Happy Birthday Monique Wildschut!!
Monique Wildschut (NED)
Honor Open Water Swimmer (2016)
FOR THE RECORD: Dominated Women’s Professional Races from the middle 1980’s to early 1990’s; SIX TIME WORLD PROFESSIONAL MARATHON SWIMMING ASSOCIATION CHAMPION: 1983–1988; English Channel Crossings: 1982, 1984.
Before turning professional, Monique Wildschut was a five-time Dutch Open Water Champion from 1978 through 1982. She was also a Dutch National Champion in the pool, holding records in the 800-meter freestyle and the 400 medley relay.
In her debut on the professional marathon circuit, she was the first woman to cross the finish line in Atlantic City, 1983. She continued her success that year with the fastest time in the crossing of the Traversee Internationale du Lac St. Jean in Canada, and then set a new women’s record at the Lake Magog Swim in Quebec.
Between the years of 1983 and 1988, Monique swam in the cold Canadian waters to the warm, even hot waters of Egypt and Argentina, and was a six-time World Professional Marathon Swimming Association Champion.
As a marathon swimmer, swimming the English Channel is a must if you truly want to be respected. Monique swam the English Channel twice, once in 1982 and again in 1984. Her first swim she began at night. Mental toughness is something Monique believes is critical in marathon swimming. During the Channel swim, she was seasick and the waves were quite rough, but the worst part Monique said was the fact that she was afraid the people on the boat were going to lose her. Still she continued on and finished the channel in a time of 8 hours and 44 minutes, a fast time for those conditions. For the second channel swim, she decided to go for the record of 7 hours and 40 seconds. Unfortunately, the currents do not always cooperate. The currents were stronger than the calculations. Although Monique ended up with the season record for both men and women, she missed her goal by 39 minutes.
Today Monique helps people who have problems with communication , like children and adults with autism, severe speech and language impedements, or concentration and learning disabilities to break through their blockages. She has also started M4ce Mental Mastery for More Medals, helping top athletes with breaking through their mental blockage and to balance their mental state optimally for top rankings. She has also just written a book, Hardships of a Marathon Swimmer.
Happy Birthday Susan O’Neill!!
Susan O’Neill (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (2006)
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (200m butterfly); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m butterfly), silver (4x100m medley relay); bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m freestyle), silver (200m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay); FOUR WORLD RECORDS: 200m butterfly (1-50m, 3-25m); 1993 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (25m): gold (100m butterfly), silver (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle), bronze (4x100m medley); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (100m, 200m butterfly); 1995 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (25m): gold (200m butterfly, 4x100m medley), silver (200m freestyle, 100m butterfly), bronze (4x200m freestyle); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m butterfly), silver (4x100m medley), bronze (4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle); 1990 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: silver (100m butterfly); 1994 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (200m butterfly, 200m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle); silver (100m butterfly); 1998 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly, 400m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle, silver (100m butterfly); 1999 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly), silver (100m butterfly); 35 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS.
Just as fellow Australian Dawn Fraser was known in 1956 as the woman who broke Willy den Ouden’s (NED) 20 year old, 100m freestyle world record, so is Susie O’Neill known as the woman who broke Mary T. Meagher’s (USA) 19 year old, 200m butterfly world record. Susie broke the record at the 2000 Australian Olympic Trials. At the 2000 Sydney Games, she tried to equal the gold medal swim she had in this event at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, but won the silver medal behind Misty Hyman (USA). After the water settled, Susie still maintained a hold on the world record and held it for another two years. Being the competitor she was, she won the 200m freestyle gold medal in Sydney.
Having never lost a butterfly race between Olympic Games (1996-2000), she took on Mary T’s nickname of Madame Butterfly. Could there be two Madame Butterflies? Susie and Mary T. were from two different eras, two different times, each distinct just as when Eva Szekeley of Hungary, the first Madame Butterfly, received her nickname in 1952.
