On December 30, 1968 FINA officially declares the Swimming Hall of Fame: International.
Happy Birthday Gregory Bonann!!
Gregory J. Bonann (2000)
Executive Producer Baywatch Hawaii, Swimmer
Baywatch Hawai’i”s Creator and Executive Producer, Greg Bonann, was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. Despite a number of physical challenges, Bonann was determined at a young age to become an expertswimmer. He soon excelled at the sport and went on to break many records for the swim team at Pacific Palisades High School. As soon as he was old enough, he focused his efforts on qualifying to join the elite team of men and women that make up the Los Angeles County Lifeguards. Bonann’s dream came true in 1970, and he’s been a dedicated lifeguard for over thirty years.
After high school, Bonann never strayed far from home, graduating from Cal. State Long Beach with a B.A. degree in Journalism in 1974 followed by an MBA from UCLA in 1976. From there, Bonann combined his business education with his gift of storytelling and began pursuing a career as a filmmaker.
His first major effort producing and directing award-winning documentaries for PBS took him to Saudi Arabia, North Africa, Alaska and other locations all around the world. His love of sports, especially Olympic competition, eventually led him back to America in the winter of 1980 to produce and direct the official film for the U.S. Olympic Committee in Lake Placid. “FIRE AND ICE” went on to win eight prestigious awards including the coveted Cine Golden Eagle. More importantly, the honors gave him the impetus to produce and direct the official films for the 1984 Winter and Summer Olympic Games in Sarajevo and Los Angeles (FROZEN IN TIME and ELEMENTS OF GOLD) and the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary (CITY OF GOLD). Bonann won countless honors for his work and would have continued to follow the Olympic Games for the rest of his life if it weren’t for the show business break of a lifetime.
In 1988, Bonann created a music video featuring his lifeguard buddies doing what they do best on a hot beach day to the beat of Don Henley’s hit “Boys of Summer.” This “montage” served as the blueprint for what would become “Baywatch” on NBC a year later.
It was during a routine scout to the beach that first season of “Baywatch” when a young boy ran up to Bonann pleading that his brother was drowning 200 yards offshore. Bonann quickly jumped into action and swam with the rip current to where the boy was last seen. He had to make three dives to find the unconscious boy who had been submerged at the murky bottom for over five minutes. Performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while treading water, Bonann was able to save the boy’s life and was awarded the prestigious Medal of Valor for his heroic effort.
Now in his eleventh year as executive producer, Bonann was instrumental in relocating “Baywatch’’ to Hawai’i”s beautiful shores last year, where it plans to stay for many seasons to come. Bonann has personally directed over 70 episodes of “Baywatch” in the last ten years, including most of the action and rescue scenes, as well as 400 of his signature music montages.
The series today remains one of the single-most watched shows in the world, seen on a weekly basis by an estimated 1 billion people internationally. It airs in 140 countries on six continents and in 33 languages. It has also been a staple in rerun syndication as a weekday strip, and, in its eleventh year, is currently the longest running show on television. It remains a flagship show for many stations, still boasting a 95% domestic market-penetration level.
The overwhelming international response to “Baywatch” inspired Greg to use this platform for a good cause. In 1992, Greg Bonann and Tai Collins founded “Camp Baywatch,” a “Baywatch theme-related summer camp” that would give homeless and at-risk youth a chance to experience the beach, fresh-air, and an opportunity to learn how to swim and be safe at beaches and pools. For many of the children, whose lives have been filled with hardships, danger and struggle, Camp Baywatch represents the dawning of hope for a better life.
The vision of educating and inspiring children has expanded recently into Greg Bonann’s latest project – an international Learn to Swim program, dedicated to drawing awareness to the dire need of teaching our children how to be safe in and around the water. The goal of this program is to take drowning off the top of the Center for Disease Control’s list of killers of children. Camp Baywatch Hawaii will bring this educational program across the country to schools, recreation centers, YMCA’s and American Red Cross Centers. “Baywatch,” “Baywatch Hawai’i,” and Camp Baywatch are all the vision and now the reality of Greg Bonann, and will certainly leave a lasting legacy for years to come.
Happy Birthday Sylvie Frechette!!
Sylvie Frechette (CAN)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (2003)
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (solo); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (team); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (team); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (solo, figures); 1986, 1990 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (solo, figures); 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: silver (solo); 10 CANADIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (figures, solo, duet, team).
