Happy Birthday Jon Henricks!!
Jon Henricks (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (1973)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1956 gold (100m freestyle; 4x200m freestyle relay); AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1952 gold (400m freestyle), silver (800m freestyle), bronze (1500m freestyle); 1953-1958 (10: 100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle relay); BRITISH EMPIRE GAMES: 2 medals; JAPANESE NATIONALS: 1 medal; KEO NAKAMA meet: 1 medal; PHILIPPINE NATIONALS: 1 medal; AMERICAN NATIONALS (Outdoor): 1958 (100m, 200m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS: 2; Australian Athlete of the Year: 1955 (named by the Helms Hall of Fame).
Jon Henricks started his swimming career as a distance swimmer, scoring his first real successes in 1952 when he came in 3rd in the Australian 1500 meters, 2nd in the 800, and won the 400 meters. The distance work proved too arduous, perhaps due to a prolonged ear infection that kept Jon off the 1952 Olympic team. With reluctance, his coach Harry Gallagher converted him to sprints. Henricks shocked both his coach and the Australian swimming community by promptly breaking the Olympic record for 100 meters in the Australian Championships of 1953. He subsequently held the fastest time in the world over 100 meters long course for 5 years, winning two gold medals in 1956 (100m and 4x200m). He lowered the existing record by almost 2 seconds.
During that time, he won ten Australian Individual Championships in those events, two British Empire Games medals establishing new records in 1954, the Japanese Nationals, the Keo Nakama meet in Hawaii, the Philippine Nationals, and broke two American records while on a visit in 1954. In 1958, he won the American National (outdoor) 100 and 200 meters. He was named Australian Athlete of the Year by the Helms Hall of Fame in 1955.
As a freshman at U.S.C. he teamed with Murray Rose, Don Reddington, Tom Winters, and Denis Devine, a five man Freshman team that broke the New Haven Swim Club’s dynastic grasp on the indoor AAUs. Daland had been a former Yale assistant considered least likely to succeed. This U.S.C. frosh team grew to a giant machine in the late fifties and early sixties, dominating the Pacific 8 Conference and winning four consecutive National Collegiate titles.
In 1960 Henricks made another attempt at the Olympics, winning the Australian trials handily. His attempt came to grief over what was euphemistically referred to as the “Roman Tummy”, and John Devitt and Lance Larson were left to battle it out. He had mixed feelings viewing that race, as both were teammates; Lance on Jon’s U.S.C. team, John Devitt on his Australian team. The fastest man in the world, at that time, Jeff Farrell, also glumly watched the race from the sidelines.
Jon Henricks did win in another way in 1960, marrying an American girl – the former Bonnie Wilkie, sister of one of his U.S.C. teammates Mike Wilkie. Both the Australian and American teams attended the wedding, which produced the historic picture of Lance Larson and John Devitt hugging each other.
Happy Birthday Jozsef Nagy!!
Jozsef Nagy (HUN/USA/CAN/ESP)
Honor Coach (2014)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES: Assistant Coach (HUN); 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: Assistant Coach (HUN (boycott); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: Unofficial Coach (USA); Coach of 1990 European Record Holder, Sergio Lopez; 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: Coach of 200m breast-stroke gold medalist, Mike Barrowman, Assistant Coach (SPN); 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2012 OLYMPIC GAMES: As-sistant Coach (CAN); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach (USA); 2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2010 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): Assistant Coach (CAN); 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2012 WORLD CHAMPI-ONSHIPS (SC): Assistant Coach (CAN); COACH OF TWO WORLD RE-CORD HOLDERS SETTING NINE WORLD RECORDS AND ONE RE-LAY WORLD RECORD; COACH OF THREE SWIMMERS WINNING ONE GOLD, SILVER AND BRONZE MEDAL AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS; 37 YEAR HISTORY OF NUMEROUS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS IN HUN, USA, SPN, CAN; 2010 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: Assistant Coach (CAN); 2007 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: Assistant Coach (CAN); 1985, 1991, 1987, 1999, 2000 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: Assistant Coach; FOUR-TIME CANADIAN COACH OF THE YEAR (Female).
