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.
Happy Birthday Cornel Marculescu!!
Cornel Marculescu (ROM)
Honor Contributor (2010)
FOR THE RECORD: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF FINA: 1986 – Pres-ent; TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OF ROMANIAN SWIMMING FEDER-ATION: 1970-1980; HONORARY SECRETARY FINA TECHNICAL WATER POLO COMMITTEE: 1978-1980; TECHNICAL DIREC-TOR OF ROYAL SPANISH SWIMMING FEDERATION: 1980- 1986; MEMBER ROMANIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE: 2000-Present; IN-TERNATIONAL WATER POLO REFEREE: 1970-1980; MEMBER OF ROMANIAN NATIONAL WATER POLO TEAM PLAYING IN 165 INTERNATIONAL GAMES (1958 to 1970) PLACING FIFTH AT 1964 OLYMPIC GAMES
In 1986, FINA President Bob Helmick handpicked Cornel to take the helm of a permanent FINA Officein Lausanne. The workload had grown to a point where a professional office staff was needed and Cornel had the capacity to do the work of ten people. He has served as Executive Director with a sense of duty and dedication that has made him one of the busiest people in world sport. The results have been impressive.
He knows what it means to be an athlete, a coach, a referee and a manager – having experienced all of those worlds in water polo. He is a graduate of Bucharest’s Institute of Sport and Physical Education in Romania. He was a member of the Romanian National Water Polo Team, playing in 165 international games finishing5th at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. He has taken part in every Olympic Games since Tokyo. He served as a water polo referee for ten years officiating the 1972 Olympic Gold Medal Game Final that ended in a 3-3 tie between Hungary and the Soviet Union.
Cornelio Miguel Marculescu Bulfon He speaks fluent English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Romanian. He served as Technical Director of the Romanian Swimming Federation and Honorary Secretary of the FINA Water Polo Committee. In 1980, he was chosen Technical Director of the Spanish Swimming Federation where he hosted the 1986 Madrid World Championships. He has served on FINA’s Development and Marketing Committees. Since 2007, he has been the Coordinator of the Water Polo World League and is FINA’s regular representative at sports forums throughout the world. Cornelio Miguel Marculescu Bulfon (ROM)2010 Honor Contributor.
Happy Birthday Brad Cooper!!
Brad Cooper (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (1994)
FOR THE RECORD: 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (400m freestyle); TWO WORLD RECORDS: 400m, 800m freestyle; 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (400m freestyle), bronze (1500m freestyle); 1974 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (200m backstroke), silver (400m freestyle), bronze (100m backstroke).
The men’s 400 freestyle was swimming’s four minute barrier until it was broken in 1973. This classic of middle distance events had become an obsession for many of the great coaches and swimmers. Johnny Weissmuller first bettered five minutes in the 1920s. The ’50s brought Australian Murray Rose with two Olympic victories in the 400 in 1956 and 1960. He bettered the time to 4:13.4, but by 1967, just seven years later, 25 swimmers in the world had swam faster than 4:08.1 and a half dozen were within fractions of a second off the magic four minute barrier.
In the early ’70s, Brad Cooper of Australia was one of the most likely candidates. He broke the 400 free world record in 1972, but didn’t break the barrier. In one of the greatest freestyle races at the Munich Games, Brad Cooper, leading most of the final 200 meters, was out touched by Rick DeMont by one hundredth of a second. Due to Rick’s asthma medication, he was stripped of the gold medal, and it was awarded to Brad Cooper. Actually, Cooper’s time was an Olympic record on its own, and it was a bittersweet victory for Brad.
One year later in a rematch at the 1973 World Championships, Cooper, trailing DeMont, made a final burst of speed in the last 30 meters. DeMont wanted to win and got it, but they both broke the four minute barrier. Cooper took silver with a time of 3:58.70. He also won a bronze in the 1500 free.
Cooper’s versatility in the distance events was again proven one year later at the Commonwealth Games in 1974. Cooper, proving he still had it in him, won the gold in the 200 back, a silver in the 400 free and a bronze in the 100 back. From 200 to 1500 distances, Brad Cooper was a force to be reckoned with in all international events during the early 1970s.
