA World Cup meet in Lausanne. Then in 1994, Olga won her first international gold medal in the solo event at the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg.
After her success, Kozlova and Fursova moved to North America and she was left alone without a partner or coach. She decided to coach at her club in Zurich and train in her free time with the help of Swiss coach Susie Morger. She eventually moved back to Russia to train with the national team leading up to the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta where they placed fourth as a team, getting shut out of the medals for the second straight Olympics.
After the Olympics, Olga returned to Russia and began training with new partner, ISHOF honoree Olga Brushnikina and was performing at the top of her game.
Her career culminated in 1998 when Olga Sedakova won solo, duet and team at the World Championships in Perth, becoming just the fourth person to sweep every single event at Worlds.
Feeling that she achieved everything she set out to do, Olga retired from synchronized swimming and decided to take on a new challenge in coaching. She became the Swiss National Team coach and led them into the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games but has since stopped coaching to focus on family.
She has since married and has three daughters and is hoping to one day return to the sport of synchronized swimming.
Mother courage: the story behind new film “Vindication Swim”
1 MARCH 2024
Swimming legend Mercedes Gleitze was the first British woman to swim the English Channel. She was also a pioneer in other ways: an independent, working class woman who swam to fight poverty. In the run up to a new film of her life, Vindication Swim, Mercedes’ daughter Doloranda Pember shares the story behind her pioneering feats of endurance
This article was first published in H2Open (the previous name for Outdoor Swimmer) in April 2016.
Mercedes Gleitze was a pioneer long distance swimmer who, in 1927, became the first British woman to swim across the English Channel.
Her background was one of working class, immigrant status. During the last decade of the 19th century her parents travelled from Germany to England to look for work, and they settled in Brighton, where Mercedes and her two elder sisters were born. This is where Mercedes learnt to swim when she was 10 years old.
After World War I, the family resettled in Germany. In 1921, when she came of age, Mercedes returned to England, the country of her birth. She found a job as a typist in London, rented a flat, and became one of the ‘new women’ of that era, living an independent life of her own choosing.
But she wanted more from life. She had two ambitions: to become a long distance swimmer; and to help the unemployed homeless people sleeping rough in London. She believed that if she became a professional swimmer she might earn enough in prize money to set up a charity to combat poverty.
Training to swim the Channel
Mercedes made the English Channel crossing her first goal. She used the River Thames (a tidal river) to train in on Sundays, and during her summer vacation she travelled to Folkestone to acclimatise to sea conditions.
It took her a while, but on 7 October 1927, at her eighth formal attempt, Mercedes swam across a fog-bound English Channel from Cap Gris Nez to St Margaret’s Bay in 15 hours 15 minutes. The beach at St Margaret’s Bay was also heavily shrouded in fog and the only witnesses to the landing were her accompanying crew.
A few days later, however, another Channel aspirant, Dorothy Logan, hoaxed the nation into thinking she too had completed the swim. When suspicions were aroused by both the French and English authorities, Dr Logan was challenged and confessed, claiming that she and her partner, Horace Carey, had perpetrated the fraud in order to highlight the fact that – as she put it – “anyone can say they have swum the Channel”. But by so doing she sullied the reputations of all those who had genuinely completed the crossing.
A vindication swim
In response to the slight cast upon her, Mercedes retorted: “All right, I will do it again. The best way to restore the prestige of British female Channel swimmers in the eyes of the world would be for me to make another Channel swim, which I will do at the next neap tide. My conscience is clear, but I want to repeat my performance in the presence of all the witnesses I can get.”
“When Mercedes saw the ladder being let down from the support boat she swam away and had to be chased. A twisted towel was thrown over her head and underneath her arms, and after a struggle and protests from her to “let me go on”, her trainer and pilot pulled her aboard.”