Canada has had a rich history in synchronized swimming. Hall of Famers Peg Seller helped organize initial competitions in the sport starting in the 1920s, and June Taylor became the first national champion in the solo event, including in the United States. Hall of Famer Carolyn Waldo won Olympic gold and silver medals in solo and gold in duet with partner Michele Cameron. Then Sylvie Frechette entered the scene and continued Canada’s winning ways.
At her hometown-team, the Aquatic Club of Montreal (CAMO), Sylvie was destined as a youngster to become Canada’s next Olympic gold medallist.
Under the guidance of her coach, Julie Sauve, Sylvie first competed at the Canadian Junior National Championships in 1979, finishing 19th in duet. Only two years later she was winning gold in solo and duet. By 1983, she was traveling with the Canadian National Team and over the next three years won gold medals in international invitational competitions in Mallorca, Berne, Tokyo, Australia, France and Indianapolis.
In 1986 at the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games, Sylvie won the solo gold medal and was a member of the gold medal winning team at the Madrid World Championships the same year. Over the next three years, Sylvie continued to win more international invitationals.
Then, at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games in New Zealand, Sylvie became the first synchronized swimmer to score perfect 10s from all judges in the solo event. The next year at the World Championships in Perth, she earned the highest combined total marks (201.013) received by a synchronized swimmer in the solo event in World Championship and Olympic competition. The record still stands today.
It was at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games that Sylvie reached the pinnacle of international synchronized swimming by winning the gold medal in the solo event. Her routine was done to the music of composer Vangelis and brought fans to their feet. But Sylvie did not receive her medal on site. It was awarded to USA’s Kristin Babb Sprague. However, due to a scoring controversy, FINA recommended that the International Olympic Committee award a duplicate gold medal to Sylvie which resulted in two solo synchronized swimming gold medallists – Sylvie and Kristin. She received her medal 14 months later in Montreal.
Following the Olympics, Sylvie retired from competition, developing a calendar thick with speaking engagements, a television interview program called Simplement Sylvie and a public relations position with the National Bank of Canada. But it only lasted two years, and in 1994, she re-surfaced to help her Canadian Team win a medal in Atlanta. The format for Atlanta had changed and the solo and duet competitions were replaced by one event – the team competition. After the lay-off, she could still execute her movements clearly and decisively. Her artistic expression and physical strength shined. Team Canada won the silver medal, only one-and-one-half points behind the USA.
All totaled, Sylvie had won 45 major international competitions in solo and figures events. Out of the water, she has been an analyst for the Commonwealth Games, Pan American Games and Sydney Olympic Games for Radio-Canada television station. She is author of Sylvie Frechette, Gold at Last. In 1993, she funded a National Bank of Canada bursary program giving $75,000 per year to young athletes in Canada. She has been a master of ceremonies for the Canadian Olympic Association at Olympic events in Sydney (2000) and Lillehammer (1994). She was invited by Prince Albert to do special shows in Monaco. One of the Olympic pools in Montreal has been named in her honor. She has been awarded the Canadian Olympic Order (1994) and Meritory Service Cross of Canada (1993).
Perhaps her most dramatic post-competition achievement has been in founding the O Show of Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas. Performed daily at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, the show is Sylvie’s creation and is considered one of the “greatest shows on earth” performed both on stage and in a swimming pool “tank.” As aquatic designer, coach and performer, her greatest challenge is to transform her finely tuned athletes into finely tuned artists, doing ten shows per week, 49 weeks per year.
USA Women’s Water Polo Claims Fourth Straight World Cup Crown
Photo Courtesy: Catharyn Haynes/USA Water Polo/World Aquatics
The USA women’s water polo team claimed its fourth consecutive World Cup title with a 12-11 win over the Netherlands.
The U.S. led 8-3 but the Netherlands stormed back and nearly had a game-tying goal in the final seconds.
“One thing we talk about as a team is maintaining a gold standard, regardless of how the match is going. That attitude and culture is what made us so successful today, especially in the younger women who played big roles and stepped up in our win today, despite having limited experience at this stage,” U.S. captain Maggie Steffens said. “Today was the tale of two halves. We definitely lost some concentration going into that third quarter. In the first half, we were very focused on our team defense and as the second half began, we started to let up there. You can’t do that against the Netherlands because they have some of the best players and shooters in the world who will capitalize on your mistakes as they did today. For us, it was about refocusing our mentality and effort back to our team defense during the fourth quarter and ultimately gave us the win today.”