During his career, Brad assembled two world records in the 400 and 800 free before retiring in 1974, shortly after his Commonwealth Games victories.
Happy Birthday Michelle Ford!!!
MICHELLE FORD (AUS) 1994 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 Olympic Games: gold (800m Freestyle), bronze (200m Butterfly); Two World Records (800m Freestyle); 1978 Commonwealth Games: gold (200m Butterfly), silver 400m and 800m Freestyle), bronze (200m Freestyle and 4x100m Free Relay); 1982 Commonwealth Games: gold (200m Butterfly), silver (800m Freestyle); Four Australian National Championships (200m Butterfly).
Crazy about the water since age four, she was touted as the coming superstar of Australian swimming, and at age 13 she broke nine records, six state and three national, all in three days. Two of those records were by Shane Gould and Jenny Turrall. That same year she earned a spot on the 1976 Olympic team, the second youngest Australian ever to do so. Just one year later, she set her first world record in the 800 freestyle. Little did she know her times in the 800 free would someday beat the times swum earlier by the immortal Murray Rose and John Konrads.
This blonde haired, blue eyed beauty continued her winning streak at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, taking a gold in the 200 butterfly, two silvers in the 400 and 800 free and two bronzes in the 200 free and 400 freestyle relay.
But Michelle Ford’s greatest memory is winning the gold medal in the 800 freestyle and bronze in the 200 butterfly in the Moscow 1980 Olympics. “Competing in the Olympics helped define everything I am today,” she said. Ford was named Amateur Athlete of the Year in 1980. Her name is cast in gold as the Australian women’s team has not won a gold in the Olympics since 1980.
Ford’s Olympic gold did not stop her. She went out hard and fast in the 1982 Commonwealth Games (her second) to take the gold in the 200 fly and silver in the 800 free. During the course of her career, she won four Australian National Championships.
Michelle Ford was a swimmer who made many coaches look great including Hall of Famer Don Talbot, Bill Sweetenham in Australia and Don Lamont at the University of Southern California. Michelle was elected to the International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission 12 person board and was a member of the Olympic Academy from 1984 to 1988. She retired from active competition in 1985 and two years later was invited to work with the Olympic Museum in Switzerland. In 1988 she edited the FINA learn to swim manual.
Ford has used her master’s degree in sports psychology to manage the growth and budgeting of 15 sports as the head of the University Association of Switzerland. Impacting three countries (Australia, Switzerland and the USA) her fluid and elegant style in and out of the water are her trademark.
Happy Birthday Tan Liangde!!
Tan Liangde (CHN)
Honor Diver (2000)
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (3m springboard); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (3m springboard); 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (3m springboard); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (3m springboard); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (3m springboard).
In 1982, at age sixteen, he joined the Chinese National team as a springboarddiver in Beijing and under the coaching of Xu Yiming, the National Team coach, he reviewed films of Greg Louganis, taken by Xu on his trips abroad. Little did this young Chinese diver and champion-to-be, Tan Liangde, know that when he hoarded these tapes of Louganis, he would soon be competing against this greatest diver in the world.
Tan first competed against Louganis at the FINA World Cup in 1983 and was beaten. Tan took the silver medal in the 3m springboard at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics the following year; Louganis won the gold. For the next four years, Louganis won 19 straight international springboard competitions; Tan always received the silver. But at two international invitations just before the 1988 Olympics, Tan beat Greg, the only two times he would beat the superstar. At the Seoul Olympics, Greg returned to defeat Liangde.
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the gold medal again evaded Tan when Mark Lenzi (USA) won the springboard event. Just like when Hall of Fame diver Georgio Cagnotto (ITA) had the Olympic gold medal evade him throughout five Olympic Game competitions in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980, so did Tan Liangde meet the same fate.