The ‘Vindication Swim’ took place on 21 October, and was widely covered by the world’s press. But it was too late in the season. The sea temperature was 12 degrees Celsius and Mercedes was suffering from a chest cold she developed after her successful crossing two weeks earlier. After ten and a half hours the Vindication Swim was abandoned on the advice of doctors. At this point, she had been battling for three hours against an ebb tide and was on the verge of unconsciousness. When Mercedes saw the ladder being let down from the support boat she swam away and had to be chased. A twisted towel was thrown over her head and underneath her arms, and after a struggle and protests from her to “let me go on”, her trainer and pilot pulled her aboard. She was eight miles from Dover.
However, it was subsequently acknowledged by the newly formed Channel Swimming Association that Mercedes had exonerated herself, and her record as the first British woman to swim the English Channel stood.
Challenging the perception of women
At this point she decided to give up office work and make a living out of sea swimming. It was a high risk decision: she didn’t have any financial backing, just her own savings to fall back on.
Unlike today’s sporting celebrities, she didn’t have a manager to organise her career. She had to navigate her way through a man’s world, not only smashing the sporting glass ceiling, but developing skills as a businesswoman in order to negotiate swimming contracts.
Hers was an extreme sport. She tried for the maximum the human body could achieve. By doing so, she pushed back the boundaries of physical endurance, especially for women. During her six-month tour of South Africa in 1932, she performed all of her swims while pregnant. She gave birth to her first child on her return to England just three months after the end of the tour. This was a further example of Mercedes breaking through existing prejudices and challenging the perception of women as fragile human beings.
“Swimming is a beautiful thing”
Mercedes wasn’t possessive about her sporting talent. She encouraged others to master open water swimming. In her 1930 Diary of New Zealand Tour she wrote:
“Sea swimming is a beautiful thing, in fact an art – an art whose mistress should be not the few, but the many, for does not the sea and its dangers cross the paths of thousands? Nay, millions! What could possibly speak more for man’s prowess as an athlete than the ability to master earth’s most abundant, most powerful element – water, no matter what its mood.”
And when performing her endurance swims in front of thousands of spectators at corporation pools, she promoted the art of swimming to a wide audience of city-dwellers, while at the same time publicly demonstrating to women and girls that it was within them to be physically strong.
She remained true to her swimming aspirations
In 1934, already with one child and pregnant with a second, Mercedes disappeared from the public gaze, and settled down to become a housewife and mother. A few years after her third child was born, she was incapacitated by an inherited blood circulation disorder, and, to a lesser degree, arthritis in her knees.
After her retirement Mercedes deliberately shunned publicity, and as the years went by her exploits were eventually forgotten by the public. Her children knew, of course, that their mother had performed major swims in her youth, but it was only after her death in 1981, when they inherited photographs, letters, witness reports and newspaper cuttings stored away in her attic, that they realised what a major sporting icon she had been.
During her 10-year career, Mercedes remained true both to her swimming aspirations and to her desire to help destitute people. Her pioneering open water swims are numerous and well documented (English Channel, Strait of Gibraltar, Hellespont, Sea of Marmara, Firth of Forth, The Wash, Lough Neagh, Lough Foyle, Galway Bay, Cape Town to Robben Island and back, and so on) and she set the British record for endurance swimming at 47 hours. Her other legacy was the institution of The Mercedes Gleitze Homes for Destitute Men and Women in the city of Leicester in 1933, when she retired from swimming. The homes were destroyed by enemy action in 1940, but her trust fund is still being used today to help people in poverty.
Doloranda Pember is the daughter of Mercedes Gleitze. Her book In the Wake of Mercedes Gleitze: Open Water Swimming Pioneer (Feb 2019) is out now.
In honor of Women’s History Month, Hilda James: One of the great early female pioneers and feminists!
