Happy Birthday Chris von Saltza!!
Chris von Saltza (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1966)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 gold (400m freestyle; 4x100m freestyle relay; 4x100m medley relay), silver (100m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: 4; U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 32
Chris von Saltza was valedictorian of the first big group graduating from the Age-Group swim program. She held 4 world records and 32 American records in an era when FINA no longer accepted as world records our world’s fastest times done in the traditional American 25 yard (short course) pools.
Chris was picked as the outstanding girl swimmer of the 1960 Rome Olympics for her 3 gold medals and a silver. Her 4:44.5 world record for the 400 meter freestyle ended the domination by Australian girls in freestyle swimming and set standards ten seconds faster than the next fastest Americans were swimming. Earlier, she had been the first American girl to break 5 minutes.
While considered primarily a classic crawl swimmer, Chris also held the world record in the 200 meter backstroke. She won the maximum allotted four individual events plus relays in several U.S. Nationals, sparking her Santa Clara Swim Club to team victories. Her performances in 1960 were considerably ahead of the U.S. competition and helped spark the current renaissance in U.S. swimming.
An anxious mother once asked Chris’ doctor father how he could let his daughter swim so hard for so long, “Madam,” he said, “the longer the distance, the better the von Saltza.”
In route to the Olympics, Chris won five gold medals in the 1959 Pan American Games. Retiring one year after the 1960 Rome Olympics, Chris entered Stanford, majoring in Asian History. She took a leave of absence during 1963-64 to be a coach-consultant in Asia in the American Specialist Program under a State Department grant. She visited and taught competitive swimming in South Korea, the Philippines, South Vietnam, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Chris was an assistant chaperone-coach for the U.S. girls at the 1968 Mexico Olympics.
Happy Birthday Mark Schubert!!
Mark Schubert (USA)
Honor Coach (1997)
Ever since his college days as a swimmer and assistant coach at the University of Kentucky, he has had a fascination with fast, expensive sports cars. Now, his living is turning out fast swimmers. He likes speed and has turned his young swimmers into national and international speedster champions, creating one of the most impressive record books in the history of our sport.
Coach Dick Wells first introduced swimming to Mark Schubert at Harvey S. Firestone High School in Akron, Ohio, where, as a student, Mark swam the breaststroke and played trombone in the band. He attended Kentucky on a swimming scholarship, but served as assistant coach his last two years before working as swimming coach and teacher in the Cuyahoga Falls School District, Ohio for one year (1971-72).
In 1972, at the age of 23, he was offered the co-head coaching position with the Mission Viejo Nadadores Swim Team in California, directing a program of 55. The program grew to over 500 swimmers of all ages and abilities by 1985. Between 1972 and 1985 he amassed an AAU and USS Club National Championship record that proceeded to break Hall of Fame Coach George Haines’ Santa Clara Swim Club record of 43 national team championships. Mission Viejo won 44 team titles including 18 women’s team championships, 8 men’s team championships and 18 combined team championships.
While at Mission Viejo, his swimmers won 124 individual national championships, ten Olympic gold medals, six Olympic silver medals, one Olympic bronze medal, five individual World Championship titles, 88 American records and set 21 world records, all within a 13 year period. Schubert was named American Swimming Coaches Association, National Coach of the Year for 1975, 1976 and 1981. In 1981, for the first time in the history of swimming, his team captured all national team titles in one year, six team titles (men/women/combined), plus 15 individual national titles and 9 American records. One of his teams scored a record 1255 total points in the Nationals. His team competed internationally in Japan, Russia and other countries, conducting clinics and good will. If you add up the results of his swimmers competing in the 1979 Pan American Games, Mission Viejo would have finished 5th as a country.
In 1985, Mark moved from one Mission to another, directing the training and coaching of the Mission Bay Makos Swim Team in Boca Raton, Florida. During his three years there, his teams won another nine national team titles and placed three swimmers on the 1988 US Olympic Team, winning a silver medal.
Although Mark has been the most successful club coach in history, in 1989 he moved to the college coaching ranks as the University of Texas women’s coach, winning two NCAA Championships during his four year tenure. His Longhorn swimmers won 12 NCAA individual and eight relay titles, and Schubert was named 1990 NCAA Coach of the Year. As head coach of the Texas Aquatics Team during that time, his teams won another 10 USS national team titles.
Then it was back to California, taking the reigns of the women’s and men’s team from retired Hall of Fame coach Peter Daland at the University of Southern California. Since 1992, Schubert has established an impressive .822 winning percentage and placed in the NCAA top ten.