But his longevity in the sport was overwhelming. He earned the silver medal in all of his major international competitions, as a result of competing against the great Louganis, a diver who was unbeatable during most of his career. In 1989, the very shy but confident Tan won the FINA World Cup and the Alamo Invitational. He was elected the 1989 Male Springboard Diver of the Year.
Throughout his ten years of international springboard diving competition, Tan was a consistently great diver who other divers tried to outscore but only a very, very few succeeded.
Happy Birthday Agnes Kovacs!!
Agnes Kovacs (HUN)
Honor Swimmer (2014)
FOR THE RECORD: 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (200m breaststroke); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m breaststroke); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke); 2001 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke), bronze (100m breaststroke); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (4x100m medley), bronze (100m breaststroke); 1997 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 2000 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke), silver
(200m breaststroke); 2006 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (25m): silvr (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 2002 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (25m): bronze (100m breaststroke); two-time EUROPEAN SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1997 and 1998; HUNGARIAN SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR: 1997-2000.
Born in Budapest, Agnes Kovacs learned to swim when she was just two and a half years old, and loved the water from the very start. When she was just nine years old, her swimming teacher, Bea Szucs recommended she join the program at the Kőér St. Pool where she made rapid progress. At the age of 13 she had her first success in the Hungarian National Age Group Championships and as a fourteen year old, she won the European Junior Championship in the 100 yard breaststroke. Within days of her fifteenth birthday, she won the Olympic bronze medal in the 200 meter breaststroke in Atlanta, in 1996.
Following in the wake of Hall of Famer Krisztina Egerszegi, Agnes would be named Hungary’s best female swimmer and her country’s Sportswoman of the year for the next four years. Dominating the 200 meter breaststroke in all international competition from 1997 to 2000, she won gold at both the FINA World Championships in 1998, and then the Olympic gold medal, in Sydney, in 2000.
Following her Olympic success, Kovacs won her event again at the 2001 FINA Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, before moving to the United States to attend Arizona State University. When she left ASU in 2005 it was as a fifteen-time All-American, as the schools top senior female athlete, and with a degree in supply chain management.
Returning to Hungary, she rejoined the national team program and was a crowd favorite, winning three medals at the 2006 European Championships in the same pool where she first learned to swim twenty-two years earlier, on Budapest’s historic Margaret Island.
In addition to her Olympic and NCAA success, Agnes won a total of 25 medals at the European Championships, long and short course, and was a 53-time Hungarian National Champion from 1996 through 2007.
For Agnes, the support of her family was key to becoming a top level swimmer. She is currently married and lives with her husband and son in Hungary, where she is a PhD student at the Semmelweis University Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences.
Happy Birthday Pamela Morris!!
Pamela Morris (USA)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (1965)
FOR THE RECORD: U.S. SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING NATIONALS: 1965 Indoor Titles (solo, duet, team); 1965 Outdoor Titles (solo, duet, team).
In the young sport of synchronized swimming so popular in the United States and Canada, the quality and quantity of competition has improved dramatically since the sport began its national competition in 1946, adding solo in 1950. Ruth and Gloria Geduldig of the Chicago Town Club were the first indoor and outdoor duet champions.
June Taylor and Beulah Gundling respectively won the first four indoor and outdoor solo titles, but in the entire 16 years of three way competition, only one girl, Pame Morris of the San Francisco Merionettes has been a triple winner. Pame accomplished this difficult combination of individual and team performance twice, winning solo, duet and team titles (the synchronized swimming hat trick) in both the 1965 indoor and outdoor championships at Houston, Texas and Maumee, Ohio. Pame’s duets teamed with Patty Willard. These two great performers were joined in the winning San Francisco Merionettes team competition by Margo McGrath, Rhea Irvine, Patsy Mical, Carol Redmond, Kathie McBride and Sharon Lawson.
In recognizing the recently retired Pame Morris as an honoree, the Swimming Hall of Fame acknowledges synchronized swimming as a mature sport in the swimming framework of aquatic sports.
Happy Birthday Lillian “Pokey” Watson!!
Lillian “Pokey” Watson (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1984)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 gold (freestyle relay); 1968 gold (200m backstroke); WORLD RECORDS: 7 (200m freestyle; 6 relays); AAU NATIONALS Titles: 26 (100m, 200m, 200yd freestyle; 100m, 200m backstroke; 20 relays); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1967 bronze (100m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS: 42 (100yd, 100m, 200yd, 500yd, 500m freestyle; 200m backstroke; 29 relays).
“Pokey” Watson swam her way from Minneola, New York to Honolulu, Hawaii with gold medal stop-offs in Tokyo for the 1964 Olympics and Mexico City for the 1968 Games. Between her Olympic gold medals, the omnipotent “Pokey” (who never was pokey in the water) made nine overseas trips with U.S. teams. A freckle-faced prodigy for George Haines at Santa Clara, she won the first of her 22 National Championships at 13 and five years later hung it up to become a coach. Along the way, Pokey set six World Records individually and had a relay leg up on 20- more for a total of 26. Her American records were even more impressive with 13 and 29 relays. Thought of principally as a crawl swimmer who had been at it a long, long time, Pokey and her coach George Haines decided to turn her over and almost unnoticed, she won the 100 backstroke at the 1967 U.S. Outdoor Nationals. It was still a surprise when, abandoning freestyle completely, she won the Olympic gold medal in the 200m Back at Mexico by 2.6 seconds over the reigning world Record holder Elaine Tanner of Canada. Pokey was never a good breaststroker. She took care of this when she married one of the best in June, 1971, and became Mr. Allen Richardson. Her coaching career at U.S.C. was cut short when the Richardsons moved back to Hawaii where Allen set up his medical practice.
Happy Birthday Christine “Kiki” Caron!!
Christine “Kiki” Caron (FRA)
Honor Swimmer (1998)
FOR THE RECORD: 1964 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (l00m backstroke); ONE WORLD RECORD: l00m backstroke; 1966 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); 11 EUROPEAN RECORDS: 100m, 200m backstroke; 14 FRENCH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: l00m & 200m backstroke, l00m & 200m butterfly; 1965 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); MEXICAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); ONE FRENCH NATIONAL RECORD: l00m butterfly.
In 1948, following World War II, sport was reclaiming its importance in the world and the swimming world was awakening to a surge in international female participation. In Europe, Hall of Famer’s Jean Boiteaux and Alex Jany were France’s star swimmers. Born in Paris during this time of resurgence in the sport, little did Christine “Kiki” Caron know that she would grow to become the best backstroke swimmer in the world and compete in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, just 4 Olympiads later.
In fact, over a career in which Caron won 14 French National Championships within a 7 year period, setting both the backstroke and butterfly records of her country in both 100m and 200m distances, Kiki became one of France’s most famous athletes. With film star beauty, vivaciousness and great swimming ability, she was probably the most photographed of all French athletes. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, she was the glamour girl, the child prodigy and as her coach Suzanne Berlioux would say “a little temperamental.”
On June 14, 1964 in Paris, Kiki had broken the world 100m backstroke record held by USA’s Dona deVarona. The stage was set for an exciting 100m race between record holders Cathy Ferguson and Ginny Duenkel of the USA and Satoko Tanaka of Japan, all competing at the Tokyo Olympics in October of 1964. In one of the closest races in Olympic history Ferguson, Caron and Duenkel all touched one-two-three, within a blink of the eye in the 50m Olympic Pool. It was the first official use of the electronic timing touch pads to determine race results, in Olympic competition and Kiki finished second for the silver medal behind Ferguson. All of these swimmers were within three-tenths of a second of each other. There was no 200m backstroke for women.
But Kiki didn’t stop there. She competed in the U.S. National Championships in 1965 beating Olympic Champion Ferguson. She also won the 100m backstroke National Championships of Australia and Mexico. She was the 1966 European Champion gold medalist in the 100m backstroke and set the 100m and 200m backstroke European records 11 times. Kiki competed in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and was the first European woman to carry her country’s flag in the opening ceremony of an Olympic Games.
Today, Kiki is in the swimming pool public relations business.