It was the fifth World Cup title overall for the USA women’s water polo.
Spain defeated Hungary 18-15 for the bronze medal. Greece edged Italy with the 10-9 winner coming in the last two seconds, and Israel downed New Zealand 12-11 with a last-minute goal for its first victory at this level.
This was a match of two parts with both teams having 8-3 halves. USA was 8-3 ahead early in the second quarter, then the Dutch knuckled down and began their drive, going 8-3 for 11-11 at 1:54. USA started with the first two goals by Steffens, leading 3-1 and then 5-2 at the break. Steffens scored a third as the slower-scoring period reached 7-3 at the long break.
Maddie Musselman began the third on extra and the USA was apparently surfing the victory wave. However, a tip-in goal from Kitty Joustra began the Dutch resurgence and narrowed the margin to two before the USA closed the period at 10-7. Goals were traded at the top of the fourth before three Dutch goals — two from Maartje Keuning — levelled at 1:54. USA calmly went to a timeout and Rachel Fattal provided the conversion at 1:26.
The Netherlands had a timeout at 0:20, nearly lost the ball before regathering and passing around until captain Sabrina van der Sloot fired from wide right into the bottom corner, only for Amanda Longan to smother. It looked like it could have gone in, but the USA retained the ball and took out the gold medal.
Happy Birthday Gail Roper!!
Gail Roper (USA)
Honor Masters Swimmer (2003)
FOR THE RECORD: MASTERS SWIMMING: WORLD RECORDS (42): (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, IM); USMS RECORDS: (166): (butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, freestyle, IM); 1984 MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m, 100m, 200m, 400m freestyle, 200m backstroke, 50m, 100m, 200m breaststroke, 50m, 100m, 200m butterfly, 200m, 400m IM); 1985 MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m, 200m, 400m freestyle, 50m, 100m, 200m butterfly, 400m IM); 1986 MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m, 800m freestyle, 100m, 200m butterfly, 400m IM); 1988 MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m, 200m butterfly), silver (400m IM); 1952, 1953 US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 6 short course (100yd, 200yd, 250yd breaststroke, 300yd IM), 5 long course (110yd, 220yd breaststroke 330yd IM relays); 40-44 Age Group: 29 NATIONAL RECORDS; 45-49 Age Group: 7 WORLD RECORDS, 39 NATIONAL RECORDS; 50-54 Age Group: 16 WORLD RECORDS, 54 NATIONAL RECORDS; 55-59 Age Group: 12 WORLD RECORDS, 38 NATIONAL RECORDS; 60-64 Age Group: 1 WORLD RECORD, 2 NATIONAL RECORDS; 65-69 Age Group: 6 WORLD RECORDS, 4 NATIONAL RECORDS; US MASTERS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (130): 74 short course (50yd, 100yd, 200yd butterfly, 200yd backstroke, 100yd, 200yd breaststroke, 50yd, 100yd, 200yd, 500yd, 1650yd freestyle, 100yd, 200yd, 400yd IM), 56 long course (50m, 100m, 200m butterfly, 100m, 200m breaststroke, 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 1500m freestyle, 200m, 400m IM).
She was not a particularly good athlete in school. In fact, the school coaches never considered her when drawing up a team roster, but this strong willed and dedicated girl coached herself to become the best breaststroker in the world both as a younger senior swimmer and later as a master swimmer. She had a number one world ranking in 1953, beating out Hungary’s Hall of Famer Eva Szekely, the 1952 Olympic champion and a number one world ranking in each of her Masters swimming age groups.
Gail Peters Roper, born in 1929 in Trenton, New Jersey, learned to swim on her own by reading books on swimming and then trying it out in the water. She never found a coach serious enough to work with her, but she was the 1948-1951 New Jersey State Champion and a 1948 Eastern Interscholastic Champion. In 1951, at the age of 22, a few years after high school, she moved to Washington, D.C. as a military geology draftsman for the government. It was here that she began swimming with the girls on the Walter Reed Hospital Team relays, winning and setting records in the breaststroke, individual medley and 300yd medley relays with Hall of Famers Mary Freeman and Shelly Mann. In 1952, she became the US National Champion in the 100yd and 200yd breaststroke and the 300yd individual medley in National Record time. Her performances garnered her a spread in various magazines including the April 1952 Life magazine which described her after winning the US National Championships, “in a bathing suit, she looked scrawny and in street clothes, wearing glasses with a pink rim and rhinestones, she looked anything but athletic. But in the water she looked wonderful and became the star of the meet.” She was the swimming nominee for the coveted Sullivan Award that same year.