One of the world’s most highly respected coaches, Mark Schubert has served as US coach of many international traveling teams: 1980, 1984, 1988 and 1996 USA Olympic assistant coach and 1992 USA Olympic Head Women’s Coach – the most of any active US coach. He has been the 1978, 1986, 1991 and 1994 USA World Championship Assistant Coach and 1982 USA World Championship Head Coach.
His Olympic gold medal swimmers include Brian Goodell (1976), Shirley Babashoff (1976), Mary T. Meagher (1984), Tiffany Cohen (1984), Mike O’Brien (1984), Dara Torres (1984), Rich Saeger (1984), Janet Evans (1992), Brad Bridgewater (1996) and Kristine Quance (1996). Other Olympic swimmers include Casey Converse (1976), Maryanne Graham (1976), Nicole Kramer (1976), Marsha Morey (1976), Steve Barnicoat (1980), Jesse Vassallo (1980), Brian Goodell (1980), MaryBeth Linzmeier (1980), Dan Veatch (1988), Erika Hansen (1988), Susan Johnson (1988), Erika Hansen (1992), Lawrence Frostad (1992) and Janet Evans (1996). His world record holders include Goodell, Babashoff, Jesse Vassallo, Ricardo Prado, Alice Brown and Sippy Woodhead. His World Championships swimmers who medaled in competition include: Babashoff (1975), Goodell (1975), Valerie Lee (1975), Vassallo (1978) Dan Veatch (1986) Mike O’Brien (1986), Lee Ann Fetter (1991), Janet Evans (1994) and Kristine Quance (1994). Other swimmers who have made the teams from 1973 through 1994: Peggy Tosdal, Mary Beth Linzmeyer, Bill Barret, Robin Leamey, Steve Barnicoat, Whitney Hedgepeth, Jodi Wilson, Beth Barr, Erika Hansen and Lawrence Frostad.
In his 25 years of coaching, Schubert has placed 22 swimmers on US Olympic teams, winning twelve gold, seven silver and one bronze medal. They have broken 21 world records, 97 American records and have won 160 US national individual titles with 65 national team titles.
Mark knows how to bring out the best in each swimmer. His long-time assistant, Jack Roach, said, “Mark knows how to orchestrate a work out. He utilizes all parts of the facility at one time and everyone from staff to the youngest swimmer feels involved and important.” Coach Dick Wells says, “It is his ability to transfer the technical aspects of the sport to the swimmer. The amount of work he can get out of each swimmer and himself is phenomenal.” Mark would say to his swimmer, “You’re not going to fail for lack of training.”; a philosophy he placed upon himself, too. Mark has a hard-nosed, no-nonsense reputation that carried over into the success of his swimmers. As Brian Goodell put it, “Everything I learned from him, I carried over into my everyday life.”
Mark lives with his wife Joke, who has served as US Team Manager for numerous international trips, and two children, Tatum (20) and Leigh (18), both swimmers.
Mark has served on various USS administrative committees including Steering, Olympic Operations and Technical Planning as well as the ASCA Board of Directors and the College Swim Coaches Association of America Vice President.
Happy Birthday Don Gambril!!
Don Gambril (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1983)
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 U.S. Olympic Coach; Assistant U.S. Olympic Coach: 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980; Assistant Coach: 1978 World Championships; Coach of 1977 World University Games; Head coach at the University of Alabama beginning 1971; His career record from 1966-1982: 4 NAAU team championships; 1 NCAA College Division Championship; 4 times finished in the top 5 NCAA Championships; 178 wins and 22 losses in dual meets; 114 of his swimmers received All-American honors; His swimmers held at least 10 World Records.
The United States head Olympic swim coach for 1984 has served his apprenticeship on every level of swim coaching. Known throughout the world for his ability to work harmoniously with star swimmers and coaches alike, Don Gambril has been a member of the U.S. Olympic coaching staff five times in ’68, ’72, ’76, ’80 and ’84 following the great success of his swimmers in ’64. It was just after the Tokyo Olympics that he was named “Coach of the Year” by his 2,000 peers in the American Swim Coaches Association. 16 years later, he was elected the President of this largest swim coaching body in the world. Gambril has always paid his dues, serving as a member of the USOC, the AAU Men’s and Women’s Swim Committees, USS Board of Directors, NCAA Swimming Rules Committee. He has coached at City of Commerce, Pasadena City College, Philips 66 Long Beach, Long Beach State University and Harvard before coming to Alabama.
Among his famous swimmers are Hall of Famers Sharon Stouder (USA), and Gunnar Larsson (Sweden), who have won a total of 5 Olympic gold medals between them. He is also credited with developing Jonty Skinner, the supreme sprinter from South Africa who was denied the Olympics because of politics. The President of U.S. Swimming (Ross Wales) and the head coaches at Stanford (Skip Kenney), Arizona (Dick Jochums) and UCLA (Ron Ballatore) are among Don’s former swimmers and assistants who have hit the top along with Olympic team members from the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Germany, Brazil and ten other nations.