He was born and raised in Hungary and may know more about the breaststroke than anyone in the world. Not surprisingly, Jozsef Nagy was a breaststroker himself. He won the Hungarian Jr. National Championship in 1973 and com-peted for Hungary internationally. After he retired from swimming in 1976, he studied physical education at the University of Budapest and earned a presti-gious Master Coach certificate. During this time, he read an article on the pat-tern of ocean waves by Nobel physicist Richard Feynman. Applying principles of physics to swimming, the idea for “wave-action breaststroke was born. It was originally just a theory, created on paper – but then proven in “practice” by Janos Dzvonyar, who placed 5th in the Moscow Olympic Games of 1980.
Until Nagy came along, breaststrokers glided along the surface like al-ligators. Their bodies rode low in the water, with only their backs and the crowns of their heads visible. In the 1980’s, breaststrokers began to resemble buoys bobbing in the water as the stroke became more vertical.
In 1986, Nagy moved to the United States and began coaching Mike Bar-rowman, the first swimmer to perfect “the wave” by channeling his power into smooth, undulating motions.
To help Barrowman grasp the idea, Nagy showed him footage of a cheetah on the run. “A cheetah keeps his head down and lifts his shoulders to run,” Barrowman said, “It really did help me to get a mental picture of what the shoulders needed to do in the stroke.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=N9Dh1gm05WA%3Flist%3DPLjYWbX54Yv0HVOw5kHd1i5ylYWBNDFnTY
Between 1988 and 1992, Barrowman dominated the 200 meter breaststroke, winning 15 of 16 major national and international competitions and the world record he set at the Barcelona Olympic Games held for ten years.
In addition to Barrowman, Nagy coached swimmers from four different nations to international success including, Roque Santos of the USA, Sergio Lopez of Spain, Gabriella Cespo and Norbert Rozsa of Hungary, and Canada’s Annamay Pierse.
The inventor of the “wave action breaststroke,” Joszef Nagy developed numerous dry land exercises and swim sets that are now widely used and he has generously shared and explained his ideas via articles, speeches and lectures around the world since the late 1980’s.
Happy Birthday Ada Kok!!
Ada Kok (Holland/NED)
Honor Swimmer (1976)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 silver (100m butterfly; 400m medley relay); 1968 gold (200m butterfly); WORLD RECORDS: 10; EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3; “European Swimmer of the Year”: 1963, 1965, 1967.
Ada Kok of the Netherlands helped open the Hall of Fame in 1966 at the first Hall of Fame International Meet, little realizing — after her disappointing second place Tokyo Olympic performances — that she would be inducted as a Hall of Fame Honoree ten years later. Ada won in 1968, then retired to become Speedo’s glamorous European sales representative. By the record and consensus vote, she is considered the all-time premier woman butterflyer.
Happy Birthday Susie Atwood!!
Susie Atwood (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1992)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1968 Olympic team member; 1972 Olympic bronze (100m backstroke); 1972 Olympic silver ( 200m backstroke); WORLD RECORD: 1 (200m backstroke); 3 WORLD RECORDS: relays; 18 AAU (100yd & 200yd backstroke, 200yd & 400yd individual medley); 5 AAU relays; Won 100yd & 200yd backstroke four consecutive years (indoors); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1971 silver (100m & 200m backstroke, 200m individual medley), bronze (400m individual medley); Long domination in the AAU Nationals; Held 200m backstroke World Records three years. AMERICAN RECORDS (Short Course): 9 (100yd & 200yd backstroke, 200yd & 400yd individual medley), 4 relays; AMERICAN RECORDS (Long Course): 2 (100m & 200m backstroke), 5
A dominant figure in United States swimming from 1969 through 1971, Susie Atwood’s record in U.S. National Championships was outstanding. She captured 23 national titles during her career which included a berth on two Olympic teams. A four-time World Record holder in the 200-meter backstroke and as a backstroker on the 400-meter medley relay, her prowess as America’s finest backstroke and individual medley swimmer of her era distinguishes her among the best in swimming history.
Sue began swimming at age seven under Jim Montrella at the Lakewood Aquatic Club in Long Beach, California, becoming one of the most consistent swimmers at the elite level. She is a six-time Bob Kiphuth High Point Award winner at the U.S. National Championships, second only to Tracy Caulkins who won a record 12 times. Sue set a total of 20 American records in the backstroke and individual medley as well as a relay team member.
