Happy Birthday Manuel Estiarte !
Manuel Estiarte (ESP) 2007 Honor Water Polo Player
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES: 4th; 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: 4th; 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: 6th; 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver; 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: 4th; 1991, 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver; 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 1991, 1995, 1997, 1999 FINA WORLD CUP: bronze; 1983,1991, 1993, 1997, 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (1991), bronze (1983,1993), 5th (1997), 6th (1999);
At just 5’8″ and weighing 145 pounds, Manuel Estiarte would seem to be an unlikely candidate to be considered the greatest player of all-time in a sport whose players average 6’3” and 200 plus pounds. But Manuel’s career proved once again that it’s not the size of the man, but the size of his heart and what’s in the head that counts the most. Born in Manresa, Spain, in 1961, Manuel Estiarte began playing water polo as soon as he could swim and at the Barcelona Swimming Club (BSC) was identified as a water polo prodigy. He was 15 when he made his international debut and within three years was the top scorer at the Moscow Olympics in 1980. He repeated as the leading scorer in 1984 Los Angeles with a record 34 goals as the Most Outstanding Player of the Games. He led all players in scoring again in 1988 at Seoul with 26 goals.
In 1992 Estiarte became a national hero after leading Spain to its first-ever Olympic medal, silver, in their host city of Barcelona. But finishing the Games as top scorer again was little comfort following a dramatic gold medal final against Ratko Rudic’s Italian team. Estiarte converted a penalty 42 seconds from full time to put Spain ahead, but nine seconds later Italy equalized and went on to win in extra time. Four years later, in Atlanta, Spain and Estiarte were once again in the Olympic final, but this time the result was different. With ten seconds to play and Spain up 7- 5 against Croatia, Estiarte took possession.
“I’ve dreamt of this moment all my life,” he said afterwards. “The last ten seconds of the Olympic final, I have the ball and Spain wins the gold medal. I waited five Olympics, but it finally happened.” All totaled, in a career that spanned over two decades, he competed in more Olympic Games, six, and scored more than any other player in Olympic history, 127. He competed in over 578 international games for the Spanish team, scoring over 600 goals. For many years, he played in the Italian Professional League with Club Pescara winning a water polo grand slam of four European Championships. In 1998, he was voted Best Player of the Perth World Championships. “I had the privilege to take part in six Olympic Games, and in each one of them I felt emotions too special to be described. From the first, when I was just a young man, to the last, where I won and I had the honor of carrying my homeland’s flag.”
Following his retirement after the Sydney Games he served as a member of the International Olympic Committee Athletes´s Commission until 2004.
Happy belated Birthday Bobby Webster (October 25)
ROBERT WEBSTER (USA) 1970 Honor Diver
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 gold (platform); 1964 gold (platform); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1963 gold (platform); 1971 (U.S. Diving Coach); U.S. NATIONAL AAU CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1960 through 1964 (won all tower diving contests); 1962 (1m springboard); BIG TEN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1960 (3m springboard).
“From California to the New York harbor, from the redwood forests to the Gulfstream waters”, double Olympic champion Bob Webster’s diving career was coast to coast. He won his Olympic gold medals in Rome and Tokyo. He came out of California to college at Michigan and now coaches at Princeton.
Webster is primarily known as a tower diver, yet he was U.S. National AAU champion in 1 meter low board (1962) and Big Ten 3 meter high board champion (1960). Webster won his first Olympic title (10 meter platform) in Rome just three years after he took his first tower dive in competition. From that date (1960) until his retirement after winning the 1964 Olympic platform title in Tokyo, Webster never lost a tower diving contest.
He won his first collegiate title diving for Santa Ana Junior College, a school without a pool. He prepared for the Southern Section Junior College Championships training off a board in Olympic champion Sammy Lee’s back yard sand pit. From Santa Ana, Webster went to the University of Michigan where he was coached by Dick Kimball and by the late Bruce Harlan, himself an Olympic champion in 1948.
Following his retirement as a competitive diver, Webster took a Far East tour for the State Department and then began a coaching career at Minnesota and Princeton. Bob was appointed U.S. Diving Coach for the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia. This trip stands as an honor richly deserved since Webster, in 1963 at Sao Paulo, Brazil, was the first U.S. diver to win 10 meter diving in the history of the Pan American Games.
One Hundred and Fifteen years ago, Open Water Pioneer Swimmer, Gertrude Ederle was born in New York City !!