Happy Birthday Lynne Cox!!
Lynne Cox (USA)
Honor Open Water Swimmer (2000)
FOR THE RECORD: First crossing of the Catalina Island Channel (1971) 12:36 hrs.; Women’s and men’s record crossing of the English Channel (1972) 9:57 hrs.; Women’s and men’s record crossing of the English Channel (1973) 9:36 hrs., Catalina Island Channel crossing record (1974) 8:48 hrs.; Cook Straits between North and South Islands of New Zealand (1975) 12 hrs., 2 min.; Straits of Magellan (Chile), Oresund and Skagerrak (Scandinavia) (1976) 1 hr., 2 min.; Aleutian Islands (three channels) 1977; Cape of Good Hope (S. Africa) 1979; Around Joga Shima (Japan) 1980; Across three lakes in New Zealand’s Southern Alps (1983); Twelve difficult “Swims Across America” (1984); “Around the World in 80 Days”, 12 extremely challenging swims totaling 80+ miles (1985); Across the Bering Strait, U.S. to Soviet Union (1987) 2 hr., 6 min.; Across Lake Baikal, Soviet Union (1988); Across the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina (1990); Across the Spree River between the newly united German Republics (1990); Lake Titicaca Swim (1992).
Lynne Cox became the best cold water, long distance swimmer the world has ever seen. Her 5 foot 6 inch, 180-pound frame of a body was at one with the water. With a body density precisely that of sea water, her 36% body fat (normal is 18% to 25%) gave her neutral buoyancy. Her energy could be used all for propulsion and not to keep afloat. Propelling though the most treacherous waters of the globe is what Lynne Cox did best.
When her parents moved the family from New Hampshire to Los Alamitos, California in 1969 so that Lynne and her older brother and two sisters could receive better swim coaching, Hall of Fame coach Don Gambril, at the Phillips 66 Swim Club, took her under his guidance. What he saw was a large-boned girl with boundless energy and great upper body strength who could slice through the water like a porpoise. When she was 14 and already tired of “going back and forth in the pool and going nowhere”, Gambril urged her to enter a series of rough water swims near Long Beach. As a result in 1971, at age 14, she swam the 31-mile Catalina Channel in Southern California with four other friends. She loved it. The chill, the chop, the solitude, and the liberation were all exhilarating to Lynne. “Everything opened up. It was like going from a cage to freedom.”
For the next two decades, Lynne competed against the elements in swims which took her to all the major bodies of water in the world, many of which had not been crossed before and most of which had not been done by a woman. Her study of history at the University of California Santa Barbara may have been a catalyst in choosing which swims to pursue. It became her desire to use her swims to help bring people together, to work toward a more peaceful world. This realization was sparked during her 1975 swim as the first woman to swim the 10-mile Cook Straits in New Zealand in 12 hours 2-1/2 minutes. During this difficult swim, the outcry of support from the New Zealand people was all she needed to finish this 50 degree Fahrenheit swim, even when the tides and current had taken her farther away from the starting point after the first five hours of the crossing.
Her most famous swim was in 1987, eleven years after her father had planted the seed in her head. Lynne completed 2.7 miles in the Bering Straits, 350 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska where the water temperature ranges from 38-42 degrees Fahrenheit. Perhaps the most incredible of cold water swims, her 2 hours, 16 minutes from Little Diomede (USA) to Big Diomede (USSR) astonished the physiologists who were monitoring her swim. It marked one of the coldest swims ever completed. One can’t get much colder. After this temperature, the water turns to ice. It was a swim that brought the United States and Soviet Union together in an exchange of glasnost and perestroika. In Washington, Presidents Reagan and Gorbachov toasted Lynne’s swim saying that she “proved by her courage how closely to each other our peoples live”. Before this time, at the start of the Cold War, the families of the Diomede Islands had been split and had not been permitted to see one another since 1948.
Lynne is the purist of marathon swimmers. She does not wear a wet suit in frigid water and does not use a cage in shark infested waters. Her swims in Iceland’s 40 degree F Lake Myzvtan and Alaska’s 38 degree F Glacier Bay, where the lead boat had to break a path in the one quarter inch ice, were done wearing only a swim suit, cap and goggles. She wanted to do more than just achieve times and set records. And she did. But in the process, she became the fastest person to swim the English Channel (1972 and again in 1973), the first person to swim the Straits of Magellan (Chile) 4-1/2 miles, 42 degree F (1976), Norway to Sweden, 15 miles 44 degree F (1976), three bodies of water in the Aleutian Islands (USA) 8 miles total, 44 degree F (1977) and around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) 10 miles, 70 degree F which attracted sharks, jellyfish and sea snakes (1978). Many other swims included Lake Biakal in the Soviet Union (1988), the Beagle Channel of Argentina and Chile (1990) and around the Japanese Island of Joga Shima. In 1994 at the age of 37 years, she swam the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea joining the 15 miles of 80-degree water between Egypt, Israel and Jordan. She has swum Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains, the world’s highest navigable lake.