At age fifteen, Atwood qualified as the top seed in the 200-meter backstroke at the 1968 Games in Mexico City but failed to make the finals. Sue’s disappointing Olympic debut fueled the fire for her road to the ’72 Games in Munich when she placed second to her teammate, Melissa Belote, in the 200-meter backstroke and took the bronze in the 100-meter backstroke. She held the American Record in the 400 I.M., but because of conflicts in the competition schedule, she did not swim the individual medley in Munich. Previous to that she had set the world record in the 200-meter backstroke. She had competed in the 1971 Pan American Games, winning five silver medals and a bronze. Beginning in 1969, she received the World Swimmer of the Year Award six times.
Susie’s contributions to swimming continued after she retired from competition. She went on to become an inspirational speaker and representative for Arena as well as swimming coach at Ohio State University.
Happy Birthday Matt Vogel!!
Matt Vogel (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1996)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1976 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (100m butterfly, 4x100m medley relay); ONE WORLD RECORD: 4x100m medley relay; ONE AMERICAN RECORD; 4x100m medley relay; ONE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP: 100yd butterfly.
He started swimming in Ft. Wayne, Indiana, for legendary coach Glen Hummer, competing at the Huntington, Indiana YMCA and in the famous quarry which hosted the U.S. National Long Distance Championships each summer. Hummer had coached Hall of Famer George Haines and 1968 Olympic champion Sharon Wickman in the Huntington swimming program. Little did Matt Vogel know that he was to follow in their footsteps.
During his early training days, Matt never competed in long course swimming pools. In 1975, he competed in his first big swimming meet – the YMCA Nationals in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. He won the 100yd butterfly and was second in the 200yd butterfly. Realizing Matt’s potential, Tennessee coach Ray Bussard recruited Matt and provided his initial long course training the summer of 1975.
All during the swim season of 1975-1976, Matt trained short course. As a Tennessee freshman he won the 100yd butterfly at the NCAA Championships. This was his first major success against international caliber swimmers.
At this time, he decided he really wanted to go after an Olympic medal in Montreal. Vogel had a great inner strength to achieve any goal he conceived. His good feel for the water and the little delay in his kick made him a natural and a great butterflyer.
He trained with Bussard for the U.S. Olympic Trials of 1976, barely qualifying and finishing third behind Joe Bottom and veteran Gary Hall.
Then it was off to Montreal. Between the preliminaries and semi-finals, Hall, Bottom and GDR’s Roger Pyttel all qualified ahead of Vogel. Could he beat them? Only Matt and his coach knew – “no excuses, never give up, be a winner.” In his final preparation, Vogel not only shaved his head, but in the Olympic final, he also shaved forty-five seconds off his qualifying time to win the gold medal. This meant that the jubilant Matt Vogel would also swim the butterfly leg of the 4x100m medley relay. The relay team won the Olympic Championship in world record time, giving Matt his second gold medal. This was indeed a remarkable performance considering it represented only the seventh long course, 100m butterfly race of his career.
Matt took a year off from training following the Olympic Games but returned to Tennessee for the 1977-78 school year as a member of the Tennessee team that won the NCAA National Championship.
Matt Vogel had what his coach call SPIZZERINCTUM, the will to succeed.
Happy Birthday Tamas Darnyi!!
Tamas Darnyi (HUN)
Honor Swimmer (2000)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m, 400m I.M.); 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m, 400m I.M.); SEVEN WORLD RECORDS: 3-200 I.M. 3-400m I.M., 1-200 backstroke (S.C.); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m, 400m I.M.); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m, 400m I.M.); 1985, 1987, 1989 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m I.M., 400m I.M.); 9 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2-200m backstroke, 3-200m I.M., 4-400m I.M.
During a seven-year period of time in the 1980’s and 1990’s, Tamas Darnyi rose from the water as the world’s fastest individual medley swimmer. His father, a steel factory worker, saw a newspaper ad in the Budapest paper for swimming lessons. Young Darnyi was enrolled and when the six-year-old exhibited great potential he enrolled in a competitive program at the Central Sports Club coached by Tamas Szechy, the country’s most successful coach.