Hilda James (GBR) 2016 Honor Pioneer Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1920 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (4x100m freestyle); SEVEN WORLD RECORDS: two (300yd freestyle), two (150yd freestyle), one (440yd freestyle), one (400m freestyle), two (220yd freestyle), three (300m freestyle); 29 ENGLISH RECORDS: four (300yd freestyle), one (440yd freestyle), one (500yd freestyle), four (220yd freestyle), four (100yd freestyle), four (150yd freestyle), two (440yd freestyle), two (500yd freestyle), one (440m freestyle), one (1750yd freestyle), one (880yd freestyle), one (1000yd freestyle); EIGHT U.K. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: four (220yd freestyle), one (100yd freestyle), two (Thames Long Distance from Kew Putney five miles 50yd), one (440yd freestyle); FOUR SCOTTISH RECORDS: one (220yd freestyle), two (200yd freestyle), one (300yd freestyle), one (400m freestyle); FOUR OTHER MEET RESULTS: gold (300yd individual medley), gold (220yd freestyle), gold (110yd breaststroke), one River Seine 8k Race.
To avoid attending Church of England religious education classes, which conflicted with her parents religious beliefs, this 11-year old Liverpudlian was assigned to swimming classes at the Garston Baths.
Five years later, Hilda James was Great Britain’s best female swimmer and left for the 1920 Olympic Games with high expectations. Unfortunately in Amsterdam, the USA women completely dominated, sweeping the gold, silver and bronze medals in the 100m and 300m freestyle, the only individual swimming events for women at the 1920 Games. And while the British did win silver medals in the 4x100m relay, they finished a full 30 seconds behind the Americans. The following day Hilda cheekily asked the American coach, Lou de B. Handley, to teach her the American Crawl.
In 1922, Hilda was invited by her American friends to visit the USA for the summer racing season. While she was still behind the American stars Helen Wainwright and Gertrude Ederle, she was closing the gap.
By 1924, Hilda held every British and European freestyle record from 100 meters to the mile, and a handful of world records as well. She easily made the 1924 Olympic team, and it was widely believed that she would return from Paris with a handful of medals. When Hilda’s mother insisted she accompany her daughter as chaperone, and the British Olympic Committee refused, Hilda’s mother refused to let her go. Unfortunately, Hilda was not yet 21, was under the care of her parents – and had to obey.
Hilda turned 21 shortly after the Olympic Games, gained her independence, and took a job with the Cunard Shipping Company, traveling the world as a celebrity spokesperson, at a time when women were just starting to gain their freedom.
We will never know how Hilda would have fared in the 1924 Olympic Games, but she was a trailblazer and one of Europe’s first female sports superstars who inspired future generations of girls to follow in her wake.
From Hilda’s grandson: Ian Hugh McAllister:
tFenSbcpodroungssagaeryr lo5tnarm, e2d0d1a4 · Poole, United Kingdom ·
My Grandmother Hilda James officially opened the pool in 1925. As the premiere swimming star of the era she was also invited to participate in the opening gala but declined to swim in the races, substituting a demonstration of trick and fancy swimming instead. What the audience didn’t know was that she had already signed as a professional with Cunard, and was due to become the first celebrity crew member aboard Carinthia, the very first purpose-built cruise liner. Although not officially on the Cunard payroll until the following week, she was not exactly sure when they would start paying her, and dared not compete in case the press found out she was no longer an amateur. It was a poignant moment for Hilda, her last ever appearance as an amateur following a meteoric nine year career. During that time she held an Olympic silver medal, broke seven World Records, and actually introduced the crawl stroke to the UK.
The whole story is told in her biography “Lost Olympics” which was published last year on Amazon and for Kindle download. Please visit the Lost Olympics facebook page for a lot more information, including my various TV and radio interviews etc. Hilda has recently been nominated for induction to The International Swimming Hall of Fame.
When the pool gets rebuilt, can I come and open it again for you, or at least be at the opening? (although I am no swimmer!)
www.facebook.com/lostolympics
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=the+lost+olympics+by+ian+hugh+mcallister&ref=nb_sb_noss