Lynne works as an author, motivational lecturer, and teaches swimming technique both in the pool and open water.
Marrit Steenbergen is Swimming World’s Breakout Female Swimmer of the Year
by JOHN LOHN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
28 December 2023, 12:29pm
Marrit Steenbergen is Swimming World’s Breakout Female Swimmer of the Year
As a European champion and World Championships medalist as a 15-year-old, Marrit Steenbergen has long been a known presence on the international stage. But the Dutch standout took a step forward during the 2023 campaign, flourishing in multiple events at the World Championships. In Fukuoka, Steenbergen was one of the busiest athletes, racing on 21 occasions between her individual and relay duties.
As 2023 winds down, Steenbergen is undoubtedly looking ahead to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where she’ll attack several medal opportunities. She’ll head into the drive to Paris as Swimming World’s Female Breakout Swimmer of the Year.
Now a 23-year-old with considerable international experience, Steenbergen walked away from the World Champs with one medal, a bronze earned in the 100-meter freestyle. But there was much more to her visit to Fukuoka, as Steenbergen qualified for finals in four individual events and logged an incredible 21 swims over the eight-day meet.
In the 100 freestyle, Steenbergen earned a place on the podium with a bronze-medal effort of 52.71. That performance was complemented by a fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle and an eighth-place finish in the 50 freestyle. Showing her versatility, Steenbergen was also seventh in the 200 individual medley.
On top of the 13 swims she contested individually, Steenbergen participated in eight relay races. While other athletes had the luxury of waiting until finals to serve duty for their countries, the Netherlands needed Steenbergen on its preliminary squads to guarantee advancement to finals. Steenbergen more than delivered.
For the year, Steenbergen notched the following world rankings:
50 Freestyle – 24.42 (17th)100 Freestyle – 52.71 (Seventh)200 Freestyle – 1:55.51 (11th)200 Individual Medley – 2:09.16 (10th)
As admirable as it was for Steenbergen to manage a daunting schedule at the World Championships, decisions are likely to be made for the Olympic year. To be in peak condition in Paris, it would make sense for the Dutchwoman to pare down her schedule and embrace a program that will provide the greatest chance at medaling.
If nothing else, Steenbergen enters 2024 with momentum, her finest year to date serving as fuel.
Ryan Murphy Honored as Swimming World’s Americas Male Swimmer of the Year (Full Voting)
by DAVID RIEDER – SENIOR WRITER
29 December 2023, 09:53am
Ryan Murphy Honored as Swimming World’s Americas Male Swimmer of the Year (Full Voting)
For the better part of the last decade, Ryan Murphy has been one of the steadiest swimmers in the world. It was not too long ago when a 21-year-old Murphy embraced a long-standing American backstroke tradition by becoming a double Olympic gold medalist in the 100 and 200-meter events at the 2016 Olympics. Going back to those Games in Rio de Janeiro, Murphy has missed the podium only once at a World Championships or Olympics.
But ironically, one accomplishment was missing from his résumé, even after his second Olympic Games resulted in one medal of each color. That was an individual long course world title. Murphy checked off that box in the 200 back with a dominant victory in 2022, and after sweeping gold medals in the 50, 100 and 200 back at the Short Course World Championships to close out 2022, Murphy, now 28, came through on the biggest stage in the two-lap event this year.
In the World Championships final, Murphy was a medal favorite, but not gold, as that distinction went to the man who broke his world record one year earlier, Italy’s Thomas Ceccon. Ceccon, who had been as fast as 51.60, had finished a quarter-second clear of the field in the semifinals, while Murphy qualified third. In the previous year’s Worlds final, Murphy blazed the first lap before Ceccon swam past him down the stretch. This time, however, Murphy adopted a more comfortable approach, flipping in fourth place at the halfway point before making his move on the third 25.
Coming down the stretch, Ceccon appeared to be gaining ground, but on the final lunge to the finish, Murphy got the touch in 52.22, 5-hundredths clear of his Italian rival. That win made Murphy the third male swimmer to earn a career triple-crown of gold medals at the Olympics, World Championships and Short Course World Championships in the 100 back, joining fellow Americans Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers. He joins Peirsol as the only swimmers to achieve the treble in both backstroke distances.
