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
Women’s History Month: When Mary T. Meagher Defied the Imagination During 1981 Butterfly Performances (Video)
by JOHN LOHN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
01 March 2024, 06:08am
Great Races: When Mary T Meagher Defied the Imagination During 1981 Butterfly Performances (Video)
It was the summer of 1981 and Mary T Meagher was a year removed from heartache. By no fault of her own, Meagher missed the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, and the opportunity to showcase her butterfly talent to the world. With the United States boycotting the Olympics in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan, Meagher was used as a political pawn – an identity known by hundreds of American athletes.
The results from the Moscow Games recognize East Germany’s Caren Metschuck as the champion in the 100 butterfly and her countrywoman Ines Geissler as the gold medalist in the 200 fly. Had Meagher been present at the competition, there is little question she would have stood on the top step of the podium. After all, few athletes in the history of the sport have dominated an event with the force exhibited by Meagher.
A year after Meagher was denied an initial Olympic foray, she raced at the United States National Championships in Brown Deer, Wisconsin. Although the stage did not compare to an Olympic platform, what Meagher produced in the Midwest was monumental in stature. The numbers say it all. She went 57.93 in the 100 butterfly and 2:05.96 in the 200 fly.
The video of the races, although grainy and far from today’s full-pool footage, is comical. It’s almost like Meagher was an early peaking age-grouper racing against overmatched opponents, such was the gap she enjoyed over the competition. In a way, Meagher raced alone, her rivals battling for second place even before they climbed the blocks. It was Mary T. vs. the clock.
When Meagher clocked 57.93 for the 100 butterfly, she became the first woman to not only crack the 59-second barrier in the event, but also the 58-second threshold. Meagher sliced 1.33 seconds off her previous world record, an eternity in a sport typically defined by fractions of seconds. Her global standard endured for 18 years, not broken until Jenny Thompson went 57.88 at the 1999 Pan Pacific Championships.
In the 200 butterfly, Meagher was even more magnificent, as she touched the wall in 2:05.96. The record was Meagher’s fifth world mark in the event and defied what was deemed possible. Before Meagher set her first world record in 1979, 2:09.87 was the fastest time in history. Madame Butterfly took the event to a different stratosphere.
Meagher’s final world record in the 200 fly endured even longer than her standard at half the distance, lasting for almost 19 years. It wasn’t until Susie O’Neill went 2:05.81 at the 2000 Australian Olympic Trials that Meagher’s name was erased from the record book. More, her time would have placed fourth at the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Think about that. Forty years after she delivered her epic performance, Meagher would have contended for the podium in a modern-day Olympic race.
Meagher finally got her Olympic opportunity at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, where she doubled in the 100 fly and 200 fly, and helped the United States to gold in the 400 medley relay. Four years later, she added a bronze medal in the 200 fly at the Seoul Games.
Forever, she will be an iconic figure in the sport.
“I always felt I could do 2:04,” Meagher once said. “When I did 2:05, I wasn’t pushed at all, and the last 25 meters felt real easy. At the finish, I thought, ‘I’m not tired, I could’ve kept on going.’”
Happy Birthday Elena Vaitsekhovskaia!!
Elena Vaitsekhovskaia (URS)
Honor Diver (1992)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1976, gold (platform); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1974, bronze (platform); 1977, silver (platform).
Elena Vaitsekhovskaia of Russia surprised the world in 1976 when she won the platform diving gold medal at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. She had to beat the defending champion Ulrike Knape of Sweden to do it.
“I didn’t think I would win”, said the shy, young diver. “Here in Montreal, the fans are cheering for the Canadians and Americans”.
The finals were extremely close with never more than nine points separating the first six divers through the four compulsory dives. Amazingly, after five dives only three points separated first place Irina Kalanina of the Soviet Union from sixth place Melissa Briley of the United States.
On the sixth dive, Elena took the lead, five points ahead of Debbie Wilson of the U.S.A. and seven ahead of Knape. Going into the seventh and final dive, Elena and three other divers were within less than eight points of each other.
