Happy Birthday Tracey Wickham!!
Tracey Wickham (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (1992)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1976 Olympic Team Member; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1978, gold (400m & 800m freestyle); AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 17 (200m, 400m, 800m & 1500m freestyle, 100m butterfly); WORLD RECORDS: 5 (400m, 800m, 1500m freestyle); COMMONWEALTH GAMES: 1978, gold (400m & 800m freestyle), silver (200m freestyle & relay), bronze (relay); 1982 (400m & 800m freestyle); U.S. OPEN RECORD: 1 relay; AAU: 1 relay; FINA CUP: 1979, silver (400m freestyle), 6th (100m butterfly), 5th & 6th (relays).
Tracey Wickham of Australia set world records in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle in 1978. It was not until 1987 that Janet Evans of the USA broke them– a period of 9 1/2 years. All totaled, she set five world records in the 400-meter, 800-meter and 1500-meter freestyles in a a period of two years.
Born in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1962, Tracey began swimming at age eight and broke her first State age group record in the 200-meter backstroke at age 10. Her first National gold medal came in the 200-meter individual medley at age 12, but it was the middle and distance freestyles which were to be Tracey’s strong events. By age 13, she had made the 1976 Australian Olympic team as the youngest competitor on the team.
It was the year following the Olympics that Tracey and her family moved to Mission Viejo for a nine month period and trained with Mark Shubert. Upon returning to Brisbane, Tracey broke the 1500-meter freestyle world record in a solo swim. Two weeks later she broke the 800-meter freestyle world record and only six months later, the 400-meter freestyle world record. Before the next year was over, she broke the 1500-meter and 800-meter freestyle world records again.
Tracy dominated the middle distance freestyle event for women in the years preceding the 1980 Moscow Olympics.
In 1978 Tracey started a nine week international swimming tour in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, by taking six seconds off the 800-meter freestyle world record of teammate Michelle Ford at the Commonwealth Games. Next came the Berlin World Championships that same month and another record in the 400-meter freestyle where she also went on to win the 800-meter freestyle a few days later. She became Australia’s only gold medalist at the Championships and her country’s first gold medalist in World Championship history. Her remarkable accomplishments were all the more spectacular as her taper was getting stale after nine weeks on the road. Six months later she reset the 1500-meter freestyle world record in the Australian Championships in Perth.
Tracey was selected for the 1980 Australian Olympic team but pulled out for personal and family reasons. She retired, but came back eight months later to win gold medals in the 100-meter butterfly and 200-meter freestyle at the Australian National Championships. Her coach, Laurie Lawrence, was her inspiration to continue training for the 1982 Commonwealth Championships in her hometown of Brisbane where she repeated her 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle victories from four years earlier and took the silver in the 200-meter freestyle.
Before Tracey was through, she had 260 Australian records, twelve Commonwealth records, and was voted the Australian Sportsperson of the Year in 1978, as well as receiving the Australian Sportswoman of the Year, 1978 and 1979. Queen Elizabeth presented her with the prestigious M.B.E.–Member of the British Empire recognition in 1978.
Happy Birthday Marcella MacDonald!!
Marcella MacDonald (USA)
Honor Open Water Swimmer (2019)
FOR THE RECORD: 16 ENGLISH CHANNEL CROSSINGS INCLUDING 3 DOUBLE CROSSINGS, LOCH NESS (36 km/22 miles), AROUND THE ISLAND OF JERSEY UK (66 km/41 miles), EDERLE SWIM (28 km/17.5 miles), Three times across LONG ISLAND SOUND (27 km/17 miles), 5 times around MANHATTAN ISLAND (46 km/28.5 miles), MOLOKAI CHANNEL (42 km/26 miles), TAMPA BAY (24 miles), 3 times BOSTON HARBOR (10 miles), MAUI CHANNEL (10 miles), MERCER ISLAND, WA (20 km/12.4 miles) and the TRIPLE CROWN.
When she was just 12-years-old, she knew open water swimming was her passion, and she told her younger sister that she would swim the English Channel one day.
In high school, Marcella MacDonald swam competitively until she was 17, and went to American International College as a softball player. While in college, she would sneak into the nearby Springfield College pool during her free time to swim.