As the week went on in Fukuoka, Japan, Murphy was not done. He was favored going into the 200 back final as well, but he ended up with a silver medal, as Hungary’s Hubert Kos surged down the stretch for an upset win. Murphy helped the American mixed 400 medley relay team earn silver, and he swam the leadoff leg of the U.S. men’s winning medley relay, a spot he has occupied at every championship meet but one since 2015.
Since Murphy joined that relay, some exceptional swimmers have teamed with him: He was around for the final years of Michael Phelps swimming butterfly on that relay and Nathan Adrian anchoring, and he joined forces with fellow Jacksonville, Fla., native Caeleb Dressel as well as Michael Andrew and Zach Apple for a world-record-setting effort at the Tokyo Olympics.
But for this year’s team, Murphy was the only swimmer back from that world-record relay. Veteran Nic Fink handled breaststroke duties, but a pair of international rookies, Dare Rose and Jack Alexy, were responsible for the last two legs.
No matter. Murphy set the tone with a 52.04 leadoff leg, his fastest time in two years, and he beat every other backstroke swimmer by more than a second. He provided the advantage necessary for Rose and Alexy, his training partners at Cal, to simply swim within themselves and still come away with a gold medal, the first relay gold the Americans had captured all week in the final men’s race of the meet.
For his efforts, Murphy earns the honor of Male American Swimmer of the Year for 2023, his first time receiving the honor. Murphy is only the fourth pure backstroker ever to win this award, joining fellow U.S. standouts Rick Carey (1983), Lenny Krayzelburg (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000) and Peirsol (2005).
TOP 5 AMERICAS (Men)
RYAN MURPHY, USA (11)…………………… 59
Bobby Finke, USA (1)……………………………… 36
Nic Fink, USA………………………………………… 28
Jack Alexy, USA…………………………………….. 25
Hunter Armstrong, USA…………………………… 21
(First-place votes in parentheses)
Happy Birthday David Marsh!!
David Marsh (USA)
Honor Coach (2021)
2016 WOMEN’S USA OLYMPIC TEAM HEAD COACH; THREE-TIME USA MEN’S OLYMPIC TEAM ASSISTANT COACH (1996, 2000, 2012); 2003 USA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS HEAD COACH; 1994 USA WOMEN’S ASSISTANT COACH-WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP; 2005 USA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN’S ASSISTANT COACH; 1995 USA MEN’S PAN-PACIFIC TEAM HEAD COACH; 1999 USA MEN’S PAN-PACIFIC TEAM ASSISTANT COACH; 2014 USA WOMEN’S TEAM ASSISTANT PAN PAC CHAMPIONSHIPS; HEAD COACH AUBURN UNIVERSITY, WINNING (12) TWELVE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS (SEVEN MEN – 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 AND FIVE WOMEN – 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007); (6) SIX-TIME CSCAA MEN’S (1994, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2007) AND FOUR-TIME WOMEN’S COACH OF THE YEAR (2001, 2002, 2003, 2007); 2016: ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF PROFESSIONAL SWIMMING, ESTABLISHNG TEAM ELITE, ONE OF THE COUNTRIES FIRST PROFESSIONAL SWIM TEAMS.
David Marsh is considered one of the top coaches in swimming today. He skyrocketed to swimming fame in 1990 when he was named Head Men and Women’s Coach of his alma mater, Auburn University.
Seven years later he went on a championship winning spree that was unparalleled. He led the Auburn men’s team to seven NCAA National Championships and the women’s team to five. Marsh is the most successful Auburn coach regardless of sport. He is arguably the most successful in the state of Alabama and the SEC with his 12 NCAA titles surpassing the six won by legendary football coach Bear Bryant at Alabama. Marsh has been called the Kingmaker of sprinters and during his tenure at Auburn, Marsh coached three of the fastest sprinters in the world, Cesar Cielo, Frederick Bousquet and George Bovell. Cielo broke the world record in the 50 free long course, on December 18, 2009 and the record still stands today.
In 2016, Marsh was named the Head Women’s Swimming Coach for the U.S. Olympic Team after serving as the U.S. Assistant Coach to the Men in 1996, 2000 and 2012. Marsh’s club team placed more athletes on the U.S. Olympic Team that headed to Rio than any other program in the U.S. Those names include Kathleen Baker, Cammile Adams, co-captain, Anthony Ervin, Jimmy Feigen, Ryan Lochte and Katie Meili, all earning gold medals. If his club team were a country, they would have placed third in the 2016 Rio Olympic medal standings. In all, the entire Team USA won the most medals in USA Swimming’s already storied Olympic history.
In his early coaching career, Marsh implemented a technique focused program that has now become the model for countless programs around the globe. In the process, he was named USA Swimming’s Developmental Coach of the Year for 2013 and 2014.
At the Senior and Elite level, he established and created the first USA Swimming Center of Excellence, now known as Team Elite. While medals are the goal in the pool for Team Elite, the highest calling for a member is to be a great role model for young swimmers and other age-group swimmers in the community. His goal is to give back to the sport he loves so much.
In May 2017, Marsh moved his Team Elite to San Diego, where he is now headquartered. In addition to coaching, Marsh is currently working on a project called “Coach Marsh Consulting”. His consulting business has David sharing his knowledge by mentoring and developing coaches from all over the world, both formally and informally. Whether he is formally speaking or making a presentation, or just on deck with another coach, he is helping to shape the next generation of coaches.
He has coached more than 60 Olympians from 20+ different countries and his swimmers have combined to win 89 individual NCAA titles and 277 individual SEC titles. Auburn swimmers have also brought home 90 medals from international competitions such as the World Championships, Goodwill Games, Pan-American Games, and the Olympics.
Coach Marsh was inducted into the Auburn, American Swim Coaches Association and North Carolina Halls of Fame, and in December 2016, he was named “Professional Advisor” of the Israel Swimming Association. Most recently, he was named head coach for the LA Current of the International Swim League.
Catching Up With Summer Sanders: ISHOF Honoree and Olympic Champ Staying Busy, But Family Always Comes First
by DAN D’ADDONA — SWIMMING WORLD MANAGING EDITOR
28 December 2023, 07:23am
Catching Up With Summer Sanders: Olympic Champ Staying Busy, But Family Always Comes First
Summer Sanders was only 19 years old when she won Olympic gold in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics. Now 51, she recently shared some of her memories of her stellar swimming career with Swimming World…as well as the new memories made since then as a television personality, her involvement with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation and the importance of family with her husband, Olympic skier Erik Schlopy, and two teenage kids.
It has been three decades since Summer Sanders triumphantly became an Olympic champion.
Ice swimmer breaks two world records crossing the worlds most dangerous waters Euronews
But Sanders (Schlopy), now 51, is never far from the water for long.
Whether it’s swimming an alumni practice at Stanford or surfing with her family, water is still an important part of her life.
When she married Olympic skier Erik Schlopy, the slopes were part of that routine as well.
“My kids liked swimming, but we never pushed that. But we made sure they were on the swim team. We surfed and skied as a family, and we needed the kids to be able to handle that (as swimmers),” Summer told Swimming World. “They are sports where there are great times for conversation. There is the lift and waiting for the next set of waves. It is a bonding experience. The joy my kids have on the ski hill versus the joy of looking at a black line, it couldn’t compare.”
Sanders remains close to the sport as well, but in a different way. She helps run the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, and she joined Elizabeth Beisel to host the Golden Goggles.
“It has been very exciting for me to learn about fundraising through the lens of the Olympic movement,” she said. “We are the only country not funded by their government. Every dollar counts, and 80% goes to actual sports and training and mental health. Hosting Golden Goggles with Elizabeth Beisel was so cool to have two women hosting an event like that.”
A CAREER IN TELEVISION
Summer also does plenty of other things outside the world of swimming.
After her competitive swimming career was over, she became a television fixture, first as a commentator at the Olympics, then moving to jobs with “NBA Inside Stuff,” “Good Morning America,” “Today,” CNN, MTV, the Pac-12 Network, Nickelodeon and more.
She has interviewed people such as Michelle Obama, Joe Torre, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, not to mention a slew of Olympians and NBA stars. She even got to “slime” Julius Erving and Joe Namath on her Nickelodeon show, “Figure It Out.”
Now in her 31st year of television, she is still a fixture on CBS’ “We Need to Talk,” and is a team-building speaker with Teamraderie.
“Swimming gave me a good education in time management. When you turn 50, you have a better understanding of your limitations. There is an authentic forgiveness to give yourself grace. You feel that at 50. I am good at being present with whatever I am doing at that time. I feel the need for balance to be complete,” she said.
ALL ABOUT FAMILY
But family is her driving force. Whether it is on the slopes, on the waves or spending a year in Spain, the bonding continues to grow.
Photo Courtesy: Summer Sanders
“We lived in Spain for a year. It was the greatest decision of our lives. We had freedom and the means to do it, but we rented our house and trusted we could create jobs for us when we got back. It was such a beautiful family time,” she said.
Summer and Erik have a daughter, Skye, who is a senior in high school, and a son, Charles “Spider,” who is 15. Skye plays rugby and is looking into colleges, while Spider is an avid skier. Erik runs a real estate company.
It keeps the family busy, but close.
As the 2024 Olympics approach, Summer is learning more about her great-great-uncle, Myron T. Herrick, who was governor of Ohio, then the U.S. ambassador to France from 1912-14 and 1921-29, including during the 1924 Paris Olympics.
“My great-great-uncle was the U.S. ambassador to France the last time the Olympics were in Paris. I visited the embassy, and the historian who had researched him said he was on the shores when Charles Lindbergh made the trip (across the Atlantic). It was remarkable. My grandmother’s maiden name was Herrick. The Olympics are always special to me. I think it is extraordinary to have a family member in diplomacy. He was there in very important times, war and conflict. He was an important figure during the War. He had incredible positive influence. What an interesting tie for the Olympics.”
INTERNATIONAL GLORY
And, of course, thinking about the upcoming Olympics makes Summer think of her own Olympic-glory moment, winning the 200 butterfly in Barcelona in 1992. She finished the meet with four medals, capturing another gold in the medley relay and earning a silver in the 200 IM and a bronze in the 400 IM.
“So much of an Olympian’s pressure comes from within. I had four individual races with a relay. The last person to do that before me was Shirley Babashoff,” Summer said.
“I didn’t start swimming the 200 butterfly until I was 15 when they changed the order of events. I choked on water one of the first times I swam it, and I couldn’t catch a breath for three strokes. So I decided I was going to breathe every stroke.”
The year before Barcelona, Sanders won three medals at the 1991 World Championships in Perth: gold in the 200 fly, silver in the 200 IM and bronze in the 400 IM. “I was expected to win (the 200 fly), but I was drained emotionally and physically.”
At the Olympics, Sanders admits, “It was just pure grit. None of it came easy. It was a matter of wanting it so badly. It was just going back to your stroke and not tighten up. I embraced the pain. It was desperation and a relief. I was 19. It was a lot. But I loved it. That moment was beautiful. Relief can be a beautiful emotion!”
HER “GOLD MEDAL” MOMENT
Surprisingly, when asked what her favorite memory of swimming was, it was not her Olympic gold medal in the 200 fly. That race earned “a silver medal” when remembering her swimming career.
Instead, Summer answered: “Winning the NCAA championship in 1992 as a team (with Stanford)—it is by far my greatest achievement.
“I love my gold medal…but I was a team swimmer and loved every minute of team swimming. That team was amazing. We started with a false start in our first relay, and we just rose up.” She finished her career with the Cardinal as a nine-time NCAA champion.
Now Summer’s “favorite team” is her family…and, of course, her hometown Sacramento Kings and her husband’s hometown Buffalo Bills!
“My husband is from Hamburg, N.Y. When I met him, I was working for the NBA and was in love with the Sacramento Kings. I grew up a 49ers football fan, but I wasn’t all in. It can be so fun and miserable at the same time.”
In fact, Summer and Erik often joke about when they were taking their wedding vows, they were actually asked, “Do you, Summer, take Erik…and the Buffalo Bills? And do you, Erik, take Summer…and the Sacramento Kings?”
It is yet another way her family comes together and bonds. Whether it be in Spain, on the ski slopes, in the water or cheering on their “teams,” the Schlopys put family first.
Happy Birthday Michelle Cameron!!
Michelle Cameron (CAN)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (2000)
FOR THE RECORD: 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (duet); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet, team); 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: silver (team).
Coach Debbie Muir knew exactly what she was doing when she paired Hall of Fame Honoree Carolyn Waldo with this upcoming star just after the 1984 Olympic Games. Waldo had just won the Olympic synchronized swimming solo silver medal in Los Angeles. The young rising partner-to-be had been on the National Team only three years, but the union was to be the best match of the era. Waldo and her new partner, Michelle Cameron, never lost a major international event for the next four years, an Olympic quadrennium.
Michelle started as a youngster extremely fearful of the water, failing her first swimming level four times. From a family of 10 children (5 girls, 5 boys), she learned to survive and by the time she was 13 years old, she started synchronized swimming in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta. Michelle Caulkins became her first coach, but in 1981 Debbie Muir became her mentor at the Calgary Aquabelles Club. After teaming up with Carolyn Waldo in late 1984, Michelle never looked back.
The duet of Cameron and Waldo won every major duet international competition they entered: 1985 Rome and Spanish Opens, 1985 FINA World Cup, 1986 Spanish Open, 1986 Commonwealth Games, 1986 World Championships, 1987 Pan Pacific Championships and the 1987 FINA World Cup.
The 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul were the highlight of her career. Michelle and Carolyn swam to the music of “Spartacus” for their Olympic duet. With their dramatic, technically difficult beginning, slow artistic middle and fast-paced, catchy ending, they beat the USA’s Josephson twins by .433 points to win the gold medal. For Michelle it capped a 13 year career which saw her win 8 national titles in duet and team.
Known as “Mick” or “Mish” by her friends and family, Michelle is known for her adventurousness and spontaneity. In duet synchronized swimming where athletes must synchronize their movements, perform with technical accuracy and be artistic in their approach, they must be equal in performance and ability. Cameron and Waldo were equals when they won their Olympic gold medals and international competitions That’s why they’re Hall of Famer Honorees.
After retirement from competition, Michelle participated in many causes and charities. In 1996, she continued in the Olympic spirit as Canada’s Athlete Services Officer at the Atlanta Games. She has been involved with Special Olympics, children’s charities, drug awareness programs and missions of preventative health and nutritional support to children in need all over the world. She has been on the Board of Directors for Rogers Broadcasting, the Canadian Coaching Association, the Canadian Sports Council, the Canadian Athletes Association and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. As a performance development and motivational speaker, Michelle and her husband, Alan Coulter (two-time Olympic volleyball team member and captain) raise three children. One of her most prestigious awards has been the Order of Canada presented in 1989.
Happp Birthday Irene van der Laan!!
Irene van der Laan (NED)
Honor Open Water Swimmer (2015)
FOR THE RECORD: Three Times English Channel Crossing: 1979, 1982, 1988; Two-way English Channel Crossing: 1983; First person to win Rolex Watch two times for fastest English Channel: 1982 and 1983; Traversee international du lac St-Jean (42 km World Cup in Canada) 1983, 1984, 1987, 1997; Traversee International du lac St-Jean (64 km in Canada) 27x in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994-2011; Traversee International du lac Memphremagog (34 km in Canada) 20 x in 1987-1992, 1995-2005; Farosmarathon (16 km, Stari Grad, Croatia) 21x; Ijsselmeer (21 km The Netherlands) 15x; La Patagones – Viedma FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix (15 km in UAE) 2008; Maratono del Golfo Capri-Napoli (36 km Italy) 8x 1987-1992, Rosario Marathon Acuatico (15 km in Argentina) 8x 1994-1998, 2000, 2005, 2008;
The one thing successful open water swimmers all seem to have in common is their appreciation for their crew and team. It’s usually all they can talk about after a swim, and Irene van der Laan is no different.
Irene van der Laan learned to swim at the age of six in a pool in Amsterdam. She would go to the beaches during the summer but she was the only one in her family that knew how to swim. She eventually took stroke lessons at the pool and began swimming for Coach Jaap Ploeg, soon finding herself swimming on a team with Olympians. Irene was inspired!
After 11 years of pool swimming, she tried an open water swim of 500 meters in the rowing track in Amsterdam. The year after, she swam 1,000 meters, and she was hooked on open water racing. Her parents were very supportive as she began swimming longer and longer races.
In 1976, after getting special permission from the federation because she was not the minimum age of 16, Irene swam her first 16 kilometer race. Irene completed the race in 4 hours and18 minutes and was the first female to finish, but she wanted even longer races. In 1978, she went to the biggest event at that time, the 25 kilometer Lake Windermere race in the U.K. It was Irene’s first international race and she finished third.
The year 1979 was the pinnacle of her open water swimming: The English Channel. Irene easily swam it in 8 hours and 44 minutes. The pilot said, “I know you can do it two-way.” So, in 1982, Irene tried a two-way. She nearly finished the first half of the two way crossing in record time, but two ships got in her way. Because of the very fast first-half effort, her team decided to stop when they came in at France. In 1983, she finally succeeded at the two-way Channel crossing in world record time, 18 hours and 15 minutes. Irene also turned pro that year, as other long swims were waiting: Capri-Napoli was a favorite. In both 1982 and 1983 she won the Rolex watch for the fastest Channel swim of the year.
Irene loved to travel and swim; swimming in the summer and working part time in the winter. There were not really enough swims on the pro circuit each year, but still, she says, it was a good life. She loved traveling to Australia, Egypt, Argentina, Mexico, the USA, Canada and Italy, always finishing in the top three. Then in 1988, after five years of second place finishes, she became the Woman’s world champion of professional swimming.
Among her favorite races were the Traversee International du lac St. Jean, in Canada, where she raced 27 times; Farosmarathon in Stari Grad, Croatia, 21 times; and Lake Memphremagog, Canada, 20 times.
In her prime, Irene van der Laan was one of the fastest and most durable marathon swimmers in the world. Having competed in over 200 marathon swimming competitions during her career, she has arguably competed over a greater distance in the water than anyone in history.