GERTRUDE EDERLE (USA) 1965 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1924 gold (4x100m freestyle relay), bronze (100m, 400m freestyle); WORLD and NATIONAL RECORDS: 29 (from 1921 to 1925 – in 1922 she set 7 world records in the course of one 500m swim); First woman to swim the English Channel, 1926 (beating all previous times by men).
Gertrude Ederle’s two greatest days in swimming were at Brighton Beach in 1922 and in the English Channel in 1926, the first as an amateur, the second as a professional.
At Brighton Beach, Miss Ederle broke seven world records at various distances in the course of a single 500 meter swim. In England, she became the first woman to swim the English Channel.
Trudy’s great Channel swim was 51 years after Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the Channel, had achieved the impossible, and it completely captured the public imagination because such swimming immortals as Annette Kellerman had tried and failed, claiming the feat completely beyond the limits of a woman’s strength and endurance. Gertrude Ederle not only swam the Channel but swam it faster than any man before her.
She held 29 U.S. national and world records from 1921 until she turned professional after the 1925 season. Her amateur national championships were won at distances from 50 yards to the half mile and her great professional Channel effort was 20 miles. Olympian Ederle was tough at any distance at the 1924 Paris Olympics.
Gertrude Ederle was the female counterpart of Johnny Weissmuller in that they were discussed in every household as the two greatest swimming figures of the 1920s, idols of the “Golden Age of Sport”.
When “Trudy”, as she was known, returned from Europe after her successful channel swim, the city held a ticker-tape parade in her honor in New York City. It was the largest parade the city had ever seen. People were everywhere, falling off sidewalks and into the streets, all just to get a glance of Trudy.
The parade was held in the Canyon of Heroes, a section in lower Manhattan that starts at about City Hall Park and ends at the Battery. It’s about a mile long stretch. It is estimated that Ederle’s parade drew more than two-million people, who lined the streets of New York.
Ederle was inducted into ISHOF’s first class of Honorees. Of course, she certainly deserved it. She became fast friends with Buck Dawson and returned several times after her induction in 1965, to help support ISHOF and induct other Honorees. Here she is below in 1978, helping induct Honor Swimmer, Lynn Burke.
Ederle never married, but went on to teach children, particularly deaf children to swim. She lived to be 98 years old and died on November 30, 2003.
Those of you who remember Buck Dawson and Bob Duenkel, may be interested to know that up until the end, Bob and Buck would stop in and visit with Trudy every year on their way to and from Camp in the Summers.
ISHOF Aquatic Center Manager, Laura Voet, visits Gate Precast, who will construct our new High Dive Tower
The Beginning Phase of the 27 meter High Dive Tower
by Laura Voet
The time has come for us to dive in to the precast concrete fabrication process.
A few pictures from our field trip to Gate Precast in Kissimmee on October 16, 2020. We were there to select the color and textures for the dive tower and review the construction plans.
The Kissimmee plant manager stated that the dive tower is a very complex structure with a high degree of difficulty, we definitely get the gold medal for most challenging design! Gate Precast has considerable experience with air traffic control towers, Fort Lauderdale’s dive tower is a new cousin in this family.
Gate’s headquarters are in Jacksonville and they have eight plants across the southeast United States. It was an impressive operation and yard, all carpentry forms and iron work is constructed in house.
Manufacturing of the panels will begin this fall, followed by delivery in January 2021. The dive tower will be erected in February 2021.
As a unique and one of a kind structure, the dive tower construction process will be featured in a video documentary.
Check out the links below to see more about Gate Precast.
https://gateprecast.com/
https://gateprecast.com/learn/facility-tours/
Today, we celebrate Honor Water Polo Player, Deszo Gyarmati, born on this day in 1927…
DESZO GYARMATI (HUN) 1976 Honor Water Polo Player
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1948 silver; 1952, 1956, 1964 gold; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1; EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: three; NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: ten.
Dezso Gyarmati is beginning his water polo coaching career at the top where he left off as a player. Considered by most to be the greatest player of the modern post-World War II passing game, he led Hungary to Olympic gold medals three times. As Hungarian National Coach he won the first World Championships in Yugoslavia where his world record daughter, Andrea, was Hungary’s top woman swimmer.
On this day in 1894, ISHOF Honor Swimmer Belle Moore was born…..
BELLE MOORE (GBR) 1989 Honor Pioneer Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1912 gold (400m freestyle relay).