In 1993, MacDonald first heard of an opportunity to swim around the island of Manhattan and has since completed the 28.5-mile swim five times.
In 1994, Marcella MacDonald made her childhood dream come true, at the age of 28. Since then, she has swum the English Channel 16 times, including three times when she did a double cross, swimming there and back. MacDonald was the first American woman to swim across the Channel, from England to France and back in 2001.
At 18.2 nautical miles, the English Channel is considered by many to be the “Mount Everest” of open water swims. Only 1500 men and women have successfully swam the English Channel and many, many more have tried. The trek generally starts at the White Cliffs of Dover at Shakespeare Beach and ends on the shore of Cape Gris Nez. By many accounts, it is the most difficult swim to finish. It’s a very cold, 20-mile swim in water that is much saltier, and the changing tides approaching the French shore can force swimmers to basically swim in place for up to four hours.
The English Channel and the Manhattan Island Marathon swim are a part of the Triple Crown of open water swimming, which also features the Catalina Channel Swim, a 20.1-mile swim from Catalina Island to the shores of San Pedro, California. MacDonald completed the triple crown in June, 2013 when she swam the Catalina Channel in 12 hours and 9 minutes.
MacDonald has also successfully completed the 24-mile Tampa Bay, Florida Marathon Swim, a solo swim around Mercer Island in Washington, and a 17-mile swim across the Long Island Sound in New York.
She has successfully crossed the Ka ’iwi Channel and Maui Channel in Hawaii and has also completed the 41-mile Round Jersey solo swim in the United Kingdom. MacDonald also swam the Lochness, a 22 mile swim.
This past September, MacDonald even attempted the 52-mile swim from the UK to Belgium in St. Margaret’s Bay, something no man or woman has ever completed. After 15 hours, an injury to her left shoulder forced her to stop at a beach north of France.
In addition to her open water swimming accomplishments, Dr. Marcella MacDonald is a Podiatrist who operates her own practice in Manchester, Connecticut. In her spare time, she enjoys coaching at the Laurel East Hartford YMCA and gives talks about her exciting adventures and open water swims.
MacDonald has already been inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2005 and was named the Open Water Swimming Woman of the Year in 2011 by the World Open Water Swimming Association.
MacDonald still finds the time to train to ensure she is ready for the next big swim. She is usually in the water training every day at 5:30 a.m. This July, she is set to swim the English Channel again, on the 25th anniversary of her first crossing. The way she puts it, “it’s just right stroke, left stroke, right stroke, left stroke — for hours on end.”
Happy Birthday Shane Gould!!
Shane Gould (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (1977)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1972 gold (200m, 400m freestyle; 200m individual medley), silver (800m freestyle), bronze (100m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: 11 (from 100m to 1500m freestyle); “World Swimmer of the Year”: 1971, 1972.
Shane Gould, in a short but brilliant career, held every freestyle world record and the four stroke 200 Individual Medley. She broke the oldest record in the books when she beat Dawn Fraser’s 100m World Record at Sydney on January 8, 1972 (58.5). Fraser had held the record almost 16 years since December 1, 1956. In one short period form April 13, 1971 until January 8, 1972, Shane set 7 world records. She was 2nd only to Mark Spitz at the Munich 1972 Olympics in that no female swimmer had ever won 5 individual medals in swimming.
USA Swimming Elects 2022 Honoree Natalie Coughlin as Board Vice-Chair, Kenneth Chung as Vice-Chair Fiscal Oversight
by DAN D’ADDONA — SWIMMING WORLD MANAGING EDITOR
20 November 2023, 02:39pm
USA Swimming, the national governing body for swimming in the United States, today announced the election of Natalie Coughlin as Board Vice-Chair, Chair-Elect, and Kenneth Chung as Vice-Chair Fiscal Oversight.
Coughlin will serve as the Vice-Chair through September 2025, and then will automatically elevate to the position of Board Chair through 2029. Coughlin is a 12-time Olympic medalist who has been serving on the USA Swimming Board as a director since 2016. She is the co-founder of Gaderian Wines in the Napa Valley and an ambassador for Athleta.
Chung was re-elected to a final term as Vice-Chair Fiscal Oversight, having served in this role since 2020. Chung also serves as a USA Swimming Official in North Texas and is a PhD candidate in Organization Development.