Susie has 35 Australian Championships to her name, breaking Hall of Famer Sir Frank Beaurepaire’s long standing record from 100 years earlier. Her outstanding Commonwealth Games performance gives her the most medals won by a female swimmer (ten gold, five silver) in Commonwealth history. Six of the gold medals were won at one Commonwealth Games (1998 Kuala Lumpur), a record equaled only by swimmer Ian Thorpe.
Happy Birthday Gail Neall!!
Gail Neall (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (1996)
FOR THE RECORD: 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (400m I.M.), 7th (200m butterfly); ONE WORLD RECORD: 400m I.M.; 1970 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: silver (400m I.M.); 1974 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: bronze (200m butterfly; THREE AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS; SEVEN NATIONAL RECORDS; THREE CANADIAN OPEN RECORDS.
At age eight, her coach, Queensland’s Marlene Towne, couldn’t get her to take her foot off the bottom of the pool, but once she did Gail Neall swam like a bullet spun out of its barrel.
The local swim coach said she was not good enough to join the swim team, so she joined up with coach Arthur Cusack until which time her family moved to Sydney where Gail, at age ten, got her first treat of swimming for the legendary coach Forbes Carlile.
With good coaching, success came quickly for Gail. At age eleven, she won her first age group New South Wales Championship in the 100m backstroke. At age twelve she entered her first Australian National Championship and competed for eight years at this meet, winning three National Championships.
By 1970 she had qualified for the Commonwealth Games of Edinburgh as the youngest member of the Aussie team and weighing only 111 pounds. She won the silver medal which gave her the incentive to aim for the Olympic Games of 1972.
She sought the tutelage of Commonwealth Games coach Don Talbot who, as a master motivator, prepared her for her biggest challenge: the Olympic Games of 1972. Qualifying at the Olympic Trials in Brisbane, Gail competed in three grueling events in Munich – the 200m individual medley, 200m butterfly and 400m individual medley. In her strong event, the 400m individual medley, she qualified sixth after the preliminaries but in the finals she surprised the world by dropping an incredible nine seconds from her heat time and winning the gold medal for Australia, breaking Claudia Kolbs’ four year world record. Gail became the last swimmer to hold the 400m individual medley world record before the East German swimmers set the record 21 out of the last 23 years.
In 1974, Gail retired from swimming and on a teaching scholarship attended Kuring Gai College of Advanced Education. She married Ross Yeo and moved to Mendooran, where they now live on a farm with their four children. She does some casual teaching and tries to swim for exercise, difficult to do as she lives about as far away from water as you can get.
Gail Neall visits schools talking to children about doing their best and striving to reach their goals. She was the best in the world – she went as far as a swimmer can go, the Olympic Championship. Now her championship attitude to life strive to make champions of us all.
Happy Birthday Ingrid Kramer!!
Ingrid Kramer (GDR)
Honor Diver (1975)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 gold (3m springboard, 10m platform); 1964 gold (springboard), silver (platform); 1968 5th (springboard); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1962 gold (springboard).
In the 1958 European Championships a pert blonde 15-year-old Dresden doll named Ingrid Kramer was fourth off the springboard and eighth off the tower. Ten years later at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, 25-year-old Frau Ingrid Gulbin-Kramer finished 5th in springboard diving. In between, the Deutscher Democratic Republic’s first great aquatics star was the world’s top diver and under three different names. In 1960 Fraulein Kramer became the first non-American woman in forty years to win an Olympic diving gold medal. She did it twice, winning both the 3-meter springboard and the 10-meter platform. Again at Tokyo in 1964, Miss Kramer, now Mrs. Engel-Kramer (Engel was a wrestler) sniffed gold and won the springboard, although second to American Leslie Bush off the tower. In Mexico she was Frau Gulbin-Kramer and again an Olympic finalist.
Rated off numbers of Olympic golds and length of time at the top, only the USA’s Pat McCormick a double winner at Helsinki in 1952 and Melbourne in 1956, is ahead of Ingrid Kramer on the all-time women’s diver list. Paula Jean Meyers, USA, in three Olympics was bridesmaid to both McCormick and Kramer. Juno Stover, USA, was in more Olympics (4) but did not finish so high so often (one silver and one bronze).