In 1912, Belle Moore became the first and only Scottish woman to win an Olympic gold medal for swimming. The 1912 Stockholm Olympics were the first ever for women’s swimming competition. Belle, along with Hall of Famer Jennie Fletcher and two teammates from England, won the 400 meter freestyle relay for Great Britain. King Gustav V of Sweden adorned her with her Olympic gold medal and laurel wreath.
Number eight of nine children, Belle started swimming because it was mandatory in all Glasgow schools. Her instructor encouraged her to continue and because she was so dedicated she often walked 2 to 3 miles to a pool.
As the lead-off swimmer, dressed in a wooly tank suit and wearing a red rubber cap with bow to cover her long hair, Belle and her team from Great Britain beat nine other teams for the Olympic gold. She continued her winning ways into the next year by setting the 200 yard freestyle record which remained unbroken for many years.
In 1919, she married George Cameron, a naval architect and moved to Dundalk, Maryland, USA where she lived until her death in 1975. She continued to swim in her adult years and taught thousands of youngsters to swim.
Happy Birthday Sue Pedersen !!!
SUE PEDERSEN (USA) 1995 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1968 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4x100m freestyle relay, 4x100m medley relay), silver (100m freestyle, 200m individual medley), 4th (400m individual medley); 3 WORLD RECORDS: (200m freestyle, 4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay); 1967 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: silver ( 800m freestyle, 200m , 400m individual medley); 6 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS; 4 U.S. NATIONAL RECORDS; 9 AMERICAN RECORDS.
At the age of three, Sue Pedersen had so much extra energy that her family doctor instructed her parents to “find something for her to do.” Following the doctor’s advice, they introduced her to a swimming pool where her tremendous energy became loads of talent, making history.
Sue became the greatest age group swimmer of her era. She was the first 10 and under age group swimmer to break a minute in the 100 yard freestyle. The following year she shocked her audience by becoming the youngest girl to set a senior American record.
Her parents, who regarded her swimming as a “family affair,” often had to present proof of age to judges who had a hard time believing that one so young could swim so fast.
In her first senior level meet at the AU Swimming Championships, Sue humbled the world’s top swimmers by capturing the 500 yard freestyle event. Her record-breaking style continued at the 1968 Olympic Trials when she came out No. 1, smashing the American record and found a spot as “Baby Sue” of the Olympic team.
Celebrating her 15th birthday at the Olympics, she received many gifts including a few from herself: two gold medals in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay and the 4×100 meter medley relay and two silver medals in the 100meter freestyle and the 200 meter individual medley.
Shortly after the Olympics, Sue decided to retire while still a champion. Throughout the years, Sue has instilled in her daughter, Trish, the values she learned through swimming. Trish is an accomplished equestrian rider and is now in her first year of medical school. Sue lives in Tacoma, Washington and works as a certified public accountant.
Happy Birthday Melissa Belote !!!
MELISSA BELOTE (USA) 1983 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1972 gold (100m, 200m backstroke; 400m medley relay); WORLD RECORDS: 4 (200m backstroke; medley relay); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1973 GOLD (200m backstroke), silver (100m backstroke; relay); AAU NATIONALS: 6 (1972, 1973, 1975); AMERICAN RECORDS: 9 (100m, 200m backstroke; relays); WOMEN’S NATIONAL COLLEGIATE Titles: 3 (1977: 100yd, 200yd backstroke; 400yd individual medley).
What American girl swimmer won three gold medals in the 1972 Munich Olympics? The answer is Melissa Belote. What American girl swimmer won one of our only two gold medals against the East Germans in the First World Championships? The answer, again, Melissa Belote.
Miss Belote came from nowhere in the 1972 Olympic Trials to beat the reigning queen of the American Backstroke, Susie Atwood. In Munich they again finished one, two, as Melissa set a World and Olympic Record to win the 200m Back. Nominated twice for the Sullivan Award, in 1972 & 1973, she again made the team for the 1976 Montreal Games.
During the 1976-77 season, Melissa finished first in College All-American ratings for the 200yd & 400yd I.M., and the 200yd Back. For this season she also won the AIAW & Broderick Awards as “Outstanding Female College Swimmer.” Melissa retired in 1979 and was inducted into the Arizona State University Hall of Fame in 1981. Following the retirement of her longtime mentor, Ed Solotar, she is now co-coach of the Solotar Swim Team.
Happy Birthday to the Great Laurie Lawrence !!!
LAURIE LAWRENCE (AUS) 1996 Honor Coach
FOR THE RECORD: 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: Team Coach; 1982, 1986 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Team Coach; Swimming Coach since 1966; Coach of swimmers Jon Sieben, Duncan Armstrong, Julie MacDonald, Glen Buchanan, Justin Lemberg, Glen Houseman, Helen Gray, Steve Holland and Tracy Wickham; Author of Lawrence of Australia, Sink or Swim and Babies Can Swim videotape.
His own voice beams with enthusiasm, pride and with the feeling that nothing easy is worth doing. It is defying the odds…doing the impossible that excites Laurie Lawrence. He is the master innovator. He inspires confidence and belief. No challenge is too great, no task is impossible. Everyone around him soaks in his enthusiasm.
And that is just what Laurie has done – create the atmosphere for his swimmers to succeed. To some people, Laurie Lawrence is a crazy, over-competitive mad man. But his shining side, his greatest asset, is his ability and attitude in helping young Australians achieve their goals. He is the kind of coach who could have coached in any sport and been successful. Lucky for us, he chose swimming. Even from his own competitive days as an athlete playing rugby for his country, it was winning for Australia that counted for Laurie.
Win and produce winners is what he did, and in a way that only Laurie Lawrence could do. His first big charge was Helen Gray, whom he shocked in 1970 by throwing her Queensland silver medal over the fence as his way of saying, “Don’t be complacent. You can be a medalist at the Commonwealth Games if you re-focus, work hard.” She did, winning a silver medal in the 800m freestyle and a berth on the 1972 Olympic Team. His swimmers include Hall of Famer Steve Holland, the skinny little youngest ever world record holder at age fifteen who set eleven world records in the 800m and 1500m freestyles, and was a World Championship and Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and an Olympic bronze medalist; Hall of Famer Tracy Wickham, five time world record holder for nine and one-half years in the distance freestyle events, World Championship and Commonwealth Games gold medalist; Glenn Buchanan the 1984 100m butterfly double bronze medalist and his teammate Jon Seiben who at the Los Angeles Olympics beat Michael Gross of Germany in the 200m butterfly, setting a new world record; Julie MacDonald, Pan Pacific’s gold medalist and Commonwealth medalist and Australia’s only 1988 Olympic female medalist, bronze in the 800m freestyle; Hall of Famer Duncan Armstrong, Seoul’s 200m freestyle gold medalist and 400m silver medalist and world record holder in the process. There will be others who will benefit from his iron-hard philosophy of success. Said Duncan Armstrong, “He had that gift of inspiration. He could reach into you and you could feel the strength from him.”
Most of Laurie’s Olympic swimmers learned to swim under his guidance and in his now famous Learn to Swim School for babies, pre-school and school-aged children. Laurie personally instructs youngsters in swimming and also specializes in teaching physically handicapped children. Judy Young is one of the swimmers who won the Para-Olympic gold in the 400m freestyle at the Seoul Olympics. His book, Sink or Swim, on teaching babies is a valuable guide for all parents, and he joins Hall of Famer Virginia Hunt Newman, promoting trust and motivation to teach swimming the comforting way.
From being around the Townsville Pool his father ran, and sparked into swimming by the legendary Hall of Famer Jon Henricks, Laurie Lawrence has become a swimming legend and a maker of champions, capable of lifting the spirits of those around him to soaring heights. He is many other things too – extrovert, patriot, poet, humorist, singer and now the most sought after motivational speaker in Australia. His swimmers have set over seventeen world records, and he has coached Aussie Teams to three Commonwealth Games and three Olympic teams. He possesses the qualities with which he works to instill in every competitor: be proud, persist, work hard, stand tall, don’t quit, don’t bend, don’t break, don’t fall.
Laurie was inducted into ISHOF as an Honor Coach in 1996. In 2018, he was present with ISHOF’s highest award, the Gold Medallion. His program “Five Alive” is teaching children all over Australia water safety and to learn to swim. With his outgoing personality and love for life, Laurie is quite the celebrity down under.
Craig Beardsley Joins ‘One in a Thousand’ Campaign, “The Hall of Fame Connects All Of Us”
by ANDY ROSS
13 October 2020, 01:54pm
Pan American Games gold medalist and former 200 butterfly world record holder Craig Beardsley has joined the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s “One in a Thousand” campaign, which is designed to help the Hall of Fame thrive during the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I donate because when I was a kid, we would go to Fort Lauderdale and the Hall of Fame was there,” Craig Beardsley said. “As a young athlete, it was burned into my brain the importance of something like this! The importance of having an international swimming hall of fame to acknowledge not only the athletes but everyone in aquatic sports.