“We are pleased to announce the election of Natalie and Kenneth, two people who continue to give so much of their time and focus to our sport,” said Chris Brearton, USA Swimming Board Chair. “These are not easy roles, as we rely on the officers of the Board to work closely with staff, coaches, athletes, officials and volunteers to guide the organization’s future. We appreciate Natalie and Kenneth’s continued commitment to making swimming the sport of choice for young athletes in the United States.”
“I am honored to be chosen as the next Chair of the Board of Directors for USA Swimming,” said Coughlin. “This sport has given so much to me for decades, and I continue to want to give back to the growth and success of swimming in the United States.”
Coughlin and Chung assume their roles immediately.
About USA Swimming As the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming in the United States, USA Swimming is a 400,000-member service organization that promotes the culture of swimming by creating opportunities for swimmers and coaches of all backgrounds to participate and advance in the sport through clubs, events, and education. Our membership is comprised of swimmers from the age group level to the Olympic Team, as well as coaches and volunteers. USA Swimming is responsible for selecting and training teams for international competitions including the Olympic Games and strives to serve the sport through its core objectives. For more information, visit www.usaswimming.org.
— The above press release was posted by Swimming World in conjunction with USA Swimming. For press releases and advertising inquiries please contact Advertising@SwimmingWorld.com.
Katie Ledecky Reflects on Superb 2023 Campaign; Looks Ahead to Olympic Year (Video Interview)
by JOHN LOHN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
20 November 2023, 06:56am
Katie Ledecky Reflects on Superb 2023 Campaign; Looks Ahead to Olympic Year (Video Interview)
On Sunday night in Los Angeles, distance legend Katie Ledecky shared Female Swimmer of the Year accolades with Kate Douglass during the 20th edition of USA Swimming’s Golden Goggle Awards. It was the latest award in a spectacular career for Ledecky, who at last summer’s World Championships captured titles in the 800 freestyle and 1500 freestyle. The gold medal in the 800 free was Ledecky’s sixth straight.
Now, the focus for Ledecky shifts to the Olympic campaign. The 2024 Games are scheduled for Paris, where Ledecky will chase a fourth consecutive gold in the 800 freestyle. She won her first gold in that event as a 15-year-old in 2012, and followed with victories in 2016 and 2021. To date, only Michael Phelps (200 individual medley; 2004-2016) has won the same event at four straight Olympics. Ledecky is also the reigning Olympic champ in the 1500 freestyle, having captured the inaugural women’s title in the event at the Tokyo Games.
Prior to the start of the Golden Goggle Awards, Ledecky took time to speak with Swimming World about her 2023 season, the dynamic training group with whom she works at the University of Florida and the approaching Olympic year.
Happy Birthday Laura Wilkinson!!
Laura Wilkinson (USA)
Honor Diver (2017)
FOR THE RECORD: 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (10m platform); 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: 5th (10m platform); 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: participant; 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (10m platform); 1998 GOODWILL GAMES: gold (10m platform); 1997-1999 NCAA: 10m champion
Inspired by the publicity surrounding Romanian gymnastic guru Béla Károlyi’s arrival to her home town of Houston, Texas, in 1981, Laura Wilkinson fell in love with gymnastics and dreamed of being in the 1996 Olympic Games. After years of training her gymnastic career ended when a growth spurt made her too tall for the sport. Then she discovered diving. In spite of being told by one of her teachers that she was too old to start a new sport at the age of 15, Laura plunged in and “fell in love with the sport on the first day.”
Wilkinson didn’t go very far her first year, but the next year, in 1995, she won her first US National Title, and earned a bronze medal at the FINA World Cup in the 10m synchronized diving event, with partner Patty Armstrong. Earning a scholarship to the University of Texas, she won the NCAA 10m platform title as a freshman and then won both the 3m and 10m titles at the USA Diving Nationals. In 1998, she gave up her scholarship after winning the Goodwill Games gold medal, to turn pro and train for the 2000 Olympic Games at the Woodlands with coach Kenny Armstrong.