Ulrika Knape then performed like a defending gold medalist should, scoring a whopping 68.18 points on an inward 2 1/2 somersault to vault in to a close second place position. The pressure was on Elena to perform the same dive. She coolly and calmly stepped up and hit the dive to become the first Russian woman to win a gold medal in Olympic competition history. Knape took the silver and Debbie Wilson the bronze.
Elena had entered the international scene in 1974 at the European Championship when she placed third on the platform, helping her team win the Fern Cup for most points scored in men’s’ and women’s diving. Following the Olympics in Montreal, she competed one more time in 1977 at the European Championships, placing second and beating teammate Irina Kalanina, who went on to win the Springboard event in the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
Elena is currently a diving publicist for television and the media.
Throwback Thursday: Rowdy Gaines Knows Dreams Can Be Worth the Wait
by JOHN LOHN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
29 February 2024, 04:17am
Rowdy Gaines – A Wait Worth It
As Swimming World continues its Great Races Series, we offer a look at the final of the men’s 100-meter freestyle from the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Here is the story of Rowdy Gaines, who endured the boycott of the 1980 Olympics to achieve Olympic glory, with a twist to the race that made it happen.
Through history, sports and politics have frequently run along parallel lines, their paths eventually colliding with ugly results. There has been no bigger stage for these clashes than the Olympic Games, the quadrennial event which brings together countries with differing governments, cultures, socioeconomic statuses and religious beliefs.
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At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Adolf Hitler used Germany’s role as host to promote the Nazi party and its ideals, and to especially emphasize his perceived superiority of the Aryan race. While Hitler had a global forum, his plan was significantly hindered by American Jesse Owens. As Hitler looked on, the African-American track star short-circuited any suggestions of Aryan supremacy by winning four gold medals in dominant fashion.
Thirty-two years later, the United States’ Tommie Smith and John Carlos ran to gold and bronze medals, respectively, in the 200-meter dash at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. But it’s their actions during the medal ceremony, not their speed, which are remembered most. In protest of civil rights inequality for African-Americans, Smith and Carlos each bowed their heads and raised a black-gloved fist into the air, a known symbol for black power, during the playing of the Star Spangled Banner. They also stood only in black socks, meant to represent black poverty.
The actions of Smith and Carlos were deemed inappropriate by many, including the International Olympic Committee. Under pressure from the IOC, the United States Olympic Committee suspended the athletes, who were subsequently thrown out of the Olympic Village. To this day, the picture of Smith and Carlos on the podium is an iconic image in Olympic history.
Olympic history, too, knows Rowdy Gaines. And Gaines knows the combustible relationship between athletics and politics.As the 1980 Games in Moscow neared, Gaines was expected to be one of the American stars of the 22nd Olympiad, along with countrywomen Tracy Caulkins and Mary T. Meagher, among others. As a star for Auburn University, Gaines was surging at the right time, his peak performances seemingly destined for the Summer of 1980. If the blueprint unfolded according to plan, Gaines would be a gold-medal favorite in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle, and as a member of two United States relays.
Photo Courtesy: Griffin Scott
While Gaines was training for the biggest moment of his career, the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in December 1979 in support of the Afghan communist government’s conflict with anti-communist Muslim guerillas. A month later, United States President Jimmy Carter gave a speech which described several reactionary measures to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. One of the measures was a boycott of the Moscow Games if Soviet troops did not withdraw.
“Although the United States would prefer not to withdraw from the Olympic games scheduled in Moscow this summer, the Soviet Union must realize that its continued aggressive actions will endanger both the participation of athletes and the travel to Moscow by spectators who would normally wish to attend the Olympic games,” Carter said in his speech.
On March 21, 1980, the hammer dropped. Meeting with 150 American athletes, Carter announced the United States would officially boycott the Olympic Games. With that one decision, which was mimicked by 60 other countries, hundreds of American athletes saw their Olympic dreams crushed. Years of hard work, dedication and sacrifice went to waste. Gaines was one of the athletes who was robbed.