She coached herself to the 1952 Olympic Trials where she qualified first in the 200m breaststroke on the US Olympic team. All set to take on the world in Helsinki, she pulled a ligament in her ankle just before the competition and was not able to race. She left Finland disappointed, but eager to continue in the water.
The next year at the US AAU National Championships she won the High Point award by winning the 100yd and 250yd breaststroke and 300yd medley relay. Swimming long course, she won the 110yd, 220yd breaststroke, 330yd IM, 330yd medley relay and the 880yd freestyle relay. And again she was the Sullivan Award nominee.
Gail swam until she was 26 years old, beyond the normal age for a competitive female swimmer. It was then time to start a family and live the family life. She stayed away from swimming for 18 years.
It was at the age of 44 that Gail began to swim again, this time on her daughter’s swim team in California. She competed in the first Masters meet ever held in 1970 and from the start began to set national records in all four strokes and the individual medley. From 1974 to 1978, her five years in the women’s 45-49 age group, she held every short course yards record in her age group as well as 14 of the 16 long course records for most of those years. She has set over 42 world records and won 27 gold medals at the first 5 Masters World Championship meets throughout the world. She has won over 130 US Masters National Championships setting 53 records at these meets. All total, she has set 166 US National Records in all of the age groups in which she has participated from the 40-44 to the 65-69 age groups.
In 1986, Gail was diagnosed with spinal stenosis and advised to severely restrict her swimming. Following the doctor’s advice, she finally retired in 1990 and from 1991 through 1994, she was the Masters coach for the very successful University of San Francisco Masters Team.
But you can’t keep a good girl out of the water and in 1994, she decided to return to swimming, instantly setting national and world records in her new 65-69 age group. Sports Illustrated has called her the most dominant swimmer ever. Today, as a mother of 7 and grandmother too, she continues to swim up a storm.
Happy Birthday Margo McGrath!!
Margo McGrath (USA)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (1989)
FOR THE RECORD: AAU SENIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 17 (solo, duet, team, 5 successive number 1 figure awards); CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 4 (solo, duet, team); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2 (duet, team); Pacific Assn’s Outstanding Athlete: 1967, 1968; Helms Hall of Fame: 1970; Lawrence Johnson Aquatic Award: 1968; U.S. Synchronized Swimming Hall of Fame: 1969.
“McGrath & Redmond”. So might have read the billing in Vaudeville at the Palace. McGrath and Redmond, the first synchronized duet honored by the International Swimming Hall of Fame would have certainly had top billing anywhere. This dynamic duo were show biz naturals in the art of “Swimdancing” long before synchronized swimming was recognized in our Aquatic World Championships or at the Olympics. These two girls were superb athletes and won solo National & International Championships galore, but it was as a pair that they set duet standards previously unmatched in their sport. Together, they completely dominated U.S. and world synchronized swimming.
Margo McGrath, while modest, honest and generous to a fault was a competitor who dominated synchronized swimming winning a total of 17 U. S. National Championships. She was the youngest Senior National Champion in the history of the sport at age 13. She made believers out of speed swimmers, too, when she won San Francisco’s Golden Gate Swim in 56 degree water beating 23 other girls before hundreds of spectators lining the Golden Gate Bridge.
Margo was the technician who brought figures to a new level of excellence. She put “swim” into synchronized swimming. She was the expert in fluid motion. Her “poetry in swimming” mesmerized her audience and made them feel a part of the water. During the years 1966 and 1967, she never lost a championship and was the first to win all four events — solo, duet, team, figures — and did it four times consecutively.
Happy Birthday Stephanie Rice!!
Stephanie Rice (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (2019)
FOR THE RECORD: 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m I.M, 400m I.M, 4x200m freestyle; 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): bronze (200m I.M, 400m I.M.); 2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): silver (200m I.M, 4x100m medley); bronze (400m I.M.); 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): bronze (400m I.M., 4x100m medley); 2006 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (200m I.M., 400m I.M); 2006 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (200m I.M, 400m I.M)
She first showed promise of being a great swimmer at 16, when she qualified for the 2005 Junior Pan-Pacific Championships. It was there that Stephanie Rice won two gold medals for Team Australia.