Growing up, Darnyi trained with outstanding Szechy protégés Andras Hargitay and Zoltan Verraszto both of whom set world records in the 400m individual medley. Darnyi switched his main concentration from backstroke to I.M. and began winning Junior European Championships. Like his father on land, Darnyi was becoming a man of steel, in the water.
In 1982, a major roadblock confronted him when he was hit in the eye by a snowball. It took the best part of a year to undergo four operations with laser treatment for a detached retina. Although his vision was saved, he still has difficulty seeing out of his left eye, now at about 50 percent.
Darnyi’s first big meet after returning for training was the 1985 European Championships. He won gold medals in both the 200m and 400m individual medleys repeating this achievement in another two European Championships (1987, 1989). For a seven-year period, he was undefeated in international competition. At the 1986 Madrid World Championships, Darnyi defeated 1984 Olympic Champion Alex Baumann of Canada in both the 200m and 400m individual medleys. A year later he was swimming fast enough to break David Wharton’s and Alex Baumann’s I.M world records. All total, Darnyi set six world records in the individual medley and another in the 200m backstroke (short course).
In almost every meet Darnyi swam, his victories came in pairs – the 200m I.M. and the 400m I.M. Three European Championships: Sofia (1985), Strassburg (1987), Bonn (1989) and two World Championships: Madrid (1986), Perth (1991). The coveted Olympic gold medals came in Seoul (1988) and Barcelona (1992) where two of his races were world records and one was an Olympic record. His world records lasted until late 1994. He was selected three times European Swimmer of the Year (1987, 1988, 1991) and World Swimmer of the Year in 1991.
Happy Birthday Giorgio Cagnotto!!
Giorgio Cagnotto (ITA)
Honor Diver (1992)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964, 1968 Olympic team member; 1972 silver (3m springboard), bronze (10m platform); 1976 silver (3m springboard); 1980 bronze (3m springboard); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1978 bronze (3m springboard); FINA CUP: 1979 (3m springboard); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1966 bronze (3m springboard); 1970 gold (3m springboard), bronze (10m platform); 1974 silver (3m springboard); 1977 silver (3m springboard); EUROPEAN DIVING CUPS: 1967 gold (3m springboard); 1969 gold (10m platform); 1975 gold (3m springboard); 1976 gold (3m springboard). on both the 1-meter and 3-meter boards. He is the producer of the prize-winning documentary, “Hobie’s Heroes”. Hobie’s greatest pride is in the fact that there are more diving coaches in the high school and college ranks in the U.S. that have graduated from Indiana University under his tutelage than from any other university.
Italy’s Giorgio Cagnotto was one of the world’s most prolific divers during the 1960s and 1970s. At the age of eight, he began to train with this uncle, professional diver Lino Quattrrini. Just eight years later he found himself competing in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, kicking off an Olympic career of epic proportion.
Cagnotto’s Olympic appearances spanned three decades, competing in five consecutive Olympic Games. He was best off the springboard, but medaled in the platform as well. After Tokyo, he competed in Mexico City in 1968, but it was during his third Olympic effort in the ’72 Munich Games that he earned a silver medal for his performance on the springboard and a bronze in the platform competition. At the 1976 Montreal Games, he won his third Olympic medal– a silver in the springboard competition. He retired at the age of thirty-two after earning his fourth Olympic medal at the 1980 Moscow Games where Cagnotto again medaled in the springboard competition, taking the bronze.
Giorgio was competing at a time when diving competition was dominated by fellow countryman Klaus Dibiasi, the only diver to win gold medals in three consecutive Olympic Games. Giorgio was as far in advance of the rest of the sport as Klaus was of him. Between them, the red, white, and green Italian flag was raised many times in international competition. Holder of two gold, two silver, and two bronze European Cup Championships and a medal winner in every European championship from 1966 through 1977, Cagnotto won eight outdoor and twelve indoor Italian National Championships.
Both Cagnotto and Dibiasi were coached by Papa Dibiasi, a former Italian National Champion with a long career in the sport. Papa retired just in time so as not to be competing against his son and Cagnotto. The only medal winner to dive in five consecutive Olympic Games, Giorgio Cagnotto is presently the Italian National Team Coach and the Federal Technical Director of Diving, living in Bolzano, Italy, with his wife. Giorgio Cagnotto is a true legend representing excellence and longevity in a sport demanding commitment, style and grace.