“I never believed for a moment that we would actually boycott,” Gaines said. “In fact, I was in denial all the way until they made the official announcement…I think the boycott was made for two reasons. One was to influence the (Soviets) to leave Afghanistan. The other was to try and move the Olympics out of (the Soviet Union). Neither one worked. If it truly would have helped the cause, then I would have been for it as well. But the old cliché of mixing politics and sports is so true. The (Soviets) used it to their advantage by winning more medals and the propaganda helped them tremendously and it ruined so many people’s athletic careers. The best thing we could do then was to go over there and kick their ass.”
Like many athletes of the era, Gaines faced decisions in the aftermath of the boycott. Following his senior year at Auburn, Gaines had to decide whether to continue with the sport and pursue a berth to the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles or retire. It wasn’t an easy decision considering what Gaines had accomplished in the preceding months. Simply, he was on the finest roll of his career.
In addition to setting a world record in the 200 freestyle ahead of the 1980 Olympics, Gaines set a world record in the 100 freestyle in 1981. But for a six-month period after his senior year of college, Gaines couldn’t see sticking with the pool through 1984. At the time, the end of a collegiate career typically coincided with retirement, due to the truly amateur status of the sport. For Gaines, it was time to walk away.
At least temporarily.
“It was a very difficult decision,” Gaines said. “In fact, I retired after my senior year in 1981 because that’s what you did back then. There was no swimming after you graduated from college because there was no money. I wasn’t even allowed to accept money. It was still truly an amateur sport back then. After being retired for those six months, my father came to me and said that I would have a hard time the rest of my life looking in the mirror and saying ‘what if’ and he was right, I didnt want to have that feeling. It was not easy though. I worked as a night clerk in a hotel to try and make some money to survive, lived in a hovel and survived on mac and cheese. But there were a lot of us doing that so there was a camaraderie with those that were boycott babies.”
Photo Courtesy: Universal Sports
Gaines’ comeback from his brief retirement got off to a positive start, with Gaines breaking his world record in the 200 freestyle at the United States World Championships Trials in July of 1982. He followed by winning silver medals at the World Champs in the 100 freestyle and 200 freestyle and anchored three gold-medal-winning relays.
But the next summer didn’t produce the results Gaines was chasing. While he won the 100 freestyle and was the bronze medalist in the 200 freestyle, the performances lacked the pop which was a familiar trademark. With the Olympic Games – and redemption – a year away, Gaines hardly put fear into his rivals. More, questions began to creep into Gaines’ mind.
“I sort of felt (doubt) in the summer of 1983 after the Pan Am Games,” he said. “I swam really poorly there. It was the first time in such a meet that I didn’t improve my times. I didn’t even win the 200, the event in which I held the world record. I won the 100 and was on three winning relay teams, which sounds OK, but I knew the competition wasn’t that strong, not like it would be in the Olympics. For the first time, I felt old. I had doubts. I sat down with my parents, my coaches and my friends, all of whom really helped me. And in the end, I decided to go for it – win, lose or draw – because otherwise I would never know.”
The 1984 Olympic Trials didn’t exactly boost Gaines’ confidence, either. He didn’t even qualify for the Los Angeles Games in the 200 freestyle – individually or as a relay member – and he was only second to Mike Heath in the 100 freestyle, although that placement officially secured his Olympic invitation. Could Gaines get it together in time to excel in the biggest meet of his life? It was a legitimate concern.
The 100 freestyle was the first event of Gaines’ Olympic program and he was racing in a stacked field. Although the Eastern Bloc countries boycotted the Games in retaliation for what took place in 1980, Gaines had to deal with formidable competition in Heath, Australia’s Mark Stockwell and Sweden’s Per Johansson. A medal of any color was far from a guarantee, let alone a gold medal.
As Gaines was preparing for the final, he was approached by his coach Richard Quick and told to prepare for a quick start by the referee, Francisco Silvestri of Panama. Not just one of the greatest coaches in the world, Quick was attentive to details. From what he witnessed at the 1982 World Championships and 1983 Pan American Games, Quick knew Silvestri had a quick trigger when starting races and wanted Gaines to be alert for a similar outcome.
Indeed, Quick’s advice paid dividends. After the finalists in the 100 freestyle climbed the starting blocks, Silvestri’s reputation played out. As many of the swimmers were still moving downward to the “set” position, Silvestri fired his starter’s pistol. Ready for the quick fire, Gaines surged off the blocks and immediately bolted to a half-body length lead. Meanwhile, Stockwell was left behind, with Heath even farther back.
Gaines made the turn at the halfway mark in front of the pack, and aware of his lead. As he made his way down the last lap, he kept reminding himself to dig deep and push as hard as he could in what would be the last individual race of his career. Although Stockwell was closing during the final strokes, Gaines got to the wall first in 49.80, with Stockwell earning the silver medal in 50.24. Johansson placed third in 50.31, just ahead of Heath in 50.41.
After turning to read the scoreboard, a jubilant Gaines threw his head back and jumped into the air, thrusting his right arm upward. Four years after what should have been his handshake with Olympic glory, Gaines recognized his career dream.
“Part of me feels like it was yesterday,” Gaines said. “I can remember specific details of the race. But another part me feels like that was another person. I’m not sure how I did all that. It would have been impossible without Richard Quick. He had such a knack for picking up things to help his athletes, and that’s what he did with the start. But more than a coach, he was always a confidant and friend.”
The excitement of Gaines was equally matched by the anger of Stockwell and Heath. The Australian, knowing he wasn’t set for the start of the race, twice slammed his fist against the wall, but then congratulated Gaines. The Australian delegation filed a protest on Stockwell’s behalf, but it was denied. As for Heath, he congratulated Gaines before exiting the pool irate with the start and the way it cost him early ground.
“I don’t want to take away anything from Rowdy,” Stockwell said. “I mean, he’s great. He’s been around for a long time and he knows what to look out for. It just wasn’t a fair start.”
Photo Courtesy: Taylor Brien
Gaines’ might have been forced to wait for his Olympic experience, but he certainly got the most out of the occasion. After winning the 100 freestyle, Gaines powered the United States to gold medals in the 400 freestyle relay and 400 medley relay, giving him three victories on his home soil. However, it wouldn’t be the last of his Olympic dalliances.
Following his athletic career, Gaines became involved in broadcasting and has been a commentator at every Olympic Games since 1992. The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo marked his eighth Olympiad behind the microphone. Listening to a broadcast in which Gaines is involved leaves no doubt about his genuine care for what is taking place in the pool. He is highly excitable, his voice frequently rising to a crescendo as a down-to-the-wire race is decided at the wall.
Although some fans of the sport object to Gaines’ approach, he doesn’t apologize for his style. Enthusiasm is his calling card. Perhaps his most-famous call was at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, when Jazon Lezak anchored the United States to an improbable victory in the 400 freestyle relay, in the process keeping alive Michael Phelps’ pursuit of eight gold medals.
“The first and foremost thing I try to bring to my announcing is passion,” Gaines said. “People can question some of my knowledge and my language or grammar, but they can’t question my passion. I hope that’s something that comes across because it’s genuine and I love doing it. I have the best seat in the house.”
An affable man who remains active in operating swim clinics, Gaines is one of the most recognizable faces of the sport. He can tell stories about races he has witnessed and ones in which he has taken part. It would be difficult to find a better story than the tale of his 1984 gold medal, which capped a journey from heartache to elation.
“I’ll tell you the truth. I was preparing my loser’s speech,” Gaines said of 1984. “I felt if I lost, I would come out and be gracious. I was going to say that I thought I had contributed to the sport and that I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of. It would hurt for the rest of my life. But I would have said it was worth it.
“(Olympic Coach Don Gambril) realized that I needed to stick around for my own sense of sanity. I think if I had quit, 20 years down the line I would have jumped out of the 20th floor, just from wondering if I could have made it or not. I felt in my heart that I needed to do this. He asked me if it was worth it. I told him, yeah, it was worth it. I’d go through another four years for this feeling. There’s so many of us who have been around for so long (since the 1980 boycott). You might get tired of hearing it, but we went through hell in 1980. But it was worth it.”