Perhaps Ingrid Kramer’s greatest diving was not in any of her three Olympics but at the 1962 European Championships where she won the springboard by 14.79 points and the tower by 12.04. She is the first East German honored at the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Happy Birthday Teresa Anderson!!
Teresa Andersen (USA)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (1986)
FOR THE RECORD: WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1973 gold (solo, duet, figures, team); JUNIOR NATIONALS: 1970 (duet, ); 1971 (solo); SENIOR NATIONALS: 12 (Indoor Team: 1969, 1972, 1973; Indoor solo: 1973; Indoor duet: 1973; Outdoor Team: 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973; Outdoor duet: 1972, 1973); CANADIAN OPEN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1972 told (solo, duet, figures, team); INTERNATIONAL MEETS: 1972 gold (duet, team).
Terry Andersen of Kay Vilen’s Santa Clara AquaMaids was the first world champion of synchronized swimming. She says it was just a matter of being at the right place at the right time, but all the others who were in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1973 say she was the right person winning all four Gold Medals (all you can win) in Figures, Solo, Duet and Team. In fact, 1973 belonged to Terry Andersen. She also was only the fourth girl in history to win her U.S. Nationals in every event while setting the highest figures point total ever awarded in synchronized swimming; the others being Hall of Famers Pam Morris, Heidi O’Roarke, and Gail Johnson. It was the culmination of nine years of hard work (four hours a day, six days a week) at the sport she synchronized with her life and her early dancing and music lessons from the delicious moment she dove in the water at age 10. During the nine years that followed, Terry built up gradually through Junior Nationals, Senior Nationals, four Canadian Opens and two International meets. She retired after winning it all at Belgrade and went on to coach the West German National Team in 1974 and later became the state coach in South Africa (1976, 1979). Terry helped to put synchronized swimming on the world map when she traveled abroad to demonstrate with exhibitions at Expo 70 in Japan and the Munich Olympics in 1972.
Happy Birthday Micki King!!
Micki King (USA)
Honor Diver (1978)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1968 4th (springboard); 1972 gold (springboard); NATIONAL AAU Diving Titles: 9; NATIONAL AAU Water Polo Titles: 2; CANADIAN NATIONAL TITLES: 2 (1m springboard), 2 (3m springboard); WOMEN’S NATIONAL COLLEGIATE Title (DGWS): 1First woman to compete in the Military International Sports Council Games (CISM); Diver of the year: 1965, 1969, 1972 (springboard); 1969 (platform); First woman coach at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
1968, at the Mexico Olympic Games, Micki King led all women divers with two dives to go. Her Olympic gold medal was all but in the bag when on dive number 9, a reverse 1 1/2 somersault, she hit the board and broke her arm. She completed her last dive and finished fourth. There followed months in a cast, a year of recovery, three more years of getting back in top form, and trying again in 1972. This time she won. An Air Force officer and the Air Academy’s first woman coach, Micki missed winning the first woman’s Superstars on the last event when she skimmed and toppled a hurdle for a five second penalty. She won a National Collegiate swimming title at Michigan and was twice the winning goalie for Ann Arbor at the Women’s National AAU Water Polo Nationals. An excellent speaker, Micki was also advance person for the Air Force Football Team.
Happy Birthday Anita Nall!!
Anita Nall (USA)
Honor Swimmer (2008)
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4x100m medley), silver (100m breaststroke), bronze (200m breaststroke); THREE WORLD RECORDS: 2-200m breaststroke, 1-4x100m medley; EIGHT US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 5 short course: 2-100m breast-stroke, 3-200m breaststroke; 3 long course: 1-100m breaststroke, 2-200m breaststroke; 1990 US OPEN: gold (200m breaststroke); 1991 US OPEN: gold (200m breaststroke); 1993 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m, 200m breaststroke); 1995 PAN AM GAMES: bronze (200m breaststroke);
She joined the swim team at age five following in the footsteps of her two older sisters. By age 12, she set age group records and at 14 notched an American record. Swimming for Coach Murray Stephens at North Baltimore Aquatic Club, she developed a technically perfect breaststroke using the new-style stroke of the time.
At age 15, only a sophomore in high school, she qualified for the 1992 Olympic team and in the process, set two world records on the same day in the 200 meter breaststroke, which were not broken for another two years. Competing as the “baby” of the 1992 U.S. Barcelona Team, Anita Nall won gold, silver and bronze medals swimming the breaststroke. Her gold medal swim came as a member of the 4 by 100 meter medley relay, which also set the world record. Her silver medal came in the 100 meter breaststroke, just out-touched by Russia’s Elena Rudouskaya, and the bronze medal in the 200 meter breaststroke, where only point two seconds separated gold from bronze. Anita continued swimming after the Olympic Games, winning gold medals in the 100 and 200 meter breaststroke at the 1993 Pan Pacific Championships. Due to chronic health problems, that went incorrectly diagnosed for years, her swimming faltered and she was unable to qualify for the 1996 or 2000 Olympic Teams.
Today, Anita is a Holistic Nutrition Specialist focusing on nutrition and wellness where she conducts workshops for food allergy sufferers
Happy Birthday Tamas Kásás!!
Tamas Kásás (HUN)
Honor Water Polo (2016)
FOR THE RECORD: 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold
Hungary is a land of thermal springs and although landlocked, swimming and water sports are ingrained in their 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 1920s, it was water polo that came to symbolize Hungary’s unique strengths and individuality. From 1928 to 1980, the Hungarian National Water Polo Team dominated the sport like no other nation, reaching the podium at twelve consecutive Olympic Games. During this streak the Hungarians won six gold medals, three silver medals, three bronze medals, and back to back titles twice: 1932 and 1936 and, 1952 and 1956. It came to be that anything less than the gold medal was considered a failure.
So it became something of a national catastrophe and source of embarrassment when the pride of Hungary failed to medal in four consecutive Olympic contests. After finishing fourth in 1996, the Federation reached out to a young coach, who had made a name for himself coaching in Italy and Australia, to rescue the program.
Denes Kemeny started by building his team around two young men who had helped Hungary finish fourth at the 1996 Games in Atlanta: Tibor Benedek and Tamas Kásás.
Benedek was one of the most talented youngsters to ever play the game. He had joined the National Team as a teenager prior to the 1992 Olympic Games. His speed, quickness, rifle left arm and goal-scoring in Barcelona earned him the Hungarian Player of the Year titles in 1992, 1993 and 1994.
Tamas Kásás took up water polo at the age of six, being taught by his father Zoltan, a famous coach and silver medalist in 1972. Because of his world-class swimming speed, defensive skills, accurate shooting and passing he would come to be regarded as one of the world’s best defensive and all around players of his era.
Born in Szeged, Tamás Molnár was selected for the national team in 1997. He was a powerhouse at the all-important center position and could score or draw exclusions against the best defenders in the world.
The youngest to join the team in 1997, was 19-year old Gergely Kiss. He was not only a brilliant left-hander and center defender, but at 6’6”, 245 pounds, he was one of the most physically intimidating players in the sport.
It was 1998 when Péter Biros joined the team. Born in Miskolc, Biros had combined water polo with handball until the age of 17. He could play any position and could score from anywhere in the pool.
The final piece of Kemeny’s team was the goalkeeper, 21-year old Zoltán Szécsi. Standing 6’6” tall, he had learned to swim as an infant, but grew up playing a variety of other sports, like basketball and tennis, which was good training for his position.
Kemeny’s new approach brought immediate results, as the Hungarians won gold at the 1997 European Championships, silver at the 1998 FINA World Championships and gold at the 1999 World Cup.
At the 2000 Sydney Games, Hungary regained its Olympic water polo success by winning their first Olympic medal in 24 years, and their record seventh water polo gold medal, by routing Russia, 13-6.
Four years later, at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, Gergely Kiss scored four goals, including the game-winner in an 8-7 come-from-behind victory over Serbia-Montenegro to defend their title.
In Beijing, at the 2008 Olympic Games, the Hungarians faced off against the surprising team from the USA. In a wild shoot out, the Magyars took command in the fourth quarter for a 14-10 victory.
The win gave Hungary an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic title. While a total of 21 players won Olympic gold medals playing for Hungary over the period of 2000 to 2008, only six own three by themselves. It is to them, and their coach, that we honor the Hungarian Men’s National Water Polo Team as the first team to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Happy Birthday Diana Mocanu!!
Diana Mocanu (ROM)
Honor Swimmer (2015)
FOR THE RECORD: 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (100m backstroke; 200m backstroke); 2001 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m backstroke), silver (100m backstroke); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (100m butterfly); 2000 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (50m backstroke, 100m backstroke, 200m backstroke), bronze (4x100m medley relay).
Olympic gold medals are cherished in any country, but in 2000, Romania was especially desperate to be seen as something other than a poor unstable Balkan nation. That is when an unknown 16 year old girl emerged, who would become known as “Golden Diana”.
Diana Mocanu was from the small Eastern Romanian town of Braila. She was virtually unknown in her own small town, much less Romania, when she headed off to Sydney to compete in the 2000 Olympic Games. All totaled, Diana would compete in five events at the Olympic Games, but her specialty, the backstroke would bring her gold. On the third day of Olympic competition, Diana won her first gold medal and became Romania’s first Olympic gold medalist in the sport of swimming. Her gold medal in the 100 meter backstroke set a new Olympic record. Her second gold medal came on the seventh day of competition, in the Women’s 200 meter backstroke, where she swam 2:08.16. Diana also qualified for the finals in the Women’s 100 meter butterfly, where she finished eighth. With her Romanian teammates, she also competed in the 4 x 100 medley relay and the 4 x 100 freestyle relay. Unfortunately, they did not make the finals in either event.
Diana competed in the 2001 World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan where she won gold in the 200 meter backstroke and silver in the 100 meter backstroke.
She competed in two European Championships, the 1999 Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, where she placed third in the Women’s 100 meter butterfly, fourth in the Women’s 50 meter backstroke, fifth in the Women’s 4 x 100 medley relay, and sixth in the Women’s 200 meter backstroke. Her next trip to the European Championships in 2002, in Berlin, she placed fifth in the Women’s 200 meter backstroke and eighth in the Women’s 50 meter backstroke.
Diana decided to retire in 2004 after not making the Olympic team. She was quoted as saying “My decision is final. I totally lost my determination as an athlete. My future is now in coaching.” Diana’s career as a swimmer may not have lasted a long time but what she did for her country’s morale by winning double Olympic gold, in a time when it was so desperately needed, will last a lifetime.
Happy Birthday Karin Kuipers!!
Karin Kuipers (NED)
Honor Water Polo (2014)
FOR THE RECORD: 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 1991 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 1993 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze; 1995 FINA World Cup: silver, 1997 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze; 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONS: silver; 1991, 1993, 1997, 1999 WORLD CUP: gold; 1996 OLYMPIC TOURNAMENT; 1993, 1998,1999 VOTED BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD
She was appointed Knight of the Order of Orang-Nassau in 2011, a chivalric order open to everyone who has earned special merits for society because of her great services to Dutch Water Polo. It is a grade comparable with the ranks of the Order of the British Empire in the UK.
Wearing her famous number 7, she started playing in the first division at the age of 14. She was three times voted the best player in the world; in 1993, 1998 ,1999, and played in over 1000 official games, scoring over 3000 goals during her career.
Her greatest years came before women’s water polo was added to the Olympic program, when her Dutch team was the best in the world and won either the gold or silver medal at every FINA world cup and FINA world championships from 1991 to 1999. Her team entered the 2000 Olympic Games as one of the favorites, but finished a disappointing fourth.
Now a mother of two, she competes in triathlons and competes with her old water polo friends in Dutch masters competitions.