Rice burst onto the international senior scene in 2006 under coach Michael Bohl, winning two gold medals in both IMs at the Commonwealth Games in her home country. The next year at the World Championships also in front of a home crowd, Rice won two bronze medals in both IMs, lowering the Australian record in the 200.
In March 2008 at the Australian Olympic Trials in Sydney, Rice unexpectedly broke the world record in the 400m IM by a full second. Three days later, she broke the 200m IM world record that had stood for 11 years and qualified for her first Olympic team.
At the Olympic Games in Beijing, Rice became just the sixth Australian athlete to win three gold medals at a single Olympics when she won both IMs and led off Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Stephanie became the first woman to break 4:30 in the 400m IM and lowered her own world record in the 200m IM later in the meet. To finish off her meet, she broke the Australian record in the 200m freestyle en route to Australia breaking the world record in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Rice was honored as the World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine and in January 2009 was awarded the prestigious Order of Australia Medal.
After the Olympics, Rice started dealing with nagging shoulder pain while she swam. At the 2009 World Championships, she won silver in the 200m IM and bronze in the 400m IM, not quite as good as her Olympics performances.
In 2010, her shoulder pain had gotten so bad, she underwent surgery, causing her to drop out of international competition.
Her surgery was successful but nine months before the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she tore a tendon in her shoulder. She was going to need surgery with a six-month recovery, but with the Olympic Trials only ten weeks away, full surgery was not an option. She elected for a smaller surgery that would hopefully keep her healthy for the Olympics. Despite these injuries, Rice qualified for the London Olympics in both the 200m and 400m IM, posting times near the top of the world rankings at the Olympic Trials.
In the weeks leading up to the Olympics, the pain in her shoulder continued to get worse. She was cutting her work load in the pool to ease the pain, but it was still a struggle. With all the injuries behind her, Rice was proud of her 4th place 200m IM and 6th place 400m IM performances in London and announced her retirement in 2014 at the age of 24.
She co-authored the book, The Art of Wellness, and is an ambassador for numerous well-known Australian health brands. Rice’s passion in life is to share her wealth of knowledge and her insights to positively impact others’ lives and inspire them to be the best they can be.
She is now giving back to the sport of swimming with her coach Michael Bohl. They are planning to build Learn-to- Swim programs all throughout India. In addition, they plan to develop the “Stephanie Rice Elite Academy,” with the goal of producing India’s very first Olympic swimming medalist in the next decade.
Happy Birthday Michael Gross!!
Michael Gross (FRG)
Honor Swimmer (1995)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1980 silver (4x100m medley relay); 1984 gold (200m freestyle, 100m butterfly), silver (200m butterfly); 1988 gold (200m butterfly), bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); WORLD RECORDS: 12 (4-200m freestyle, 1-400m freestyle, 1-100m butterfly, 4-200m butterfly, 2-4x200m freestyle relay); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1982 gold (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly), silver (100m butterfly), bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); 1986 gold (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly), silver (4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay); 1991 gold (4x200m freestyle relay), silver (100m, 200m butterfly), bronze (4x100m medley relay); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1981 gold (200m butterfly); 1983 gold (200m freestyle, 100m, 200m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle relay), silver (4x100m medley relay); 1985 gold (200m freestyle, 100m, 200m butterfly, 4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay); 1987 gold (200m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle relay), silver (100m butterfly), bronze (200m freestyle); EUROPEAN RECORDS: 24.
What does this West German superstar’s Porsche and swimming have in common? They are both very, very fast.
At 19, Michael Gross set his first world record at the German nationals in 1983. The next three years Michael broke his own record in the 200meter freestyle four times and set world marks in the 200m butterfly (four times) and 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle. At one time, Michael actually held four world records in four different events.
This 6-foot-6 record breaker has dominated the surface of the water for a decade as one of the greatest West German swimmers in history. His stature is so large that his wing span reaches almost lane-to-lane. For this, he has been coined, the “Albatross.” Michael says he likes his nickname, “because there are much more stupid nicknames in the world.”
Throughout his swimming career, Michael won gold medals at the European Championships in 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987; the World Championship Games in 1982, 1986 and 1991; and was a triple gold medalist and a silver medalist at the 1984 Olympics. In the 1988 Olympics he won the gold again in the 200m freestyle and two silver medals in both butterfly events.
Michael’s last meet was at the 1991 World Championships in Perth, but he has no intention of leaving the world of sports. He is looking forward to enjoying sports such as skiing and marathon running.
Aside from his swimming, Michael is a philosopher and holds a doctorate in this thought provoking science. To him, this achievement is as important as being an Olympic champion. Gross believes, “The worst thing in life is to have no wishes, no goals, because then you have nothing to reach for, nothing to live for.” Needless to say, Michael has had much to live for.
Happy Birthday Steve Clark!!
Steve Clark (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1966)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 (participant); 1964 gold (4x100m, 4x200m freestyle relay; 4x100m medley relay); WORLD RECORDS: 50yd, 100yd, 100m, 200yd, 200m freestyle.
Steve Clark swam the 1960 Olympics out of Los Altos High School and the 1964 Olympics out of Yale and Santa Clara. He won five NCAA individual championships at Yale and six AAU titles for Santa Clara Swim Club. He won 3 gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, setting a world record of 52.9 for the 100 meter freestyle.
Clark is the first man in the world to have swum faster than 21 seconds for 50 yards, 46 seconds for 100 yards, 53 seconds for 100 meters, 1:50 for 200 yards and 2 minutes for 200 meters.
Clark’s 9 world records would have been at least 29 in an earlier time when FINA was accepting short course times for 50, 100, 200 and 220 yard, 100 meter and 200 meter freestyle. Steve Clark was Santa Clara’s first great male swimmer at the time Hall of Famer Chris Von Saltza was Santa Clara’s premier woman swimmer. Whereas Chris’ father characterized Chris by saying, “The longer the distance, the better the Von Saltza”, he might have added, “and the shorter the distance, the better the Clark.” Steve Clark was unquestionably the World’s fastest freestyle sprint swimmer for five years retiring to Harvard Law School with his records unchallenged.
In speculating on what might have been, swim buffs will always wonder on the fate that might have kept Steve from being the first man to win four gold medals in an Olympiad. Steve had tendonitis in his shoulder during the USA’s sudden-death Olympic Trials. His fourth place made the team, but only as a relay swimmer. By Tokyo, the tendonitis was gone, but U.S. rules limited Steve to 3 relays and 3 gold medals. He started off the 400 freestyle relay in the fastest gun start 100 of the Olympics. It was a new world record, but Steve didn’t get to do it when it would count for that fourth gold medal.
Clark’s book, Competitive Swimming As I See It , is a swimming best seller.
Happy Birthday Chi Lieh Yung!!
Chi Lieh Yung (CHN)
Honor Swimmer (2013)
His talent for swimming was recognized while playing at a beach in Hong Kong, by coaches of the Lai Tsun Swimming Union of the Chinese Y.M.C.A. Under the guidance of his coaches, Chan and Huang, he was shown how frogs leapt great distances by releasing explosive power in their legs and learned to swim the breaststroke. Taking this cue from nature and with the dream of becoming the “King of the Frogs,” Chi became the most celebrated swimmer in Hong Kong. Having the option to represent Hong Kong, Formosa or the New China in international competition, Chi chose the latter and crossed the border on April 8, 1954 to join the training camp in Guangdong.
Coached by a collaborative of Hungarian, Russian and Chinese coaches, and from his own observations and studies, Chi developed a unique style of swimming that came to be known as “the high sailing position,” that utilized his powerful kick. During the national swimming championships in 1955, his efforts paid off as he won first place in the men’s 100 and 200 meter breaststroke.
In October of 1956, Chi Lieh Yung was one of 12 swimmers, 11 male and 1 female, selected to represent the People’s Republic at the 16th Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. The only female swimmer, Dai Lihua, later became Chi’s wife. Unfortunately, politics intervened and China did not send its team.
The following year, on May 1st, a swimming competition was organized to commemorate the International Labor Day. Chi was in his prime, and all the best breaststrokers were entered. He broke the world record in the men’s 100 meter breaststroke with a time of 1:11.6. This was the first world record by a Chinese swimmer recognized by FINA. His accomplishment was an immense source of pride and an inspiration for the new nation. Although Chi never got the chance to compete in the Olympics, he did realize his childhood dream of becoming “The King of Frogs” and he will forever be remembered as China’s first world record setter in swimming.
After retiring, he and his wife devoted themselves to coaching the national swimming team until 1976 when they returned to Hong Kong, where Chi started his own successful business. His interest has always been swimming and music, even now he spends more than one hour a day in the pool.