Today We Remember Johnny Weissmuller on His Birthday!!
Johnny Weissmuller (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1965)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1924 gold (100m, 400m freestyle; 4x200m freestyle relay), bronze (water polo); 1928 gold (100m freestyle; 4x200m freestyle relay); WORLD RECORDS: 51; U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 52; Played Tarzan in 16 movies.
Johnny Weissmuller holds no current world swimming records and by today’s Olympic standards, you might say he never swam very fast, but you can’t get anyone who ever saw him swim say that there never was a greater swimmer. This was the verdict of 250 sportswriters at A.P.’s mid-century poll and it is still the verdict 15 years later.
He was the swim great of the 1920’s Golden Age of Sports, yet because of the movies and TV, he is as much a part of the scene in the 1960s as he was in the 1920s when his name was coupled with sports immortals such as Babe Ruth, Bill Tilden, Bobby Jones, Jack Dempsey and Red Grange. He is the only one of this group more famous today than in the “Golden Age.”
Weissmuller set many world records and won 5 gold medals in two Olympics (1924 and 1928). He never lost a race in 10 years of amateur swimming in distances from 50 yards to 1/2 mile. Johnny’s 51 seconds 100 yard freestyle record set June 5, 1927, in the University of Michigan Union Pool stood for 17 years until it was broken by Alan Ford at Yale in 1944. The 100 yd. distance is swum more often than any other, yet in 17 years, only one man ever swam it faster. That man was Johnny Weissmuller, who later, as a professional in the Billy Rose World’s Fair Aquacade swam 48.5 at the New York Athletic Club while training Walter Spence to win the nationals. For those who think swimmers must be teenage bobby-soxers, it might be of interest to note that Spence was 35 at the time and Weissmuller was 36.
His record of 52 national championship gold medals should stand forever. He is famous for his chest high crawl stroke seen by millions in Olympic swim stadiums, on movie screens and on TV, but he also held world records in the backstroke and never lost a race in that stroke. “I got bored,” says Johnny, “so I swam on my back where I could spend more time looking around.” Weissmuller set 51 world records in his ten years as an amateur but many more times he broke world records and never turned in the record applications. Every time he swam, the crowd expected a new record, so Johnny learned pace. He learned how to shave his records a tenth of a second at a time. If he missed, his 350 lb. coach Bill Bachrach would say “rest a few minutes, Johnny, and we’ll swim again.” Bachrach would promise his protégé a dinner if he broke the record and Johnny always seemed to be hungry. Many a world mark was set with only a couple of visiting coaches or a few guests of the Illinois Athletic Club to watch.
Every old-timer in swimming has a favorite Johnny Weissmuller story. To them all, he was the world’s greatest swimmer, yet ironically the producer who signed him to play Tarzan didn’t know Johnny could swim. “Many think I turned pro to go into the movies,” Johnny says, “but this is not true. I was working for a bathing suit company for $500 a week for five years, which was not bad money then (or now). I was in Los Angeles and they asked me if I would like to screen test for Tarzan. I told them ‘no thanks’ but they said I could go to the MGM lot and meet Greta Garbo and have lunch with Clark Gable. Any kid would want to do that so I said ‘okay’. I had to climb a tree and then run past the camera carrying a girl. There were 150 actors trying for the part, so after lunch, I took off for Oregon on my next stop for the swim suit outfit. Somebody called me on the phone and said ‘Johnny, you got it.’ ‘Got what?’ ‘You’re Tarzan.’ ‘What happened to those other 150 guys?’ ‘They picked you.’”
“So the producer asked me my name and he said it would never go. ‘We’ll have to shorten it,’ he said. ‘Weissmuller is to long. It will never go on a marquee.’ The director butted in. ‘Don’t you ever read the papers?’ he asked the producer. ‘This guy is the world’s greatest swimmer.’ The producer said he only read the trade papers, but okay, I could keep my name and he told the writers, ‘put a lot of swimming in the movie, because this guy can swim.’”
“So you see why I owe everything to swimming,” Weissmuller says. “It not only made my name, it saved my name. Without swimming, I’d be a nobody. Who ever heard of Jon Weis, marquee or no marquee.”
