Al Schoenfield Media Award
Al Schoenfield was editor and publisher of Swimming World and Swimming Technique magazines (1960-1977) and served on various international committees for swimming including the FINA Technical Swimming Committee (1980-1984).
Al’s life was a commitment to swimming. He participated in its administrative structure and spread its stories through his magazines and promotions. Al died on April 19, 2005, but his legacy will forever endure to all who have benefited from his lifetime of service to swimming.
Peter Diamond
2024
Peter Diamond’s Incredible career spanned 19 different Olympic Games
Peter Diamond’s incredible career spanned 19 different Olympic Games, more than any broadcast network executive in television history. A 16-time Emmy Award-winner, he serves as NBC’s Executive Vice President and was responsible for programming NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Olympic Games before his retirement shortly after the 2020 Olympic Summer Games in Tokyo, Japan.
Diamond worked with the international Olympic sports federations and the national governing bodies of Olympic sports in the U.S. building relationships with summer and winter sports leaders. Diamond was an champion of aquatics sports programming for the summer Olympic Games. He worked closely with the respective sports in NBC Sports Group’s presentation of the U.S. Olympic Trials and year-round Olympic-sport programming. Diamond’s responsibilities increased when NBCUniversal acquired Universal Sports Network assets and again when NBCUniversal partnered with the IOC and USOC to launch Olympic Channel: Home of Team USA, a 24/7 U.S. cable channel dedicated to Olympic sports and programming.
He began his career at ABC Sports in July 1974, serving as the Olympic researcher for the network’s coverage of the 1976 Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria, and the Summer Games in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He joined NBC in 1977 as Associate Producer, Olympic Research, as the network prepared for its coverage of the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, Russia. Though NBC’s extensive Moscow coverage was canceled because of the U.S. Boycott, Diamond was part of a small contingent of NBC personnel sent to Moscow for the SportsWorld coverage of the Games.
After a three-year stint at NBC, he returned to ABC in 1980 to serve as Director of Olympic Planning, handling a variety of scheduling and production matters. He was part of the ABC management team that oversaw the network’s telecasts of the 1984 Winter Olympics from Sarajevo, Yugoslavia, and Summer Games from Los Angeles, California. In 1986, he returned to NBC as the Vice President of Olympic Programs, preparing NBC’s coverage of the Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. He was promoted to Senior Vice President in 1993, and served in that capacity until being promoted Executive Vice President. At the time of his retirement, his 30-plus years as a programming executive make him the most senior sports programmer among the U.S. broadcast networks.
Diamond won Sports Emmy Awards for his work on NBC’s coverage of the Seoul Olympics in 1988 (2), Barcelona in 1992 (2), Atlanta in 1996 (2), Sydney in 2000, Salt Lake City in 2002, Athens in 2004, Beijing in 2008 (2), London in 2012, Sochi in 2014, and Rio in 2016.
One of those Emmys was awarded for his work in supervising the production of more than 400 Olympic profiles for NBC’s coverage of the 1988 and 1992 Games. Another was awarded in the writing category for the 1988 Games. Diamond also won an Emmy for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics on ABC, and for his work at the 1999 World Track and Field Championships on NBC. Additionally, the NBC-produced on-air promotional.
Diamond served on the Board of Trustees for Lehigh University. He received the USA Track & Field’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015. A lifelong track enthusiast, Diamond maintains a collection of Olympic and track & field literature that makes him one of the top collectors in the world. A graduate of Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in history, he lives in New York with his wife Kate. The couple have two sons.
John Lohn
2023
John Lohn has covered swimming for 20 plus years at various levels.
John Lohn has spent the past 20-plus years covering the sport of swimming at various levels, ranging from international competition to national events to collegiate, club and high school action. How he became deeply involved in the sport is a combination of serendipity and determination.
While at La Salle University in Philadelphia, Lohn served as a correspondent for the Delaware County Daily Times. Heading into the 1998 winter sports season, he was given the high school swimming beat. Although some of his best friends were competitive swimmers, Lohn didn’t know much about the intricacies of the sport. That lack of understanding quickly changed.
One of the first meets Lohn covered was a matchup between Haverford High School and Upper Darby High. During the meet, Lohn watched a sophomore from Haverford win the 100-yard breaststroke by a considerable margin. That individual was eventual three-time Olympian and world-record setter Brendan Hansen, and Lohn immediately knew he was writing about a special athlete.
Throwing himself into the sport, Lohn acquired as much information as possible, learning about the finer points of the different strokes, times, elite athletes, teams and more. Much of this newly gained knowledge came from Swimming World Magazine, so Lohn reached out to the publication’s then Editor-in-Chief Phil Whitten and pitched a feature story on Hansen.
After a handful of rejections, citing the time wasn’t quite right for such an article, Whitten assigned Lohn an article on the United States’ fast-rising crop of young breaststrokers, of which Hansen was part. After submitting that feature, Whitten extended additional assignments and Lohn’s relationship with Swimming World was firmly established.
Lohn then ascended through various roles at Swimming World, including Newsmaster, Senior Writer, Associate Editor and Editor-in-Chief. For a time, Lohn also served as the American correspondent for SwimVortex, a highly regarded European-based website.
Lohn joined the global media delegation at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 and 2020 Olympics Games and has covered every United States Olympic Trials on deck since 2000. While chronicling the achievements of the sport’s greatest stars, including Michael he has reported on numerous major developments and has covered competitions around the globe, including the World Championships, Pan Pacific Championships, United States Nationals and NCAA Championships.
At the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Lohn wrote about the iconic eight-gold-medal performance by Phelps which included his come-from-behind victory over Milorad Cavic in the 100 butterfly and the epic comeback by Jason Lezak to power the United States past France in the 400 freestyle relay. His coverage of the sport has taken Lohn around the world, including stops in England, Spain, Brazil, Canada, China, Japan and Australia.
Lohn has appeared on ESPN and the BBC and has been cited by dozens of news organizations and publications including USA Today, CNN, FOX and the Washington Post, along with outlets in Japan, Australia, China, Brazil and Europe. Lohn is the author of five books on the sport of swimming, including Below the Surface: The History of Competitive Swimming. He has also written books on the greatest Olympic moments in swimming and on the top-100 athletes the sport has produced. His journalism career has been celebrated with several awards, with an article on a blind swimmer earning him recognition from the Best American Sports Writing.
Originally hailing from Media, Pennsylvania, Lohn now resides in Scotch Plains, New Jersey with his wife, Dana, and daughters, twins Taylor and Tiernan, and Tenley. He also serves as a media specialist in the Scotch Plains-Fanwood School District and enjoys vacationing and fitness training.
Wayne Goldsmith
2022
Wayne Goldsmith has made contributions to the sport of swimming globally for over 30 years.
As an educator, Wayne has designed, developed, and delivered coaching education and training programs in more than 20 different countries.
Since the early 1990s, Goldsmith’s articles, books, chapters, blog posts and research papers, over 1000 in total, have been published across the world of swimming.
He has been a driving force for change and improvement in coaching as well as coach development, and a passionate leader in the area of swimming science, for more than a quarter of a century. His philosophies and teachings have challenged the way swimming is coached all over the world and he has transformed the way coaches and scientists think about the sport.
He has worked across every area of the swimming industry. From teaching local schoolteachers, i.e. non-swimming adults, to swim at a FINA Clinic in Zimbabwe, to delivering high performance sports science support for the Australian National Team. And, he’s experienced everything in the sport and has influenced the thinking and practices of countless swimming professionals globally.
Today, Goldsmith continues to work with swimmers, coaches, swimming scientists, swimming parents and swimming leaders and is committed to a single, simple ideal: to ensure that every child has the opportunity to learn to love the sport of swimming and to realize their full potential in swimming.
He is the principal researcher and writer for Swimming Australia’s National Coaching Strategy, 2018-2028. In addition to his own country, he has been a consultant and program deliverer for numerous national sporting organizations and governments including USA Swimming, British Swimming, and Swimming South Africa.
He is in demand as a keynote speaker, being invited to speak at over 50 international swimming conferences including in Canada, England, Scotland, Spain, South Africa, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines, Fiji, Zimbabwe, Singapore, and New Zealand. He has been invited and funded keynote speaker at the American Swimming Coaches Association World Clinic, five times, as well as the Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association Convention, where he has been an invited speaker, numerous times.
As a journalist, Wayne has been a Contributor to Australian Swimming Coaches and Teachers Association Journal since 1993, is a writer of over 500 published articles on swimming, swimming coaching, coaching and sports science. He is the writer and developer of the “life-time” swimming development program for Qatar Swimming. He is the author of, “Betty’s Swimming Lesson” as well as, “Ready Set Race Program”, which he did for Swimming Australia.
Peter Bick (USA)
2019
Peter H. Bick, Ph.D. specializes in sports, nature and event photography.
He received his B.S. in Biology from Albion College (1970) and his M.S. and Ph.D. in Immunology & Microbiology from the University of Michigan (1975). Bick pursued postdoctoral studies at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (1975-76) and Washington University (1976-77). After serving as a faculty member of the Medical College of Virginia (1977-1985), Bick joined Eli Lilly and Company as a research scientist. He retired from Eli Lily after 20 years of research and research management assignments. Since moving to Indianapolis in 1985, Bick has been a part of the Indianapolis Sports Initiative through his involvement with the Indiana Sports Corporation, the RCA Tennis Championships, the Circle City Classic, various amateur sport governing bodies, Indiana and Purdue universities and event corporate sponsors. During this period, Bick has photographed numerous major events including, Olympic Trials in Swimming, Diving, Rowing, Synchronized Swimming, and Wrestling; NCAA Championships in Swimming and Diving, Track and Field and Water Polo, and Final Four Basketball; World Championships in Diving, Rowing, Gymnastics, Swimming and Basketball; National Championship events in Swimming, Rowing, Basketball, Gymnastics, Track and Field, and Water Polo; Davis Cup Tennis, IndyCar auto racing and U.S. National Drag races. For 16 years, Bick served as the tournament photographer for the RCA Championships, a significant event on the ATP Tour. Bick is the Chief Photographer for Swimming World Magazine (2014) and his images have been published nationally and internationally. Bick’s publication credits include Sports Illustrated, Sports Illustrated for Women, Tennis Magazine, Tennis Week, Time, Swimming World, Swim, Splash, Swimmer Magazine, L’Equipe, U.S. Rowing, Synchro Swimming USA, USA Diving magazine, Indianapolis Monthly, Indianapolis Star, ATP Tour in Review, PGA programs, RCA Championships publications, and Big Ten and Indiana Sports Corporation publications, to name a few. In the field of nature photography, Bick has traveled extensively throughout the United States, to the Galapagos Islands, the Falkland Islands and Antarctica and several times to Africa to photograph wildlife. Peter lives in Zionsville, Indiana with his wife Carol.
Bob Ingram (USA)
2018
Bob Ingram is senior editor of Swimming World Magazine. He has been involved in aquatics for nearly half a century (46 years)
Bob Ingram is senior editor of Swimming World Magazine. He has been involved in aquatics for nearly half a century (46 years), traveling the world extensively and covering all levels of competition. During the last 18 years, Ingram has primarily been responsible for the editing and production of the print magazine.
“It’s quite an honor to receive the Al Schoenfield Media Award from the International Swimming Hall of Fame,” says Ingram, “especially since it was Schoenfield who hired me back in 1972 and gave me the opportunity to become involved in such an amazing sport. He was my mentor in those early years, and I still do things that he taught me nearly 50 years ago.”
After studying journalism for four years at the University of Southern California and serving as the sports editor (fall semester) and editor-in-chief (spring semester) for the student newspaper, the Daily Trojan, in his senior year, Ingram called Swimming World Magazine (located at the time in North Hollywood, Calif.) to apply for the position of managing editor. Funny thing, though: Schoenfield hadn’t told anyone that he was looking for a managing editor! So, after an abbreviated phone call, the magazine’s publisher quickly ended the conversation. He later discovered that it was his editor’s assistant—a friend of Ingram’s—who “leaked” the news, and Schoenfield set up a job interview.
“We had a great time talking with one another,” recalls Ingram, “but I honestly thought I wasn’t going to get the job—especially because of what happened afterward.”
The two shook hands, and Schoenfield said he would get back to him. But it was Ingram who “got back” to Schoenfield…within minutes! Ingram had locked himself out of his car and asked Schoenfield for help. So much for trying to make a first good impression! But with the help of a coat hanger, Ingram was able to unlock the car door and drive away, thinking that he had better start looking for another job.
However, a few days later, Schoenfield asked him to join the Swimming World team, and Ingram, who began work on April 24, 1972, has been there ever since. The first magazine he edited was the June 1972 issue (Vol. 13, No. 6). The most recent was May 2018 (Vol. 59, No. 5). That was Ingram’s 552nd issue as managing editor (June-August 1972), editor (September 1972-March 1993) and senior editor (April 1993-present).
During that time, Ingram has had the privilege of covering four Olympic Games—Montreal 1976, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1998 and Barcelona 1992—and four World Championships—Belgrade 1973, Cali 1975, West Berlin 1978 and Perth 1998. He also covered the USA-East Germany (Concord, Calif. 1974; East Berlin 1977) and USA-Russia (Leningrad 1977) dual meets, World University Games (Edmonton 1983), the inaugural KLM Friendship Meet (Maastricht, Netherlands 1987) and the Pan Pacific Championships (Edmonton 1991).
In addition to his responsibilities at Swimming World, Ingram helped proofread two books: Character & Excellence by Mike Gosman (1998) and The History of Olympic Swimming by Peter Daland (2009).
Richard “Dick” Deal (USA)
2012
Deal revamped Swimming World magazine by adding multiple photographs, influential articles on swimming technique, training, conditioning and event coverage.
Richard “Dick” Deal was born in 1947 in Los Angeles, California. As a college student, he obtained a BA in Political Science in 1970 at Arizona State University. Before he got into the magazine business, he was a Committee Consultant for the California Legislature from 1972 to 1976. In 1977, he became the owner and publisher of Swimming World Magazine, one of the world’s most prominent magazines featuring swimmers and swimming.
In July 1951, Swimming World was first published by Bob Kiphuth, swimming coach at Yale University. It contained mostly records and times with very few photographs. In 1960, Al Schoenfield acquired the magazine from Kiphuth and began to publish Swimming World and Swimming Technique magazines. Al was publisher and editor of the magazines with his wife, Faye, until 1977.
In 1952, Peter Daland published Junior Swimmer magazine, stimulating age group swimming, which was becoming a large part of swimming in the United States in 1960, when Peter left Yale University where he had been coaching with Kiphuth and became the swimming coach at the University of Southern California. He passed Junior Swimmer on to Schoenfield. Schoenfield’s magazine now became known as Junior Swimmer. In 1962, Swimming World became the prominent name again for the magazine, with the tag name of Junior Swimmer. When Deal became editor and publisher in 1977, he was also publishing SWIM and Swimming Technique magazines. He hired a staff of experienced writers, most of whom have been with him for many years. In March of 2005, these magazines were printed separately. SWIM magazine became a publication of United States Masters Swimming.
Deal revamped Swimming World magazine by adding multiple photographs, influential articles on swimming technique, training, conditioning and event coverage. He worked hard to increase the quality and circulation of the magazine. His main initiative was to provide swimming information to the swimming community.
In 1994, Deal published the secret “Stasi Files” which proved the East German swimmers were being doped at the height of their success. Deal described mixed feelings over publishing Phil Whitten’s report, saying he was happy the information was public, but sad there were athletes who were cheated out of Olympic gold medals.
In 2006, Deal teamed up with Brent Rutemiller, who became Publisher and CEO of the magazine. Now called Sports Publications International, Deal is part owner, President and Chairman of the Board. Located in Sedona, Arizona, Deal has a staff of 14 highly qualified individuals and another 22 international contributor correspondents.
Swimming World is the official magazine of the College Swimming Coaches Association of America, United States Swim School Association, National Interscholastic Swimming Coaches Association, and is endorsed by the American Swimming Coaches Association and the Australia Swimming Coaches Teachers Association.
Dick has always been a huge supporter, the guy behind the scenes helping media members who have worked at Swimming World on the development and improvement of swimmer’s stories. His efforts have been invaluable in promoting and celebrating the great achievements of the world’s aquatic athletes.
Pedro Adrega
2011
With a Journalism degree from the New University of Lisbon, Pedro Adrega began his career in the media, working for the sports daily newspaper Record (over 100,000 daily readers). There, he was in charge of covering a wide range of sports, namely Swimming, Cycling, Basketball, Volleyball, motorized sports, Judo, Tennis or Golf. He was also responsible for covering Olympic matters and the Portuguese governmental policy related to Sports.
At the end of 1999, he moved to Switzerland and began working at the FINA Communications
Department. Initially as editor of the periodical newsletters of the International Federations (FINA News, FINA Masters News, FINA Open Water News, FINA Sports Medicine News), then as founder and editor-in-chief of the monthly “FINA Aquatics World” magazine from 2003 to 2009. In 2010, the publication was improved. It is presently issued six times a year, and contains 120 color pages per edition. Pedro Adrega continues as its editor-in-chief along with Tamas Gyarfas, FINA Bureau member.
Beginning in 2008, Pedro became Head of the FINA Communications Department.
In his capacity within FINA, Pedro Adrega has covered the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympic Games, the 2001, 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009 FINA World Championships; and the 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2010 World Swimming Championships (25m).
Besides these major events, Pedro has attended many other competitions in the five aquatic disciplines, as well as several World Congresses organized by FINA and many FINA Bureau meetings.
As a Journalist, his primary passion, he has written hundreds of stories about the FINA stars and the five FINA disciplines – Swimming, Diving, Water Polo, Synchronized Swimming and Open Water Swimming. He was also the Production Editor of the book “Aquatics 1908-2008, 100 Years of Excellence in Sport”, published in 2008 to mark FINA’s Centenary.
Responsible for the FINA Communications Department, Pedro is also actively helping the Organizing Committee of the FINA main events in the preparation of the Media Plan and Operations. When on site, and besides reporting the event for the FINA website/publications, he is one of the key people in assisting organizers in running the Media Press Centre, Media Stands, or Press Conference Room.
Married and father of a 17-month-old (in May 2011) boy, Pedro is fluent in five languages: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Greek.
Tamás Gyárfás
2010
For nearly 40 years, Tamás Gyárfás has been a professional journalist writer, author, publisher, television producer, volunteer and sport administrator. He was introduced to the world of sport through water polo and sport became his passion and profession. He began reporting on swimming in 1972 as head columnist for Nepsport. In the late 1970’s through the early 1990’s he served as editor of International Swimming and Water Polo Magazine. Since 1989 he has been the owner and President of Hungary’s NAP TV and publisher of Sport Plusz Newspaper. He has been Editor in Chief of LEN Magazine and is presently Editor in chief of the FINA Aquatics World Magazine.
Tamas has served with distinction as the General Secretary of the International Sports Journalists Association form 1993 to 1997. Among the many administrative positions he currently holds are – President of the Hungarian Swimming Federation, Vice President of the Hungarian Olympic
Committee, Vice President of LEN, Chairman of the Organizing Committee for the 2010 European Swimming Champi-onships and Member of the FINA Bureau. He has received the Knight’s Cross of the Hungarian Republic, the Award of the Hungarian Olympic Order and was twice voted Sportleader of the Year by the Hungarian Sports Association.
The International Swimming Hall of Fame is honored to recognize Tamás Gyárfás as this year’s recipient of the Al Schoenfield Media Award.
Heinz Kluetmeier
2009
Heinz Kluetmeier was born in Berlin, Germany and as a child moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Heinz was captivated by photography early on. At the age of 15 he was already shooting pictures for the Associated Press – capturing such people as Vince Lombardi,JohnF. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Upon hishigh school graduation,he was offered a full time job as a photographer. However, his education took precedence, and he decided to pursue a degree in engineering at Dartmouth College. Nevertheless, Kluetmeier spent his summers in Milwaukee shooting for the Milwaukee Journal, the Associated Press and freelancing for Life magazine. After graduating from Dartmouth, he worked as an engineer, but it wasn’t long before the lure of photography got the better of him and in 1969 he became a staff member of Time, Inc. He has since shot over 100 covers for Sports Illustrated and in 1986 was named the Director of Photography at the magazine.
For more than three decades, Heinz Kluetmeier’s pictures have virtually defined what great sports photography is all about. In a world where television and magazines have saturated our imaginations to numbness with an endless stream of great sports images, Kluetmeier’s photographs manage to perform the unthinkable: they cause us to pause, to examine and, most importantly, to feel.
At the 2008 Olympics, Heinz captured what has become the iconic image of both the Beijing Games and Michael Phelps’s career – the underwater shot of Michael’s win in the 100 meter butterfly that kept his quest for eight gold medals alive.
Phil Whitten
2008
PHIL WHITTEN was the face of swimming world magazine, as its Editor in Chief for over 15 years.
IN 1992, during his first year as Editor, Phil became convinced the Chinese were cheating with performance enhancing drugs as systematically as the East Germans had done in the 1970s and 1980s. Several others came to the same conclusion, but no one in a position of influence dared speak out. Especially noteworthy by their silence were USA Swimming and FINA, both of which refused to utter a word.
Phil reported on the masculine features of the Chinese women, acne, deep voices, explosive power, poor technique, etc. Still, not a peep from the official bodies. He followed with a statistical analysis of their performances and came up with a ridiculous number – one in several trillion – that their performances were legit.
He formed a small information-sharing committee of like-minded journalists: Craig Lord (London Times), Wayne Smith (then at the Brisbane Courier), Nicole Jeffrey (The Australian) and Sylvie Josse (l’Equipe) plus a few others on occasion. Gradually the mainstream news media began paying attention.
After the 1996 Olympic Games, Phil wrote a Swimming World article called “Why Is Everybody Saying All Those Nasty Things About a Nice Irish Girl Like Michelle Smith?” She and her hubby threatened to sue him. They did so a record 4 times. Phil was instrumental in the surprise drug test in Jan 1998, where she tried to mask the steroids with whiskey- resulting in a FINA ban.
Under Phil’s leadership, SW was the first publication in the world to publish Stasi files proving almost all of the GDR’s world-class athletes were being systematically doped.
For seven years He ran the content side of SwimInfo almost entirely by himself, writing over 1,000 articles and editing more than 7,000. In 2005 and 06 SwimInfo was rated the top swimming web site in the world and one of the top 1,000 on any topic.
ISHOF is proud to present Phil Whitten, a profile in journalistic courage with the Al Schoenfield Award.
Rowdy Gaines (USA)
2008
Throughout the 1980’s Rowdy Gaines was known as the fastest swimmer on the planet and in 1995 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Today, Rowdy is often referred to as “Swimmings’ Greatest Ambassador” and is known as the “voice of swimming.” He’s been calling swimming meets at the Olympic Games, NCAA Championships and virtually every swimming event that is televised in America for the past twenty-two years. He makes swimming exiting and is known for his insightful commentaries and astute observations about today’s champions.
Rowdy began his broadcast career with Ted Turner’s Goodwill Games in Moscow in 1986. In addition to working for TBS, he has covered swimming for CBS, NBC, TNT, Bud Sports, CSTV, CN8 Network, Fox Sports South, the Big 10 Network, and all ESPN networks (ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU). During his long career as a broadcaster, he’s called the US Nationals, NCAA’s, SECs, Big 10s, Alcatraz Triathlon and Ivy League Championships. In Beijing, Rowdy will be calling his fifth Olympic Games for NBC. He is also a regular contributor to nbcolympics.com
Craig Lord
2007
Since 1989, Craig Lord has covered every Olympic Games, World Championship and European Championship as a Swimming Correspondent for The Times and Sunday Times of London, England. All the while, he has been challenging the status quo, campaigning for fairness, speaking out against cheating and supporting the rights of swimmers and coaches to be active stakeholders in determining the direction of their sport.
Throughout the 1990s, Lord was at the forefront of reporting the illegal drug scandals that dogged the swimming world. He was a thorn-in-the-side of authorities who sat by as China threatened to take up where the GDR left off as a dominant force fuelled on banned performance-enhancing substances.
In 1998, Lord broke the news that Michelle Smith de Bruin, the Irish triple Olympic champion of 1996, faced suspension for manipulating a drug-test sample. Smith de Bruin was subsequently suspended and retired while serving her ban.
A year later, he traveled into China, a nation with more than 30 drug bans to its name in the pool. He emerged to reveal how the system contributed to rampant drug abuse by those in key roles in Chinese sport and how anabolic steroids were readily available for sale in local markets.
While serving as swimming correspondent for The Times, Lord also worked in the business, home news and features departments of the newspaper. As Deputy Editor of Times Online in 2000, he researched and compiled the organization’s Olympic archives.
Lord has been a European correspondent for Swimming World in the United States and Swim News in Canada. He also provides a daily digest of news and commentary for SwimNews.com, writing for Swim News publisher Nick Thierry, a recipient of this award and an ISHOF Hall of Famer.
Last year, Lord broke the news that the IOC and NBC TV intended to host morning finals in the pool at the Beijing Olympic Games, a move opposed by the majority of the swimming community.
English by birth and a Celt of Irish and Scottish ancestry, Lord is a former member of the Scottish National Squad and jokes that he could swim the 400m individual medley about as fast as Petra Schneider. He spent his formative years in Portugal, where his father was a national team coach.
Lord, who read English and Spanish and majored in geography and geology to earn an MA (Hons) at Aberdeen University, is currently researching the history of the five Olympic aquatic disciplines for a publication due in 2008.
Bud Greenspan
2006
When the world thinks of the Olympic Games and sports hero’s documentaries, it thinks of Bud Greenspan and Cappy Productions. Bud and his wife, Cappy Petrash Greenspan, who died in 1983, built Cappy Productions into one of the most respected, independent production companies in the world, now operating in its fourth decade.
Bud has been called the foremost writer/producer/director of sports films and one of the world’s leading sports historians. His numerous Awards include seven Emmys, the George Foster Peabody Award for Life Time Achievement, the Directors Guild of America Life Achievement Award and the coveted Olympic Order presented by International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch for his contribution to furthering the Olympic movement.
Bud began his career as a sports broadcaster. At 21 he became Sports Director of radio station WMGM in New York City, then the largest sports station in the country. Greenspan broadcast such programs as Warm-up Time and Sports Extra, the pre- and post-game coverage of the Brooklyn Dodgers. He also broadcast play by play and “color” for hockey, basketball, track and tennis from Madison Square Garden.
After leaving WMGM, Greenspan turned to magazine writing. Since then, he has sold hundreds of fiction and non-fiction articles to major publications in the United States and abroad. Prior to forming his own film company in 1967, Greenspan produced television commercials in New York City.
Greenspan’s most recent works include The First Miracle (2006), the story of the 1960 Gold Medal winning ice hockey team from Squaw Valley and Whirlaway (2005), celebrating the chestnut colt and fifth-winner of horse racing’s triple crown; Bud Greenspan Remembers: 1984 LA Olympics (2004); Pound for Pound (2004) and the Barrier Breakers, which includes Gertrude Ederle’s 1926 swim across the English Channel (2004). He is currently working on a documentary about black baseball legend, Larry Doby, who broke the color barrier in the American League in 1947.
Greenspan’s first eight Official Olympic films feature stories from the 2004 Athens, 2000 Sydney, 1996 Atlanta, and 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Summer Games and the 2006 Turin, the 2002 Salt Lake City, 1998 Nagano, 1994 Lillehammer and 1988 Calgary Winter Olympic Games.
Greenspan’s trademark is the intimate storytelling that is universally understood and appreciated; his storytelling transcends culture. His ability to discover the little-known story has touched and inspired people around the world including many Olympic Champions.
Among his documentaries of athletes in the aquatic disciplines include swimmers Murray Rose (AUS), Lance Larson (USA), Pablo Morales (USA), Michael Gross (GER), Janet Evans (USA), Shane Gould (AUS), John Naber (USA), Dawn Fraser (AUS), Gary Hall Jr. (USA), Ian Thorpe (AUS), Rowdy Gaines (USA), Michele Smith (IRL),and Mark Spitz (USA) and divers Sammy Lee (USA), Pat McCormick (USA), Klaus Dibiasi (ITA), and Greg Louganis (USA).
Bud Greenspan’s other films include the 1972 Munich Olympic Games: Bud Greenspan Remembers (2003), Bud Greenspan’s Favorite stories of Winter Olympic Glory (2002), Bud Greenspan’s Favorite stories of Olympic Glory (2000); Kings of the Ring: Four Legends of the Heavyweight Boxing (2000) and Ageless Heroes (1998) a PBS film which cel-ebrates the continued vibrancy of people over the age of 65.
In 1996, Bud Greenspan continued to document the Olympic saga producing two highly acclaimed television specials celebrating the centennial of the Modern Olympic Games that aired on TBS: 100 Years of Olympic Glory (1996), a three-hour film exploiting great international stories of the Olympic Games, and America’s Greatest Olympians (1996), two-hours that chronicles the inspiring stories of American Olympic Athletes. In 1992 and in 1988, the International Olympic Committee com-missioned Bud to produce two films celebrating those Olympics; 16 Days of Glory/Barcelona (1992) and 16 Days of Glory/Seoul (1988).
Other Olympic films include Triumph and Tragedy: The 1972 Munich Olympics (1992) televised worldwide in the summer of 1992, and The Measure of Greatness (1992), the history of timing at the Olympic Games. Greenspan also produced a 36-monitor multiscreen visual and musical tribute to the Olympic Games titled The Spirit of the Olympics (1993) that is on permanent display at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Before the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Greenspan wrote, produced and directed a one-hour television special, An Olympic Dream (1988), which featured the lives of teenage athletes from different parts of the world as they trained for the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
Other specials include The Golden Age of Sport (1988), Time Capsule: The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games (1986), America at the Olympics (1984), Time Capsule: The Los Angeles Olympics Games of 1932 (1982) and The Heisman Trophy Award Specials from 1981 to 1985.
Greenspan has won widespread recognition in a variety of television formats. The Numero Uno (1982) series first aired nationally on PBS features legendary sports champions from thirteen different countries.
This Day in Sports (1979), 20-second features that highlight the most thrilling sports events for each day of the year, was broadcast on CBS, Winter Olympic Vignettes (1980) for ABC-TV’s coverage of the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics and Sports in America (1979), based on the book by Pulitzer Prize winner, James Michener broadcast nationally on PBS.
In addition to his award-winning films, Greenspan is a Contributing Editor for PARADE magazine, for which he writes the popular Olympic Preview issue. Greenspan has also written several books including three on the Olympics; 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History, The Olympian’s Guide to Winning the Game of Life, and Frozen in Time: The Greatest Moments at the Winter Olympics. Two others, Play it Again, Bud and We Wuz Robbed, deal with famous controversies in the field of sports.
His first spoken-word record album, Great Moments in Sport, earned Greenspan a Gold Record. It was followed by 18 more spoken-word albums, including Witness (the Army/McCarthy hearings) , Voices of the 20th Century, The Nuremberg War Crime Trials, The Day FDR Died, Madison Square Garden and December 7,1941- the last, an album he produced in association with the New York Times.
Nick Thierry
2005
For 47 years, Nick Thierry has been writing about swimming. The days when he is not writing, he is accumulating all the statistics of swims around the world, to present to international media sources, in the quest to keep up with the statistics of the sport.
As a writer for Al Schoenfield’s Swimming World Magazine, Nick saw the need for good communication in the sport, and the value of a swimming magazine to accomplish that goal. Throughout his career in swimming he never wavered from that thought.
Born in Hungary on December 2, 1938, Nick spent his first eight years growing up in Budapest. In 1948 his family moved to Havana, Cuba, where his father had been transferred. He worked for Wagon-Lits, the international sleeping car company. Nick swam competitively for three years while in Havana and another three years in Toronto, Canada while studying at the University of Toronto, obtaining a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1964. For the next four years he worked in an architect’s office.
Nick’s love for being around the swimming pool was paramount. In 1961, at the University of Toronto, he served as assistant swimming coach. For the next 21 years, he coached at Toronto and surrounding teams, placing swimmers on the Canadian Olympic teams of 1963, 1968 and 1972. He was Canadian head coach of two international tours as well as for the 1970 Commonwealth Games team which competed in Edinburgh, Scotland. His swimmer Angela Coughlan won the 100m freestyle gold medal. Two years earlier she had won the bronze medal on the 4x100m freestyle relay at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. Nick coached 1977 Canadian 100m breaststroke National Champion Judy Garay, daughter of Hall of Famer Valerie Gyenge (HUN), 1952 Olympic 400m freestyle champion.
From 1961 to 1985, Nick served in administrative capacities on Swim Ontario’s Board of Directors, the Canadian Swimming Coaches Association (chairman, secretary) and the Swim Canada National Board of Directors.
During his coaching career Nick first saw the need to keep swimming statistics. “It was a very effective training tool for my swimmers,” said Thierry. “The need to know what was going on worldwide was growing in the sport.” Thus, he organized the formation of Swim Canada, Canada’s monthly magazine publication. Now known as SwimNews, it has a circulation of 4,000 copies per month with over 312 editions since 1974. It is filled with all the local, regional and national news of Canada as well as stories on international events and athletes. Nick was publisher, editor and writer. Perhaps his most favorite article was the January 1988 article “Never a Wasted Stroke,” announcing world record holder and Olympic champion Alex Baumann’s retirement. His best stroke technique description was “Victor Davis on Breaststroke” published in 1989, just four months before Victor’s tragic death. As one of the world’s leading publications, SwimNews not only contains human interest stories but also times and rankings of swimmers on a national and international level. He prints Canada’s Top Age Group (TAG) Times every month as well as Tiny Olympic Prospects (TOP) for little kids. FINA’s world rankings are read by the older kids and their coaches.
It was Nick’s quest to locate and print every available meet and race time that lead to the formation of the International Swimming Statisticians Association (ISSA) in 1986 at the Madrid World Championships. Beginning in 1992, statistics in SwimNews were supplemented by printing monthly FINA world rankings and yearly short and long course FINA annuals. Originally, record keeping was done manually with Nick personally hand typing each line of statistics. With the introduction of the fax machine, records and dates could instantly be transmitted and received for publication. Then with the PC and computer software programs, data became instantly transmitted and printable on demand. Where it used to take two and one-half weeks to prepare an issue of SwimNews, now it would take two days.
At major championships (World and European) Nick has provided extended start lists on the finalists in each event for broadcast and print media to use. These include biographical facts on each finalist, chronological record list, all time ranking, etc. Since 1989, Nick has worked with FINA Press Commission Chairman Camillo Cametti, traveling extensively to world events.
The swimming community owes Nick a debt of gratitude. Sorting through the seemingly endless volumes of numbers and times, Nick makes order out of chaos and assures every swimmer that his or her time will be accurately placed in the pecking order of performances. Nick’s no-nonsense approach to his work, his coolness under pressure and his unique style and perseverance, in a very unassuming way, have contributed to his success as publisher/editor of SwimNews and as swimming’s top record keeper. Nick was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2001 as Honor Contributor for his contribution to the sport.
Camillo Cametti
2004
For over 30 years, Camillo Cametti has been writing about sport. To Camillo, a sportsman, it comes naturally.
He was born in Verona, Italy in 1943, where he has lived most of his life. He earned university degrees in both economics and physical education. He competed in sports on the national level in handball, volleyball, rugby and also in tennis, cross-country skiing and more.
But his main love was swimming and he competed as a freestyler, backstroker and open water swimmer. He has played water polo for 28 years and coached both swimming and water polo. He is also a lifesaving instructor.
As an international journalist, Camillo has been extremely effective in promoting both swimming and the people in it. He has covered every summer Olympic Games since Munich in 1972 – a total of nine Games including Athens in 2004. He has been the journalist at all FINA World Championships since their inception in 1973 at Belgrade – a total of nine. He is founder, publisher and editor-in-chief of swimming magazines: FINA’s “The World of Swimming,” Italian Swimming Federation’s “FIN News,” “Il Mondo del Nuoto,” and “La Tecnica del Nuoto.” He has been a contributor to Italy’s main sports daily “La Gazzetta Dello Sport,” Italy’s main television “RAI,” Italy’s main sports magazine, “Guerin Sportivo,” FINA magazine “FINA aquatics world,” and more. He has been a lecturer to both national and international clinics and seminars on sports journalism related to swimming.
Camillo has covered numerous international swim meets including World Cups, European Championships, USA Nationals, Olympic Trials and Italian National Championships. He has written two swimming books in Italian: How to Teach Swimming and Swimming Technique. He has served as media manager for both the FINA World Championships in Rome (1994) and the FIFA Football World Cup in Verona (1990).
As a contributor, Camillo has served swimming in many other ways. He is a former board member of the Italian Swimming Federation (FIN), a member of IOC ORIS Working Group for Aquatic Sports and chairman of the AIPS Swimming Commission (1990-2002). From 1988 to 1996, he was a member of the FINA Technical Swimming Committee and the first to propose the recognition of short course competitions and world records as well as the introduction, recognition and acceptance of prize money in selected competitions. Camillo serves as chairman of both the FINA Press Commission (since its inception in 1994) and the International Swimming Hall of Fame Honoree Selection Committee (since 2002).
Camillo is fluent in four languages. In 2002, CONI, Italy’s National Olympic Committee, awarded the “Golden Star,” Italy’s top sporting honor, to Camillo. From 1994 to 1998, he served as deputy mayor of Verona during which time he developed four new swimming facilities in town.
Francois Oppenheim
2003
Born November 17, 1906 in Paris, France, Francois Oppenheim became one of the foremost journalists in swimming. During his lifetime he attended most all the major swimming competitions of the world and was a noted French journalist as well as a regular contributor to the French press.
During the 1920s, he was a competitive swimmer. In the 1930s he became both a swimming coach and sports journalist. Because of his keen interest in writing, he ended his coaching career in 1953 to devote himself fulltime to sports journalism.
He became a journalist in L’Equipe (the sports daily in Paris) from 1953 – 1963. He also worked for the French Swimming Federation for their magazine Natation.
From 1924, Oppenheim attended and covered seven Olympic Swimming Championships, one British Commonwealth Games and seven European Swimming Championships. During his career as a swimming coach of the team on which he had originally been a competitive swimmer, the Cercle des Nageurs de Marseille, bettered French Open records as well as age-group records of France. He molded the training of many swimming coaches, the most notable being Georges Garret, with whom he coached from 1940 – 1953 and who was the coach of the French Swimming Team in 1970.
Oppenheim resigned his journalism career in 1963 to accept a position as Technical Advisor to the French Secretary of State to Youth and Sports. In this capacity he greatly contributed to the preparation of the New Caledonia Swim Team, winners of the II and III South Pacific Games.
His book, The History of Swimming, was first published in France in his native French language. In 1970, it was translated and the English version was published by Swimming World. His book is a report on the history and evolution of swimming and the swimming strokes. It offers a progress of stroke development and the evolution of conditioning. Emphasis is also placed on record keeping with extensive use of international record tables. He was the author and publisher of an additional three books, Des Nageurs et de Records, LaTable Ronde (1961), La Natation, Editions de la Table Ronde (1964), and Histoire de la Natation Mondalie et Francaise, Additions Chairon, (1977).
Diana Nyad
2002
Diana Nyad is no stranger to swimming. She has been in and around it all her life. She learned to swim before she was a year old. Growing up in Fort Lauderdale, she joined the Pine Crest School swim team at age 11 when the geography teacher offered A’s to anyone who went out for the team. She was talented and later became Florida State High School champion in the 100y backstroke. A bout with viral endocarditis all but put an end to any hopes of Olympic dreams.
Life around Diana was never normal or ordinary. She was thrown out of college (Emory University) for jumping out the fourth floor dormitory window in a parachute. But later she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Lake Forest College in Chicago majoring in French literature. She is also fluent in German and Spanish.
Still determined to swim, she was introduced to Marathon swimming in 1970 by Buck Dawson, ISHOF executive director. Physically strong and psychologically attuned to distance swimming, Nyad trained at Dawson’s Camp Ak-O-Mak in Ontario and that summer of 1970 entered her first professional race in Lake Ontario, finishing 10th overall out of 60 competitors and setting a new women’s record. In 1974 she became the 1st swimmer to swim Lake Ontario north to south from Toronto to New York as it was against the currents of the Niagara River. In 1975, she swam around Manhattan Island breaking the record set 50 years earlier. In August of 1979 she became the first person to swim from north Bimini to Florida (Juno Beach) unassisted, a distance of 60 miles.Her failed attempt to swim from Cuba to Florida in 1978 drew front page coverage but her 42 hours covering 99.7 miles in 4 to 6 feet choppy-salt-water waves was an accomplishment in itself. Diana became the lead story for newspapers and magazines throughout the world as well as on Walter Cronkite’s CBS Evening News and other major networks. She appeared on the Johnny Carson Show and other T.V. programs.
Perhaps it was Diana’s experiences of being the center of the spotlight that shifted her attention to interviewing others in the center light. Peppy, energetic, intellectual and with a smile as wide as the oceans she swam, Diana is a colorful spokesperson for the aquatic disciplines. She started with ABC’s “Wide World of Sports” (1980-88) and has since covered five Olympic Games and dozens of premiere sporting events around the world. She was the first to interview Olympic swimmers Nancy Hogshead and Carrie Steinseiffer after their first-ever tie for the gold in the 100m freestyle at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. From 1989-1992, Diana hosted her own show on CNBC, “One on One with Diana Nyad” where she interviewed such diverse guests as Ed Bradley, Julia Child and John McEnroe. Throughout her journalistic career, Diana has been lauded as a skilled and engaging interviewer.
Still a passionate athlete herself, Diana is often called upon as a journalist to participate in the adventure she is covering. She has swum with 100-ton whales in Patagonia, kayaked over 40-foot waterfalls in Borneo and bicycled 1, 200 miles from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.
Diana is currently the senior sports correspondent for Fox Sports News, investigating stories such as the use of performance enhancing drugs by athletes. She is also host of the weekly national radio show, “The Savvy Traveler.” And her column on National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” is heard by some eight million people each week. Also on public radio, Diana is the business sports columnist for the popular show, “Marketplace.”
Diana has written three books, Other Shores (her experiences in marathon swimming), Diana Nyad’s Basic Training for Women, and The Keyshaw Johnson Story. She writes extensively for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and Self-Magazine and has written for Esquire, Quest, Women Sports, Woman, Mademoiselle, New Dawn and more.
Over the past twenty years, Diana has earned a reputation as a riveting speaker. She combines her talent for dramatic storytelling with a natural sense of humor and a charismatic stage presence. She never uses notes. She speaks from her heart and her audiences are left both entertained and inspired.
Donna De Varona
2001
ISHOF Hall of Famer Donna de Varona is perhaps the most widely recognized swimmer in the United States. A barrier breaker all her life, Donna began making waves at 13 years of age when she became the youngest member of the U.S. Olympic Team at the Olympic Games of 1960. A mere four years later, the 17-year-old had broken an unprecedented 18 world swimming records and won two Olympic Gold Medals at the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, for the 400m individual medley and 4x100m freestyle relay.
Capturing the imagination of the national and international press, Donna became a teenage sensation, gracing the covers of many newspapers and magazines, include Life, Time, Saturday Evening Post and twice on Sports Illustrated. Donna was often featured on “ABC’s Wide World of Sports.” In 1964, she was voted Most Outstanding Female Athlete in the World by both Associated Press (AP) and the United Press International (UPI).
Donna’s broadcasting career began in 1965 when she made yet another splash, becoming the youngest and the first woman sportscaster on network television in the sports broadcasting field.
At the age of 17, she provided expert swimming commentary for “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” at the men’s AAU National Swimming Championships. As a pioneer in the sports journalism/broadcasting business she paved the way for the future women athletes and journalists alike.
During ensuing years, she successfully juggled roles as host, co-host, special reporter and analyst at some of ABC’s premier events, including the 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1996 Summer Olympics and the 1984, 1988 and 1994 Winter Olympics, many times working with Al Schoenfield Media Award recipient Jim McKay. In 1998 she joined the TNT coverage team at the Nagano Winter Olympics, partnered again with veteran Olympics host Jim Lampley. At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, their late night coverage earned the highest ratings of any Game’s telecast.
Donna also co-produced, wrote and hosted “Keepers of the Flame,” a one-hour ABC Olympic television special nominated for an Emmy Award. She received n Emmy Award for producing and covering the story of a special Olympian during the 1991 Special Olympics. Donna is also the author of “Donna de Varona’s Hydro-Aerobics:Swim Your Way to Total Fitness,” and she has narrated the video, “Swimming for Fitness.”
A leader in the sports and fitness arena, Donna has served on President Ford’s Commission on Olympic Sports and President Carter’s Women’s Advisory Commission. She served five terms on the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports and has worked with the Special Olympics since its inception. She was a consultant to the United States Senate from 1976 through 1978 helping to pass the 1988 Amateur Sports Act and landmark “Title IX” legislation. In 1984 she served as a consultant to Peter Ueberroth for the Olympics creating the “Olympic Spirit Team.”
Donna is a founding member and first president of the Women’s Sports Foundation and was a member on the Board of the U.S. Olympic Foundation. She is a UCLA graduate in political science. One of the many leadership honors include a 1986 Yale Kiphuth Fellowship. In 1991 she was the first female to receive the International Swimming Hall of Fame Gold Medallion that recognized her life as an inspiration to all swimmers. In 1992, Donna was presented with the Olympia Award for her ongoing contributions to the U.S. Olympic Movement.
Donna has served many times as a theme reporter including the 1994 Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan story where she reported on “ABC’s World News Tonight with Peter Jennings,” “Good Morning America,” “Weekend News,” “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” and “Nightline” with Ted Koppel. During the 1996 Summer Olympic Games, Donna served as anchor for ABC News’ “Good Morning America” Olympic coverage, as well as filing daily reports for ABC Radio.
Donna served as chairperson of the 1999 Women’s World Cup Soccer Tournament Organizing Committee, the most successful women’s sporting event in history. This year she has served as an advisor to the White House Task Force on the World Anti-Doping Agency that was established to combat the use of illegal performance enhancing drugs in sports. Since 1998, Donna has provided weekly commentary for Sports News Radio, the nation’s largest and most listened to 24-hour sports radio network. She was awarded the Gracie Allen Award for excellence in broadcasting in both 2000 and 2001.
The 2000 Sydney Olympics marked Donna’s 12th Games as a broadcaster as she joined NBC’s Olympic coverage team in Australia.
The International Olympic Committee presented her with its highest award, the Olympic Order during the Games.
Sharon Robb
2000
Jean Pierre Lacour
1999
Eric Lahmy
1999
Frank Litsky
1998
Frank Litsky has been a sports writer and editor for The New York Times for 40 years and for United Press (before it became United Press International) for the 11½ years before that. He has specialized in swimming, track and field, professional football and college basketball. He has personally attended and covered eight Olympic Games and has run the desk at the Times and, before that, United Press, for 14 Olympics beginning with the 1948 London Olympics and continuing through the 1996 Atlanta Games…and he is still going.
Including swimming and diving he has also covered (alphabetically) archery, auto racing, baseball, bobsledding, boxing, cricket, cross-country, cycling, dog shows, field hockey, figure skating, golf, gymnastics, hockey, horse racing, tennis, volleyball, weight lifting and wrestling. He has covered sports in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, England, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, Yugoslavia and Korea.
Of all the sports he has covered, he says nothing has provided more enjoyment, professionally and personally, than swimming. He was born and raised in Waterbury, Conn., 20 miles from the Yale University Pool, and every Spring he would go there to watch the NCAA or AAU Indoor Championships. His fondest memory goes back to 1939, when he watched Alan Ford of Yale swim the 100-yard freestyle in 49.7 seconds, the first time anyone had breached the 50-second barrier and bettered Johnny Weissmuller’s epic record of 51 seconds.
He has written eight sports books, including the coffee-table book Superstars, a main selection of the Sports Illustrated Book Club and an alternate selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. For 36 years, he wrote on swimming and other sports for the encyclopedia and/or encyclopedia yearbooks of the World Book, Collier’s, Encyclopedia Britannica, Funk and Wagnall, and Living History of the World.
At its convention in 1984, The American Swimming Coaches Association presented him with a Certificate of Merit, the first journalist so honored. In 1984, the Track and Field Writers of America gave his its Jesse Abramson Award for outstanding coverage of the sport. He has also won writing and meritorious-service awards from the Pro Football Writers Association (five times), the Penn Relays and the Max Kase Sports Lodge of B’nai B’rith.
His sports coverage has given an enthusiastic boost to the aquatic disciplines and has served to keep the international community abreast with the achievements of the time.
Jim McKay
1997
For nearly 50 years, Jim McKay has been one of televisions outstanding commentators known for his coverage of sports and particularly the Olympic Games. The recipient of 13 Emmy Awards, McKay has covered numerous events during his associations with CBS (CBS Sports Spectacular) and ABC (ABC Wide World of Sports). These include 11 Olympic Games, Indy “500s”, British Opens, Kentucky Derbys, Masters and PGA Golf Tournaments, World Cup Soccer and, of course, national and international swimming, diving, synchronized swimming and water polo competitions. He has been program host of “ABC’s Wide World of Sports” since 1961, receiving a Peabody Award in 1989 and the Lowell Thomas Award from Capital Cities/ABC in 1990. His sports coverage has given an enthusiastic boost to the aquatic sports disciplines.