Three months before the Olympic trials, she was doing a typical warm-up somersault, when she landed on a block of wood and broke her right foot in three places. To fix it, doctors had to re-break everything. They also found she had a stress fracture on her left foot as well. It appeared that another Olympic dream was at an end. Together, with her coach, Wilkinson embarked on a brutal training regime. She also watched an “insane amount of video tape” and “visualized every dive” to keep her “head in the game.”
Although her foot was still not fully recovered when she started to train again three weeks before the trials, her perseverance paid off as she won the trials and qualified for her first Olympic team.
Three months later, while wearing a protective shoe that enabled her walk up the ladder to the platform, Wilkinson battled back from eighth place and a 60-point deficit after the semifinals to record one of the biggest upsets in Olympic diving history. The turning point came in the third dive of the final round, a reverse two-and-a-half somersault, which Wilkinson performed perfectly, entering the water knife straight with barely a ripple. She went on to win over the favored Chinese diver, Li Na by a minuscule 1.7 points. Her win was the first in the 10m platform event by an American since Leslie Bush in 1964 and the accomplishment earned her an appearance on a Wheaties’ cereal box and a finalist for the prestigious Sullivan Award as one of the nation’s outstanding athletes.
In 2004, although Laura won the World Cup she finished a disappointing fifth at the Olympic Games in Athens. But she came back the next year to win the gold medal at the FINA World Championships in Montreal. She retired after competing in her third Olympic Games in Beijing as a14-time US National team member (1995-2008), a 19-time US National Champion and one of the greatest divers of all time.
Beginning with her gold medal in the 10m platform event at the 1998 Goodwill Games, Laura Wilkinson is one of the few divers in the world to claim individual gold medals at every major international diving competition during her career. In addition to winning the Goodwill Games, she won gold medals at the 2000 Olympic Games, the 2004 FINA World Cup and the 2005 FINA World Championships.
Happy Birthday Jodie Henry!!
Jodie Henry (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (2015)
FOR THE RECORD: 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (100m freestyle, 4x100m medley, 4x100m freestyle); 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (100m freestyle), bronze (4x100m medley, 4x100m freestyle); 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle, 4x100m medley, 4x100m freestyle); 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4x100m freestyle); 2002 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley), silver (50m freestyle); 2006 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (4x100m freestyle), silver (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle); 2002 PAN PACIFIC GAMES: gold (4x100m freestyle , 4x100m medley), silver (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle)
Growing up on the beautiful beaches of Queensland, Australia, Jodie Henry spent a lot of time at the beach with her two sisters, thanks to her parents love for the water. She learned to swim at the early age of three at the local Brisbane Swim School, but didn’t start competing until she was a teenager, which is quite late for a future Olympic Champion in this era.
Jodie made her first appearance on the international stage at the Commonwealth Youth Games of 2000, held in Edinburgh, Scotland. She proudly represented Australia by bringing home five gold medals. At the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games, she won the Women’s 100 meter freestyle, took silver in the 50 meter freestyle as well as being a member of the gold medal winning relay team. Later that same year, Henry competed at the Pan Pacific Championships and helped Australia take gold from the United States in the freestyle and medley relays.
At the 2003 World Championships, Jodie won the silver medal in the 100 meter freestyle and picked up bronze in the both the 4 x 100 free and 4 x 100 medley relays.
The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, held in Athens, Greece, proved to be the pinnacle of Jodie Henry’s career. For her first medal winning performance, she anchored the Australian Women’s 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay team that won gold in world record time of 3:35.94. In the semi-finals of the individual 100 meter freestyle event, she broke teammate Libby
Lenton’s world record with a time of 53.32, and went on to win the gold medal – the first to do so since Hall of Famer Dawn Fraser did it 40 years earlier. She picked up her third gold medal anchoring the 4 x 100 meter medley relay in another world record time.
In November of 2004, Jodie Henry was named the Australian Swimmer of the Year, becoming just the third woman in 15 years to take the honor, breaking Ian Thorpe’s five-year streak of receiving the award. She also was awarded the Order of Australia Medal.
After the 2004 Olympic Games, Henry followed her one and only coach, Shannon Rollason, to the Australian Institute of Sport, in Canberra, as she looked ahead to the Games in Beijing. At the 2005 World Championships in Montreal, she won the gold medal in the 100 meters with a time of 54.18. That came on top of her leadoff role in Australia’s victorious 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay team and second relay gold as a heat swimmer in the 4 x 100 meter medley relay. At the 2007 World Aquatic Championships in Melbourne, Henry anchored the Australian 4 x 100 freestyle relay team in world championship record time of 3:35.48 to win gold, again ahead of the USA.
A combination of health and motivational issues derailed her hopes for the 2008 Olympic Games and she announced her retirement from swimming in 2009, at the age of 25. Today, Jodie Henry lives in Brisbane with her husband, Tim Notting, a now retired Australian football star, and their three children.
Happy Birthday Britta Steffen!!
Britta Steffen (GER)
Honor Swimmer (2019)
FOR THE RECORD: 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (4x200m freestyle); 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle); 2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle), bronze (4x100m medley); 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): silver (4x200m freestyle), bronze (100m freestyle); 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): bronze (4x100m freestyle); 2000 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): silver (4x100m freestyle); 2012 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): gold (100m freestyle; 5 WORLD RECORDS
She was winning youth championships in Germany at age 14 and was quickly becoming one of the top junior swimmers in all of Europe. At the 1999 European Junior Championships when she was just 15, Britta Steffen won six gold medals.
A year later, Steffen was selected to compete for Germany at the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games in both freestyle relays. She led off Germany’s 4x200m freestyle prelim relay and watched as her teammates raced to the bronze medal in the final, earning her first major international medal at the senior level.
In 2004, Steffen missed qualifying for the Olympic Team by six hundredths of a second in the 50m freestyle, but still picked up a relay spot to compete in Athens. She again swam on the prelims relay in the 4x100m freestyle, but injured her foot and was unable to compete during the rest of the Games.
After a heartbreaking Olympic experience, Steffen returned home to begin her studies and work on her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Engineering, adding on to an already rigorous training schedule.
Steffen had to start practice later than all her teammates, because of her studies, and often had to practice alone. With the continuous work load, she was constantly tired and ended up bedridden with a severe cold. She decided then that maybe it was time to quit swimming.
One of Britta’s biggest struggles in swimming was her inability to put her swims together in competitions when it mattered the most. She knew that if she was going to come back to swimming, she was going to have to get out of her own head. She met with a sports psychologist, who specialized in high performance and health. She was able to help Britta make changes with her training as well as her relationship with her coach.
With this new mental training, Steffen hoped she would lead her swimming career on a new path and in 2006 at the European Championships, Steffen set a world record in the 100m freestyle and was on two world record setting freestyle relays for Germany, swimming one of the fastest relay splits in history. For these efforts, Steffen was honored as Swimmer of the Year by the German Swimming Federation.
After her seemingly meteoric rise to the top of the world rankings, Steffen was accused of doping by the international media, even though she had never failed a drug test. To hush these rumors, Steffen volunteered to take examinations to ensure she was clean and all of the tests came back negative.
Steffen struggled to return to her form as the best sprinter in the world after her spectacular 2006 performances. At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, she only managed a bronze in the 100m freestyle and a silver in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Leading into the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Steffen was hardly a medal favorite.
She silenced all of her doubters when she won the 100m freestyle at the last stroke to win Germany’s first Olympic gold medal in swimming since 1992. Two days later, she won her second gold medal of the Games in the 50m freestyle, winning again at the very last stroke.
After the Olympics in 2008, she continued her momentum with two new world records at the 2009 World Championships in the 50m and 100m freestyles, but after 2009 her career would never be the same.
Illnesses and injuries kept her off the podium at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics and Steffen retired from swimming in September 2013. Today, she hosts TV programs and is involved in social projects for young children.
Happy Birthday Aleksandr Popov!!
Aleksandr Popov (RUS)
Honor Swimmer (2009)
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (50m freestyle, 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (100m freestyle), SEVEN WORLD RECORDS: 50m freestyle, 100m freestyle (50m), 50m freestyle, four 100m freestyle (25m); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle), silver (4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle), silver (50m freestyle), bronze (4x100m freestyle); 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m &100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle), silver (4x100m medley); 1991 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1993 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m medley, 4x100m freestyle); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m medley, 4x100m freestyle); 1997 EUROPEAN CHAMPONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, bronze (50m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 2001 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m & 100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x100m medley); 2002 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (4x100m medley), silver (100m freestyle); 2004 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m freestyle).
Aleksandr Popov of Russia dominated swimming’s marquee events, the 50m and 100m freestyle and became the world’s premier sprinter during the decade of the 1990’s. He won nine Olympic medals at three Olympic Games from 1992 to 2000 with a total of four gold medals in individual events.
He was the first Olympic swimmer since Johnny Weissmuller in 1924 and 1928 to win back to back sprint races – 1992 and 1996. Volgograd native, Popov moved to Australia to be with his Russian coach Gennadi Touretski, but he never gave up his Russian citizenship competing for the Unified Team in 1992 and the Russian Team thereafter.
Popov held seven World records during his career. His 100m freestyle (long course) record of 48.21 held for six years until broken by Michael Klim of Australia and his 100m freestyle (short course) record of 46.74 held for ten years until broken by Ian Crocker of the United States. He won six World Championship and 21 European Championship gold medals from 1991to2004. He was European Swimmer of theYear in 1994 and 2003.
Popov is a full member of the International Olympic Committee and Vice Chairman of the Athletes Commission within FINA.
Happy Birthday Melvin Stewart!!
Melvin Stewart (USA)
Honor Swimmer (2002)
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPICS: gold (200m butterfly), gold (4x100m medley relay), bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: 5th (200m butterfly); ONE WORLD RECORD: 200m butterfly; 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m butterfly); 14 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 7-200m butterfly, 6-200m butterfly, 1-100y butterfly; TWO NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 200m butterfly.
Melvin Stewart was known as the greatest 200m butterfly swimmer of his era. Not only did this 14-time National champion win the 200m event at the 1991 Perth World Championships, defeating legendary Hall of Famers Michael Gross of Germany and Tamas Darnyi of Hungary, he became the gold medallist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics in Olympic record time, 1:56.26. Stewart won a second gold as a preliminary heat member of the 4x100m medley relay and a bronze on the 4x200m freestyle relay. In his first Olympic Games at Seoul in 1988, he placed fifth in the 200m butterfly. Stewart held the world record at 1:55.69 from 1991 to 1995 when it was broken by Denis Pankratov of Russia.
It all began for Stewart in 1974. Under the direction of Coach Frankie Bell at the Johnston Memorial YMCA pool in Charlotte, North Carolina, he won National YMCA titles. Bell taught him stroke technique and built his love for the sport, motivating the already inspired youngster with a banana split every time he won. By age 10, he was ranked among the top 10 in the nation in his age group in 16 events. “Little Melvin,” as he was called, grew up on the grounds of Heritage USA, the PTL Ministries Theme Park and religious retreat where his father was recreation director of Jim and Tammy Bakker’s Heritage Church and Athletic Director of his school, Heritage Academy.
Mel became a butterfly side-breather, preferring this unconventional breathing technique to the more traditional head up breathing common to most butterfly swimmers. At 6’1”, 180 lbs., he was a natural. He had flexibility, quick hands and feet, great turning ability and tremendous kicking power. His arms reached from lane rope to lane rope.
In need of some academic tutoring, his mentor, George Baxter, enrolled Stewart at Mercersburg Academy, a small boarding school known for its academics and competitive swimming teams. In his three years there, Mel became an honor student and a leader.
He followed his Mercersburg coach John Trembley to the University of Tennessee and swam on to international stardom one year later, winning the 200m butterfly at the Goodwill Games of 1986. He repeated with Goodwill Game wins in 1990 and 1994 in Moscow, and at the Pan Pacific Championships of 1987, 1989 and 1991. While at Tennessee, he won two NCAA titles in the 200y butterfly.
Stewart holds the record in United States Swimming for winning the most national championships (14) in one event (200 butterfly), more than any other male swimmer in USA history.
After failing to qualify for the 1996 Olympic Team, Mel began to pursue his second dream of acting. He appeared in plays, movies and television shows. He served as an ABC Sports field reporter, hosted ESPN’s “American Outback” and appeared in “Pentathlon,” starring Dolph Lundgren. Stewart was also a hotel lifeguard in “Baywatch.” He is a partner, producer and writer for Symbiotic Entertainment.