“People should know of our sport and the people that came before them and what they did to get the sport to where it is today. We all are on the shoulders of giants. For me, it was the 72 and 76 Olympic teams that kicked it off for me.
“Swimmers are a unique group of people and we are a family and whenever you meet a competitive swimmer, there is an instant connection and bond. You meet someone and go, ‘hey you’re a swimmer?’ and next thing you know there are a million things you’re talking about. It makes the world a better place to have similarities and the same things we experience. It’s a bond that lasts through your lifetime. I think the Hall of Fame is a big part of that – it is part of the glue that actually holds us all together. I love the fact that even though I can’t make every banquet, I can read the newsletters and hearing who is getting inducted and who gets an award. It keeps us engaged at a different level, to see what our friends are doing.
“The Hall of Fame for me always goes beyond just swimming. It means a lot more to me. That’s why I donate all the time because I’ve developed friendships within the organization and it means a great deal to me. I don’t swim Masters but I am involved with Swim Across America so I stay engaged. That’s what the hall of fame does! It keeps us connected around the world which I think is really important. The swimming bond lasts a lifetime.”
Join the One in a Thousand Club by helping ISHOF on a monthly or one-time basis.
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Craig Beardsley: 1980 Olympian
By John Lohn
Craig Bearsley. Photo Courtesy: Tim Morse / Swimming World Archive
History views Craig Beardsley as an American great in the 200 meter butterfly. He was preceded by Carl Robie, Mark Spitz and Mike Bruner. He was followed by Mel Stewart, Tom Malchow and Michael Phelps. But Beardsley is missing the Olympic gold medal they all possess, and by no fault of his own. He was a victim of circumstance and political turmoil.
At the height of his career, like many of his United States teammates, Beardsley was poised to capture gold in the 200 butterfly at the 1980 Games. He was the Pan American champion in 1979, earning him favorite status for Moscow. But when President Jimmy Carter announced the United States would boycott the Olympiad, Beardsley’s dream was crushed.
His nightmare only grew darker four years later, when in pursuit of redemption, Beardsley placed third in his prime event at the U.S. Olympic Trials. The finish locked him out of a trip to Los Angeles and led him into retirement. It was also the first year in which nations were limited to two athletes per event, rather than three.
“The lesson I learned from that was actually a very good life lesson,” Beardsley once said of his boycott ordeal. “Sometimes, you do everything in your power, you do everything you’re supposed to do, but sometimes things are just out of your control. You’ve got to learn to put that behind you, let it roll off your shoulders, and just move on.”
Even without an Olympic appearance and hardware, Beardsley’s accomplishments are impressive.
Two world records (with his reign atop the event lasting for more than three years)
Gold medals at the 1979 and 1983 Pan American Games
A bronze medal at the 1982 World Championships
Perhaps most impressive is the fact that his first world record was an emphatic rebuttal to what unfolded—without his presence—at the 1980 Olympics. Just 10 days after the Soviet Union’s Sergey Fesenko won gold in a time of 1:59.76, Beardsley blasted that performance with a global standard of 1:58.21. The effort left no doubt who was the dominant man in the event.
The International Swimming Hall of Fame wants to know if you are one in a thousand? We think you are! Show how special you are and become a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s “One In A Thousand” Club. Help keep the International Swimming Hall of Fame moving forward toward a new vision and museum by joining now!
During these unprecedented times, the ISHOF Board is calling on every member in the aquatic community to make a small monthly commitment of support to show how special you are and how special the International Swimming Hall of Fame is to everyone.
“Our goal is simple. If we get 1,000 people to simply commit $10, $25 or $50 per month, we will generate enough revenue to go beyond this Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis.” – Bill Kent – Chairman of the ISHOF Board
“Those that believe in our vision, mission, and goals can join us in taking ISHOF into the future and be a part of aquatic history.” – Brent Rutemiller – CEO and President of ISHOF
Since 1965, ISHOF has been the global focal point for recording and sharing the history of aquatics, promoting swimming as an essential life-skill, and developing educational programs and events related to water sports. ISHOF’s vision for the future is to build a new museum and expand its reach by offering its museum artifacts digitally through a redesigned website.
The ISHOF Board of Directors is calling on all members of the aquatics community to make a small monthly commitment to show their dedication to aquatics and how special the International Swimming Hall of Fame is to everyone.