Besides swimming, Johnny Weissmuller played on two U.S. Olympic water polo teams. “Water polo’s a rough game,” Johnny says. “We never could beat those Yugoslavians. They never blow a whistle over there. Anyhow, that’s where I learned to duck. It came in handy when Cheetah started throwing coconuts.”
Happy Birthday Fred Deburghgraeve!!
Fred Deburghgraeve (BEL)
Honor Swimmer (2008)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (100m breaststroke); THREE WORLD RECORDS: 1-100m breaststroke (lc), 2- 100m breaststroke (sc); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (100m breaststroke); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke), bronze (200m breaststroke);
At the tender age of eight, this youngster started swimming at the Roeselare swim club. He was coached by his father for the first eight years of his life. Once he reached a certain level, his father thought he needed a more experienced coach, where they found a Dutchman by the name of Ronald Gaastra. But even when he was competing at the elite levels, he did not have ideal training conditions. Gaastra lived 100 kilometers from Roeselare and would communicate work outs by phone and would visit only once a week, so his father remained his main support and motivator. Much of the time, he trained by himself. He was the oldest in the club and had no real peers, especially at his elite level. This makes his accomplishments that much more impressive!
Known in Belgium as “Fred Rocket”, Fred Deburghgraeve broke onto the international scene at the 1990 Junior European Championships where he won two bronze medals in the 100 and 200 meter breaststroke events. He continued on, competing at the 1994 World Championships, winning bronze in the 100 meter breaststroke. He won gold in the 100 and bronze in the 200 meter breaststroke at the 1995 European Championships.
But, it was not until the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games that Deburghgraeve really made his mark. He swam a 1:00.60 in the 100 meter breaststroke, breaking the world record in the morning, going on
to win the gold medal in the final that evening. This feat made him the first person in history to win a gold medal in swimming for his native homeland, Belgium.
In addition to his long course world record, Fred also set two short course world records. He took the Phillips Petroleum Award home to Belgium after breaking his own world record in the 100 meter breaststroke with a 58.79 at the US Open at College Station in late 1998. Fred Deburghgraeve ended his career on a high note by taking home gold in the 100 meter breaststroke at the 1998 World Championships in Perth, Australia. Fred Deburghgraeve (BEL) 2008 Honor Swimmer.
Happy Birthday Domenico Fioravanti!!
Domenico Fioravanti (ITA)
Honor Swimmer (2012)
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (100m, 200m breaststroke); 2001 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (100m breaststroke), bronze (50m breaststroke); 1999 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (25m): silver (100m breaststroke); 1997 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 5th (100m breaststroke); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke); 2000 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke), silver (200m breaststroke).
Domenico Fioravanti was born in Novara, Italy on the 31st of May, 1977. He started to swim competitively at the age of nine. One year later, following in the footsteps of his older brother, Massimiliano, he began training daily.
Although a breaststroke specialist, Domenico won his first international medal in 1996 at the European Short Course Championships in Rostock as a member of Italy’s silver medal 4×50 meter freestyle team. In 1997, he obtained his first career international gold medal, winning the 100 meter breaststroke at the Mediterranean Games in Bari, Italy.
1998 was another year of growth, with Fioravanti winning nine Italian national titles in individual and relay races, and finishing fifth in the 100 meter breaststroke at the FINA World Championships in Perth, Australia. In 1999, his steady rise in world rankings continued with a silver medal in the 100 meter breaststroke at the World Short Course Championships in Hong Kong, and a gold at the European Long Course Championships in Istanbul. A year later in Sydney, Domenico got the biggest wins of his career, winning gold medals in both the 100 meter and 200 meter breaststroke events at the 2000 Olympic Games.
Fioravanti remained among the world’s elite breaststrokers after Sydney, but in preparing for Athens in 2004, he was diagnosed with cardiac hypertrophy. So, as a precaution, he retired from swimming. In 2008, he received the Olympic Legends Fair Play Award and he is currently an ambassador for the Italian Swimming Federation and television commentator for RAI.
During his racing career, Fioravanti won 46 Italian national titles, including relays. At the Sydney Olympic Games, he made history by becoming the first Italian swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal.