Happy Birthday Don Gambril!!
Don Gambril (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1983)
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 U.S. Olympic Coach; Assistant U.S. Olympic Coach: 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980; Assistant Coach: 1978 World Championships; Coach of 1977 World University Games; Head coach at the University of Alabama beginning 1971; His career record from 1966-1982: 4 NAAU team championships; 1 NCAA College Division Championship; 4 times finished in the top 5 NCAA Championships; 178 wins and 22 losses in dual meets; 114 of his swimmers received All-American honors; His swimmers held at least 10 World Records.
The United States head Olympic swim coach for 1984 has served his apprenticeship on every level of swim coaching. Known throughout the world for his ability to work harmoniously with star swimmers and coaches alike, Don Gambril has been a member of the U.S. Olympic coaching staff five times in ’68, ’72, ’76, ’80 and ’84 following the great success of his swimmers in ’64. It was just after the Tokyo Olympics that he was named “Coach of the Year” by his 2,000 peers in the American Swim Coaches Association. 16 years later, he was elected the President of this largest swim coaching body in the world. Gambril has always paid his dues, serving as a member of the USOC, the AAU Men’s and Women’s Swim Committees, USS Board of Directors, NCAA Swimming Rules Committee. He has coached at City of Commerce, Pasadena City College, Philips 66 Long Beach, Long Beach State University and Harvard before coming to Alabama.
Among his famous swimmers are Hall of Famers Sharon Stouder (USA), and Gunnar Larsson (Sweden), who have won a total of 5 Olympic gold medals between them. He is also credited with developing Jonty Skinner, the supreme sprinter from South Africa who was denied the Olympics because of politics. The President of U.S. Swimming (Ross Wales) and the head coaches at Stanford (Skip Kenney), Arizona (Dick Jochums) and UCLA (Ron Ballatore) are among Don’s former swimmers and assistants who have hit the top along with Olympic team members from the U.S., Canada, Sweden, Germany, Brazil and ten other nations.
Happy Birthday Lynne Cox!!
Lynne Cox (USA)
Honor Open Water Swimmer (2000)
FOR THE RECORD: First crossing of the Catalina Island Channel (1971) 12:36 hrs.; Women’s and men’s record crossing of the English Channel (1972) 9:57 hrs.; Women’s and men’s record crossing of the English Channel (1973) 9:36 hrs., Catalina Island Channel crossing record (1974) 8:48 hrs.; Cook Straits between North and South Islands of New Zealand (1975) 12 hrs., 2 min.; Straits of Magellan (Chile), Oresund and Skagerrak (Scandinavia) (1976) 1 hr., 2 min.; Aleutian Islands (three channels) 1977; Cape of Good Hope (S. Africa) 1979; Around Joga Shima (Japan) 1980; Across three lakes in New Zealand’s Southern Alps (1983); Twelve difficult “Swims Across America” (1984); “Around the World in 80 Days”, 12 extremely challenging swims totaling 80+ miles (1985); Across the Bering Strait, U.S. to Soviet Union (1987) 2 hr., 6 min.; Across Lake Baikal, Soviet Union (1988); Across the Beagle Channel between Chile and Argentina (1990); Across the Spree River between the newly united German Republics (1990); Lake Titicaca Swim (1992).
Lynne Cox became the best cold water, long distance swimmer the world has ever seen. Her 5 foot 6 inch, 180-pound frame of a body was at one with the water. With a body density precisely that of sea water, her 36% body fat (normal is 18% to 25%) gave her neutral buoyancy. Her energy could be used all for propulsion and not to keep afloat. Propelling though the most treacherous waters of the globe is what Lynne Cox did best.
When her parents moved the family from New Hampshire to Los Alamitos, California in 1969 so that Lynne and her older brother and two sisters could receive better swim coaching, Hall of Fame coach Don Gambril, at the Phillips 66 Swim Club, took her under his guidance. What he saw was a large-boned girl with boundless energy and great upper body strength who could slice through the water like a porpoise. When she was 14 and already tired of “going back and forth in the pool and going nowhere”, Gambril urged her to enter a series of rough water swims near Long Beach. As a result in 1971, at age 14, she swam the 31-mile Catalina Channel in Southern California with four other friends. She loved it. The chill, the chop, the solitude, and the liberation were all exhilarating to Lynne. “Everything opened up. It was like going from a cage to freedom.”
For the next two decades, Lynne competed against the elements in swims which took her to all the major bodies of water in the world, many of which had not been crossed before and most of which had not been done by a woman. Her study of history at the University of California Santa Barbara may have been a catalyst in choosing which swims to pursue. It became her desire to use her swims to help bring people together, to work toward a more peaceful world. This realization was sparked during her 1975 swim as the first woman to swim the 10-mile Cook Straits in New Zealand in 12 hours 2-1/2 minutes. During this difficult swim, the outcry of support from the New Zealand people was all she needed to finish this 50 degree Fahrenheit swim, even when the tides and current had taken her farther away from the starting point after the first five hours of the crossing.
Her most famous swim was in 1987, eleven years after her father had planted the seed in her head. Lynne completed 2.7 miles in the Bering Straits, 350 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska where the water temperature ranges from 38-42 degrees Fahrenheit. Perhaps the most incredible of cold water swims, her 2 hours, 16 minutes from Little Diomede (USA) to Big Diomede (USSR) astonished the physiologists who were monitoring her swim. It marked one of the coldest swims ever completed. One can’t get much colder. After this temperature, the water turns to ice. It was a swim that brought the United States and Soviet Union together in an exchange of glasnost and perestroika. In Washington, Presidents Reagan and Gorbachov toasted Lynne’s swim saying that she “proved by her courage how closely to each other our peoples live”. Before this time, at the start of the Cold War, the families of the Diomede Islands had been split and had not been permitted to see one another since 1948.
Lynne is the purist of marathon swimmers. She does not wear a wet suit in frigid water and does not use a cage in shark infested waters. Her swims in Iceland’s 40 degree F Lake Myzvtan and Alaska’s 38 degree F Glacier Bay, where the lead boat had to break a path in the one quarter inch ice, were done wearing only a swim suit, cap and goggles. She wanted to do more than just achieve times and set records. And she did. But in the process, she became the fastest person to swim the English Channel (1972 and again in 1973), the first person to swim the Straits of Magellan (Chile) 4-1/2 miles, 42 degree F (1976), Norway to Sweden, 15 miles 44 degree F (1976), three bodies of water in the Aleutian Islands (USA) 8 miles total, 44 degree F (1977) and around the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa) 10 miles, 70 degree F which attracted sharks, jellyfish and sea snakes (1978). Many other swims included Lake Biakal in the Soviet Union (1988), the Beagle Channel of Argentina and Chile (1990) and around the Japanese Island of Joga Shima. In 1994 at the age of 37 years, she swam the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea joining the 15 miles of 80-degree water between Egypt, Israel and Jordan. She has swum Lake Titicaca in the Andes Mountains, the world’s highest navigable lake.
Lynne works as an author, motivational lecturer, and teaches swimming technique both in the pool and open water.
Friends we Lost in 2023
It is always sad to recall all the wonderful friends and family we have lost throughout the year. Each December, we like to take a look back and once again remember our friends officially, one last time.
Honoree Ursula Carlisle https://ishof.org/australias-swimming-community-mourns-the-passing-of-national-treasure-coaching-pioneer-and-ishof-honoree-ursula-carlile/
Honoree John Devitt https://ishof.org/ishof-loses-australian-honoree-john-devitt/
Coach Frank Keefe https://ishof.org/legendary-coach-frank-keefe-dies-at-85-leaves-lasting-legacy-at-numerous-stops/
Honoree Shiro Hashizume https://ishof.org/ishof-1992-honor-swimmer-shiro-hashizume-japans-oldest-living-olympic-medalist-dies-at-age-94/
Honoree Pat Keller McCormick https://ishof.org/ishof-and-the-world-of-diving-loses-one-of-the-greats-pat-keller-mccormick-may-12-1930-march-7-2023/
Honoree Great Anderson https://ishof.org/ishof-and-marathon-swimming-world-suffers-a-great-loss-greta-anderson-may-1-1927-february-6-2023/
Honoree Thea deWit https://ishof.org/thea-de-wit-of-the-netherlands-a-pioneer-in-womens-water-polo-passes-away-on-january-31-2023/
How An Olympic Champion Saved a Life and Opened Doors: The Story of Crissy Perham and Dick Franklin
by MATTHEW DE GEORGE – SENIOR WRITER
27 December 2023
How An Olympic Champion Saved a Life and Raised Awareness: The Story of Crissy Perham and Dick Franklin
Olympic gold medalist Crissy Perham (competing as Crissy Ahmann-Leighton at the Barcelona Games in 1992) helped save the life of the parent of another Olympic gold medalist—Missy Franklin’s dad, Dick Franklin—by becoming a kidney donor in August 2022.
Crissy Perham is no stranger to intense focus on a goal. So when she saw the Facebook post shared into her feed in January 2022 and made a decision that would alter lives beyond her own, she turned on her tunnel vision.
Through mutual friends, Perham—who competed as Crissy Ahmann-Leighton when she won three medals at the 1992 Olympics—saw D.A. Franklin’s post that her husband, Dick, had reached end-stage kidney failure. To their network of friends, D.A. put out a request for a “Hail Mary” of an organ donor to save his life.
Perham saw the post, saw a chance to make a difference, and acted.
On went the blinders, honing her focus and containing her excitement: to avoid illness before donation, to check off boxes in preparing her side of the process mentally and emotionally, to be on top of her recovery after the transplant on Aug. 24, 2022, to stay healthy. The intense drive on not just the donation going well, but telling her and Dick’s story to advocate more to follow her path left little time for Perham to fully process all of what her choice meant to her.
So this September, more than a year after the surgery, Perham gratefully accepted an invitation to speak at the fifth annual Trivia for Life event in Denver, for the benefit of the American Transplant Foundation. When she got on the stage for her three-minute talk, Perham got as far as, “Thanks to the Franklin family and my husband, Charlie…” before a tidal wave of emotions overwhelmed her.
“I think I just, as a former athlete, you just march right through it,” Perham said last month. “To be a year removed from it—and realizing how amazing it was—is, I think, why it was so emotional a year post-op.”
Perham’s emotional response speaks volumes about her decision. Although she knew the reputation of Dick and D.A. Franklin—parents of Olympic gold medalist Missy Franklin—she had never met them. Their famous daughter didn’t factor into Perham’s decision to donate, their plea finding her in the right life circumstances to give an organ—so much so that Perham had intended to originally remain anonymous.
The delayed upwelling of emotion underscores how routine a decision Perham felt she was making. But it also evinces the power in the extended family that the kidney, which the Franklins dubbed “Olympia,” has created. Across three generations of families and two eras of American Olympic swimmers, it’s not just a selfless deed, but a testament to the interconnectedness of the swimming world.
“There’s not really words to describe,” Missy said. “This person was already miraculous. The fact that they were a match, that they were willing to do this for my father—and then to find out that connection (as Olympic swimmers)—I think we were just speechless, all three of us. It was almost hard to wrap your mind around how unbelievable that connection was.”
FROM IOWA TO THE OLYMPICS
Whatever else time may dull, there remains a tenacity to Perham at age 53. It’s easy to square the life-changing donor with the scrappy rise of an Olympic gold medalist.
Photo Courtesy: Crissy Perham
That’s in part because at first, there was no pool. Perham was born Crissy Ahmann—she married for the first time while at the University of Arizona to become Ahmann-Leighton—in Yankton, South Dakota (population 11,919 in 1970), and raised in New London, Iowa (2,043).
Until a trip to her grandparents’ house in California at age 6, she swam only in ponds. When it came time to train seriously, her parents drove her the hour roundtrip to Burlington, Iowa. Her dad, Leo, a teacher and basketball coach, eventually moved the family to Benson, Ariz., when Crissy was in high school, where the trip to train at a proper facility would be the 47 miles each way to Tucson in her 1982 Toyota Tercel.
The slight 5-8 butterflyer cut a different figure than her more imposing peers like Jenny Thompson. But that didn’t stop Perham from winning a pair of NCAA titles with the Wildcats and taking down Mary T. Meagher’s hallowed short course yards record in the 100 fly.
It led her to the Barcelona Olympics, where she won a silver medal in the 100 fly, outtouched by 12-hundredths by China’s Qian Hong’s Olympic record. (Perham had been 1-hundredth of a second quicker than Qian’s time in winning Olympic Trials in March.) She added gold medals for prelims of the 400 free relay and the final of the 400 medley relay, the latter a world record with Thompson, Lea Loveless and Anita Nall.
Perham gave birth to her eldest son, Alex, while competing. She was one of several stars from 1992 who fell just short of a second Olympics at the 1996 Trials, then retired shortly thereafter. She married Charlie Perham, an engineer and retired colonel in the United States Air Force, the family traveling often to California, Virginia, Nevada and eventually Texas. She became a swim parent to Alex and her younger son, Ryan, who followed Crissy’s footsteps to swim at Arizona.
All of it positioned her to be ready to answer D.A.’s call for a donor, even if Perham can’t quite put a finger on why that was.
“It’s been over a year, and I wish I had a better answer,” she said. “But I don’t know why. It just made me want to do something.”
A DONOR’S DECISION
Perham’s journey as a donor, in broad strokes, is an amazing act of selflessness. Fill in the lines, and it reveals a portrait of the swim community’s interconnectedness.
“Team Kidney” Frank Busch, Patty Busch, D.A. Franklin and Charlie Perham. Photo Courtesy: Crissy Perham
Perham had never met the Franklin family before deciding to donate a kidney to Dick. She saw D.A.’s post thanks to a share from mutual friend David Arluck, the former agent and founder of Fitter and Faster. (Perham had never met Arluck in person, either.) One of the few people Perham confided in about her plans to donate was Frank Busch, her coach at Arizona and a friend of the Franklin family from his tenure with USA Swimming while Missy was one of the program’s stars.
Perham intended to donate anonymously, a complicated decision that requires donor and recipient wanting to know the identity of the other and pursue a relationship. But Busch convinced Perham that getting to know the Franklins would be beneficial. Perham assented only a month before the procedure. “Frank was like, I think that you should meet them. I think they should know it’s you,” Perham said. “We’re a swimming family, they’re amazing people, you’re amazing for doing this.”
That group comprised the support network as the transplant neared. Perham stayed with the Busches before her procedure. Frank, his wife Patty, D.A. and Charlie were there the day of the surgery to provide moral and logistical support.
“Crissy didn’t know us from Adam,” Franklin said. “She knew of us, but there wasn’t a personal story. This was genuinely coming from the straight-up goodness of her heart…of ‘someone is in need and I could potentially fill that need, so I’m going to try.’ That in and of itself was incredible. And when we got to know Crissy…and it was like, oh my gosh, we could not have picked anyone better to become family! We absolutely adore her and Charlie.”
Perham knew of the Franklins and had watched Missy’s career from afar. She identifies as an Olympic junkie, even before her career. She remembers watching the 1976 Games as a kid and cites the 1980 Winter Olympics and 1984 Summer Games on American soil as “transformative” in shaping her goals. So of course she knew of Franklin’s achievements, of the five Olympic gold medals, the 11 World Championships, the four world records. But Perham was also attuned to the less glamorous side—of the injuries that hampered the latter stages of Franklin’s career and the way she battled the weight of expectations at the 2016 Olympics.
“It was so amazing to watch her as a high school kid, just the immense talent that she had, how long she could stay at the top,” Perham said. “Watching her struggle was heartbreaking—and we’ve all been there—and she just handled herself with such class and grace. I know she’s very well respected and well liked within the swimming community.”
When Franklin found out Perham was the donor, she made the choice not to look into Perham’s past. Instead, she wanted to meet and learn about Perham directly. Times and medals would be scant description of someone giving her something as valuable as more time with her father. Only a human connection could do that.
Franklin had married former Texas swimmer Hayes Johnson in 2019, and they welcomed a daughter, Caitlin, in 2021, almost a year to the day of her father’s transplant. The connection as mothers was another common trait that Franklin and Perham built their bond around.
“As a fellow mom, she really understood the gift that she was giving,” Franklin said. “I think she was able to see it from my perspective: Giving me time with my dad was so special, but giving my daughter time with her grandfather was even more of a priority.
“It’s something that every time my dad gets quality time with Caitlin, I text Crissy or I call her with, ‘I just want you to know, every single one of these moments that I look up and I see Caitlin and my dad together, or the moments where my dad and I are going out on a special date night together, I think of you every single time, because they would not be possible without you.’”
In that way, the relationship between the families has provided even more than the transplant. “Swimming has given me so much,” Franklin said, “but never in a million years did I think it was going to give me the person that was going to save my dad’s life.”
ON THE TRAIL OF ADVOCACY
Perham always obliges in discussing her donorship—she jokes that she won’t shut up about it. It comes with such genuine enthusiasm that exceeds merely her first-hand experience.
More than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ in the United States, a new person added to the national transplant waiting list every 10 minutes. On average, 17 people on that list die every day, despite more than 42,000 transplants performed last year. Almost 90,000 of those waiting need a kidney, a procedure that, like a liver transplant, can be achieved from a living donor.
Photo Courtesy: John Lohn
Perham worked with counselors to make sure she was emotionally prepared for her donation. Physically, she describes the procedure as orders of magnitude less onerous than a bout of appendicitis she suffered a decade earlier.
“I gave a kidney to someone on a Wednesday, I was discharged on a Friday, and I was walking through a farmer’s market on Saturday,” she said. “I didn’t realize the need for kidneys and livers. I didn’t realize how you could be a living donor and how many people needed help until I got into it.”
Perham lived an active life before donation and continues that lifestyle with few restrictions. She’s an avid CrossFitter, tailoring workouts after the surgery and finding community in the gym. She and two former Arizona teammates walked more than 130 miles through Western Europe in the Camino de Santiago this year.
In the water, she teamed with Kidney Donor Athletes for a relay in the Swim for Alligator Lighthouse in the Florida Keys. The self-professed “black-line girl” took to open water with two fellow kidney donors and one recipient, kayaking for two three-mile stretches between a pair of one-mile swims. “Our priority was to raise awareness that you can donate an organ or receive an organ and still lead a super, super active life,” she said.
Franklin, an outspoken advocate, has added organ donation to her list of philanthropic priorities. She’s partnered with Otsuka Pharmaceutical to raise awareness about Dick’s condition, autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), and about the need for living donors.
Perham gets a tad sheepish when she admits that two friends have become living donors after learning of her experience. But the magnitude of what that decision means—of the two families they’ve helped, of the family she’s grown into thanks to her donation—brings that intensity back with full and unapologetic force.
“I feel super moved about being an advocate for it now,” she said. “And knowing that two people literally have donated because of me, I’m so, so proud of that.”
Marrit Steenbergen is Swimming World’s Breakout Female Swimmer of the Year
by JOHN LOHN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
28 December 2023, 12:29pm
Marrit Steenbergen is Swimming World’s Breakout Female Swimmer of the Year
As a European champion and World Championships medalist as a 15-year-old, Marrit Steenbergen has long been a known presence on the international stage. But the Dutch standout took a step forward during the 2023 campaign, flourishing in multiple events at the World Championships. In Fukuoka, Steenbergen was one of the busiest athletes, racing on 21 occasions between her individual and relay duties.
As 2023 winds down, Steenbergen is undoubtedly looking ahead to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, where she’ll attack several medal opportunities. She’ll head into the drive to Paris as Swimming World’s Female Breakout Swimmer of the Year.
Now a 23-year-old with considerable international experience, Steenbergen walked away from the World Champs with one medal, a bronze earned in the 100-meter freestyle. But there was much more to her visit to Fukuoka, as Steenbergen qualified for finals in four individual events and logged an incredible 21 swims over the eight-day meet.
In the 100 freestyle, Steenbergen earned a place on the podium with a bronze-medal effort of 52.71. That performance was complemented by a fifth-place finish in the 200 freestyle and an eighth-place finish in the 50 freestyle. Showing her versatility, Steenbergen was also seventh in the 200 individual medley.
On top of the 13 swims she contested individually, Steenbergen participated in eight relay races. While other athletes had the luxury of waiting until finals to serve duty for their countries, the Netherlands needed Steenbergen on its preliminary squads to guarantee advancement to finals. Steenbergen more than delivered.
For the year, Steenbergen notched the following world rankings:
50 Freestyle – 24.42 (17th)100 Freestyle – 52.71 (Seventh)200 Freestyle – 1:55.51 (11th)200 Individual Medley – 2:09.16 (10th)
As admirable as it was for Steenbergen to manage a daunting schedule at the World Championships, decisions are likely to be made for the Olympic year. To be in peak condition in Paris, it would make sense for the Dutchwoman to pare down her schedule and embrace a program that will provide the greatest chance at medaling.
If nothing else, Steenbergen enters 2024 with momentum, her finest year to date serving as fuel.
Ryan Murphy Honored as Swimming World’s Americas Male Swimmer of the Year (Full Voting)
by DAVID RIEDER – SENIOR WRITER
29 December 2023, 09:53am
Ryan Murphy Honored as Swimming World’s Americas Male Swimmer of the Year (Full Voting)
For the better part of the last decade, Ryan Murphy has been one of the steadiest swimmers in the world. It was not too long ago when a 21-year-old Murphy embraced a long-standing American backstroke tradition by becoming a double Olympic gold medalist in the 100 and 200-meter events at the 2016 Olympics. Going back to those Games in Rio de Janeiro, Murphy has missed the podium only once at a World Championships or Olympics.
But ironically, one accomplishment was missing from his résumé, even after his second Olympic Games resulted in one medal of each color. That was an individual long course world title. Murphy checked off that box in the 200 back with a dominant victory in 2022, and after sweeping gold medals in the 50, 100 and 200 back at the Short Course World Championships to close out 2022, Murphy, now 28, came through on the biggest stage in the two-lap event this year.
In the World Championships final, Murphy was a medal favorite, but not gold, as that distinction went to the man who broke his world record one year earlier, Italy’s Thomas Ceccon. Ceccon, who had been as fast as 51.60, had finished a quarter-second clear of the field in the semifinals, while Murphy qualified third. In the previous year’s Worlds final, Murphy blazed the first lap before Ceccon swam past him down the stretch. This time, however, Murphy adopted a more comfortable approach, flipping in fourth place at the halfway point before making his move on the third 25.
Coming down the stretch, Ceccon appeared to be gaining ground, but on the final lunge to the finish, Murphy got the touch in 52.22, 5-hundredths clear of his Italian rival. That win made Murphy the third male swimmer to earn a career triple-crown of gold medals at the Olympics, World Championships and Short Course World Championships in the 100 back, joining fellow Americans Aaron Peirsol and Matt Grevers. He joins Peirsol as the only swimmers to achieve the treble in both backstroke distances.
As the week went on in Fukuoka, Japan, Murphy was not done. He was favored going into the 200 back final as well, but he ended up with a silver medal, as Hungary’s Hubert Kos surged down the stretch for an upset win. Murphy helped the American mixed 400 medley relay team earn silver, and he swam the leadoff leg of the U.S. men’s winning medley relay, a spot he has occupied at every championship meet but one since 2015.
Since Murphy joined that relay, some exceptional swimmers have teamed with him: He was around for the final years of Michael Phelps swimming butterfly on that relay and Nathan Adrian anchoring, and he joined forces with fellow Jacksonville, Fla., native Caeleb Dressel as well as Michael Andrew and Zach Apple for a world-record-setting effort at the Tokyo Olympics.
But for this year’s team, Murphy was the only swimmer back from that world-record relay. Veteran Nic Fink handled breaststroke duties, but a pair of international rookies, Dare Rose and Jack Alexy, were responsible for the last two legs.
No matter. Murphy set the tone with a 52.04 leadoff leg, his fastest time in two years, and he beat every other backstroke swimmer by more than a second. He provided the advantage necessary for Rose and Alexy, his training partners at Cal, to simply swim within themselves and still come away with a gold medal, the first relay gold the Americans had captured all week in the final men’s race of the meet.
For his efforts, Murphy earns the honor of Male American Swimmer of the Year for 2023, his first time receiving the honor. Murphy is only the fourth pure backstroker ever to win this award, joining fellow U.S. standouts Rick Carey (1983), Lenny Krayzelburg (1997, 1998, 1999, 2000) and Peirsol (2005).
TOP 5 AMERICAS (Men)
RYAN MURPHY, USA (11)…………………… 59
Bobby Finke, USA (1)……………………………… 36
Nic Fink, USA………………………………………… 28
Jack Alexy, USA…………………………………….. 25
Hunter Armstrong, USA…………………………… 21
(First-place votes in parentheses)
Happy Birthday David Marsh!!
David Marsh (USA)
Honor Coach (2021)
2016 WOMEN’S USA OLYMPIC TEAM HEAD COACH; THREE-TIME USA MEN’S OLYMPIC TEAM ASSISTANT COACH (1996, 2000, 2012); 2003 USA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS HEAD COACH; 1994 USA WOMEN’S ASSISTANT COACH-WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP; 2005 USA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEN’S ASSISTANT COACH; 1995 USA MEN’S PAN-PACIFIC TEAM HEAD COACH; 1999 USA MEN’S PAN-PACIFIC TEAM ASSISTANT COACH; 2014 USA WOMEN’S TEAM ASSISTANT PAN PAC CHAMPIONSHIPS; HEAD COACH AUBURN UNIVERSITY, WINNING (12) TWELVE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS (SEVEN MEN – 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 AND FIVE WOMEN – 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007); (6) SIX-TIME CSCAA MEN’S (1994, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2004, 2007) AND FOUR-TIME WOMEN’S COACH OF THE YEAR (2001, 2002, 2003, 2007); 2016: ONE OF THE PIONEERS OF PROFESSIONAL SWIMMING, ESTABLISHNG TEAM ELITE, ONE OF THE COUNTRIES FIRST PROFESSIONAL SWIM TEAMS.
David Marsh is considered one of the top coaches in swimming today. He skyrocketed to swimming fame in 1990 when he was named Head Men and Women’s Coach of his alma mater, Auburn University.
Seven years later he went on a championship winning spree that was unparalleled. He led the Auburn men’s team to seven NCAA National Championships and the women’s team to five. Marsh is the most successful Auburn coach regardless of sport. He is arguably the most successful in the state of Alabama and the SEC with his 12 NCAA titles surpassing the six won by legendary football coach Bear Bryant at Alabama. Marsh has been called the Kingmaker of sprinters and during his tenure at Auburn, Marsh coached three of the fastest sprinters in the world, Cesar Cielo, Frederick Bousquet and George Bovell. Cielo broke the world record in the 50 free long course, on December 18, 2009 and the record still stands today.
In 2016, Marsh was named the Head Women’s Swimming Coach for the U.S. Olympic Team after serving as the U.S. Assistant Coach to the Men in 1996, 2000 and 2012. Marsh’s club team placed more athletes on the U.S. Olympic Team that headed to Rio than any other program in the U.S. Those names include Kathleen Baker, Cammile Adams, co-captain, Anthony Ervin, Jimmy Feigen, Ryan Lochte and Katie Meili, all earning gold medals. If his club team were a country, they would have placed third in the 2016 Rio Olympic medal standings. In all, the entire Team USA won the most medals in USA Swimming’s already storied Olympic history.
In his early coaching career, Marsh implemented a technique focused program that has now become the model for countless programs around the globe. In the process, he was named USA Swimming’s Developmental Coach of the Year for 2013 and 2014.
At the Senior and Elite level, he established and created the first USA Swimming Center of Excellence, now known as Team Elite. While medals are the goal in the pool for Team Elite, the highest calling for a member is to be a great role model for young swimmers and other age-group swimmers in the community. His goal is to give back to the sport he loves so much.
In May 2017, Marsh moved his Team Elite to San Diego, where he is now headquartered. In addition to coaching, Marsh is currently working on a project called “Coach Marsh Consulting”. His consulting business has David sharing his knowledge by mentoring and developing coaches from all over the world, both formally and informally. Whether he is formally speaking or making a presentation, or just on deck with another coach, he is helping to shape the next generation of coaches.
He has coached more than 60 Olympians from 20+ different countries and his swimmers have combined to win 89 individual NCAA titles and 277 individual SEC titles. Auburn swimmers have also brought home 90 medals from international competitions such as the World Championships, Goodwill Games, Pan-American Games, and the Olympics.
Coach Marsh was inducted into the Auburn, American Swim Coaches Association and North Carolina Halls of Fame, and in December 2016, he was named “Professional Advisor” of the Israel Swimming Association. Most recently, he was named head coach for the LA Current of the International Swim League.
Catching Up With Summer Sanders: ISHOF Honoree and Olympic Champ Staying Busy, But Family Always Comes First
by DAN D’ADDONA — SWIMMING WORLD MANAGING EDITOR
28 December 2023, 07:23am
Catching Up With Summer Sanders: Olympic Champ Staying Busy, But Family Always Comes First
Summer Sanders was only 19 years old when she won Olympic gold in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympics. Now 51, she recently shared some of her memories of her stellar swimming career with Swimming World…as well as the new memories made since then as a television personality, her involvement with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation and the importance of family with her husband, Olympic skier Erik Schlopy, and two teenage kids.
It has been three decades since Summer Sanders triumphantly became an Olympic champion.
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But Sanders (Schlopy), now 51, is never far from the water for long.
Whether it’s swimming an alumni practice at Stanford or surfing with her family, water is still an important part of her life.
When she married Olympic skier Erik Schlopy, the slopes were part of that routine as well.
“My kids liked swimming, but we never pushed that. But we made sure they were on the swim team. We surfed and skied as a family, and we needed the kids to be able to handle that (as swimmers),” Summer told Swimming World. “They are sports where there are great times for conversation. There is the lift and waiting for the next set of waves. It is a bonding experience. The joy my kids have on the ski hill versus the joy of looking at a black line, it couldn’t compare.”
Sanders remains close to the sport as well, but in a different way. She helps run the United States Olympic and Paralympic Foundation, and she joined Elizabeth Beisel to host the Golden Goggles.
“It has been very exciting for me to learn about fundraising through the lens of the Olympic movement,” she said. “We are the only country not funded by their government. Every dollar counts, and 80% goes to actual sports and training and mental health. Hosting Golden Goggles with Elizabeth Beisel was so cool to have two women hosting an event like that.”
A CAREER IN TELEVISION
Summer also does plenty of other things outside the world of swimming.
After her competitive swimming career was over, she became a television fixture, first as a commentator at the Olympics, then moving to jobs with “NBA Inside Stuff,” “Good Morning America,” “Today,” CNN, MTV, the Pac-12 Network, Nickelodeon and more.
She has interviewed people such as Michelle Obama, Joe Torre, Billy Crystal and Robin Williams, not to mention a slew of Olympians and NBA stars. She even got to “slime” Julius Erving and Joe Namath on her Nickelodeon show, “Figure It Out.”
Now in her 31st year of television, she is still a fixture on CBS’ “We Need to Talk,” and is a team-building speaker with Teamraderie.
“Swimming gave me a good education in time management. When you turn 50, you have a better understanding of your limitations. There is an authentic forgiveness to give yourself grace. You feel that at 50. I am good at being present with whatever I am doing at that time. I feel the need for balance to be complete,” she said.
ALL ABOUT FAMILY
But family is her driving force. Whether it is on the slopes, on the waves or spending a year in Spain, the bonding continues to grow.
Photo Courtesy: Summer Sanders
“We lived in Spain for a year. It was the greatest decision of our lives. We had freedom and the means to do it, but we rented our house and trusted we could create jobs for us when we got back. It was such a beautiful family time,” she said.
Summer and Erik have a daughter, Skye, who is a senior in high school, and a son, Charles “Spider,” who is 15. Skye plays rugby and is looking into colleges, while Spider is an avid skier. Erik runs a real estate company.
It keeps the family busy, but close.
As the 2024 Olympics approach, Summer is learning more about her great-great-uncle, Myron T. Herrick, who was governor of Ohio, then the U.S. ambassador to France from 1912-14 and 1921-29, including during the 1924 Paris Olympics.
“My great-great-uncle was the U.S. ambassador to France the last time the Olympics were in Paris. I visited the embassy, and the historian who had researched him said he was on the shores when Charles Lindbergh made the trip (across the Atlantic). It was remarkable. My grandmother’s maiden name was Herrick. The Olympics are always special to me. I think it is extraordinary to have a family member in diplomacy. He was there in very important times, war and conflict. He was an important figure during the War. He had incredible positive influence. What an interesting tie for the Olympics.”
INTERNATIONAL GLORY
And, of course, thinking about the upcoming Olympics makes Summer think of her own Olympic-glory moment, winning the 200 butterfly in Barcelona in 1992. She finished the meet with four medals, capturing another gold in the medley relay and earning a silver in the 200 IM and a bronze in the 400 IM.
“So much of an Olympian’s pressure comes from within. I had four individual races with a relay. The last person to do that before me was Shirley Babashoff,” Summer said.
“I didn’t start swimming the 200 butterfly until I was 15 when they changed the order of events. I choked on water one of the first times I swam it, and I couldn’t catch a breath for three strokes. So I decided I was going to breathe every stroke.”
The year before Barcelona, Sanders won three medals at the 1991 World Championships in Perth: gold in the 200 fly, silver in the 200 IM and bronze in the 400 IM. “I was expected to win (the 200 fly), but I was drained emotionally and physically.”
At the Olympics, Sanders admits, “It was just pure grit. None of it came easy. It was a matter of wanting it so badly. It was just going back to your stroke and not tighten up. I embraced the pain. It was desperation and a relief. I was 19. It was a lot. But I loved it. That moment was beautiful. Relief can be a beautiful emotion!”
HER “GOLD MEDAL” MOMENT
Surprisingly, when asked what her favorite memory of swimming was, it was not her Olympic gold medal in the 200 fly. That race earned “a silver medal” when remembering her swimming career.
Instead, Summer answered: “Winning the NCAA championship in 1992 as a team (with Stanford)—it is by far my greatest achievement.
“I love my gold medal…but I was a team swimmer and loved every minute of team swimming. That team was amazing. We started with a false start in our first relay, and we just rose up.” She finished her career with the Cardinal as a nine-time NCAA champion.
Now Summer’s “favorite team” is her family…and, of course, her hometown Sacramento Kings and her husband’s hometown Buffalo Bills!
“My husband is from Hamburg, N.Y. When I met him, I was working for the NBA and was in love with the Sacramento Kings. I grew up a 49ers football fan, but I wasn’t all in. It can be so fun and miserable at the same time.”
In fact, Summer and Erik often joke about when they were taking their wedding vows, they were actually asked, “Do you, Summer, take Erik…and the Buffalo Bills? And do you, Erik, take Summer…and the Sacramento Kings?”
It is yet another way her family comes together and bonds. Whether it be in Spain, on the ski slopes, in the water or cheering on their “teams,” the Schlopys put family first.
Happy Birthday Michelle Cameron!!
Michelle Cameron (CAN)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (2000)
FOR THE RECORD: 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (duet); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet, team); 1987 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: silver (team).
Coach Debbie Muir knew exactly what she was doing when she paired Hall of Fame Honoree Carolyn Waldo with this upcoming star just after the 1984 Olympic Games. Waldo had just won the Olympic synchronized swimming solo silver medal in Los Angeles. The young rising partner-to-be had been on the National Team only three years, but the union was to be the best match of the era. Waldo and her new partner, Michelle Cameron, never lost a major international event for the next four years, an Olympic quadrennium.
Michelle started as a youngster extremely fearful of the water, failing her first swimming level four times. From a family of 10 children (5 girls, 5 boys), she learned to survive and by the time she was 13 years old, she started synchronized swimming in her hometown of Calgary, Alberta. Michelle Caulkins became her first coach, but in 1981 Debbie Muir became her mentor at the Calgary Aquabelles Club. After teaming up with Carolyn Waldo in late 1984, Michelle never looked back.
The duet of Cameron and Waldo won every major duet international competition they entered: 1985 Rome and Spanish Opens, 1985 FINA World Cup, 1986 Spanish Open, 1986 Commonwealth Games, 1986 World Championships, 1987 Pan Pacific Championships and the 1987 FINA World Cup.
The 1988 Olympic Games at Seoul were the highlight of her career. Michelle and Carolyn swam to the music of “Spartacus” for their Olympic duet. With their dramatic, technically difficult beginning, slow artistic middle and fast-paced, catchy ending, they beat the USA’s Josephson twins by .433 points to win the gold medal. For Michelle it capped a 13 year career which saw her win 8 national titles in duet and team.
Known as “Mick” or “Mish” by her friends and family, Michelle is known for her adventurousness and spontaneity. In duet synchronized swimming where athletes must synchronize their movements, perform with technical accuracy and be artistic in their approach, they must be equal in performance and ability. Cameron and Waldo were equals when they won their Olympic gold medals and international competitions That’s why they’re Hall of Famer Honorees.
After retirement from competition, Michelle participated in many causes and charities. In 1996, she continued in the Olympic spirit as Canada’s Athlete Services Officer at the Atlanta Games. She has been involved with Special Olympics, children’s charities, drug awareness programs and missions of preventative health and nutritional support to children in need all over the world. She has been on the Board of Directors for Rogers Broadcasting, the Canadian Coaching Association, the Canadian Sports Council, the Canadian Athletes Association and the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame. As a performance development and motivational speaker, Michelle and her husband, Alan Coulter (two-time Olympic volleyball team member and captain) raise three children. One of her most prestigious awards has been the Order of Canada presented in 1989.
Happp Birthday Irene van der Laan!!
Irene van der Laan (NED)
Honor Open Water Swimmer (2015)
FOR THE RECORD: Three Times English Channel Crossing: 1979, 1982, 1988; Two-way English Channel Crossing: 1983; First person to win Rolex Watch two times for fastest English Channel: 1982 and 1983; Traversee international du lac St-Jean (42 km World Cup in Canada) 1983, 1984, 1987, 1997; Traversee International du lac St-Jean (64 km in Canada) 27x in 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994-2011; Traversee International du lac Memphremagog (34 km in Canada) 20 x in 1987-1992, 1995-2005; Farosmarathon (16 km, Stari Grad, Croatia) 21x; Ijsselmeer (21 km The Netherlands) 15x; La Patagones – Viedma FINA Open Water Swimming Grand Prix (15 km in UAE) 2008; Maratono del Golfo Capri-Napoli (36 km Italy) 8x 1987-1992, Rosario Marathon Acuatico (15 km in Argentina) 8x 1994-1998, 2000, 2005, 2008;
The one thing successful open water swimmers all seem to have in common is their appreciation for their crew and team. It’s usually all they can talk about after a swim, and Irene van der Laan is no different.
Irene van der Laan learned to swim at the age of six in a pool in Amsterdam. She would go to the beaches during the summer but she was the only one in her family that knew how to swim. She eventually took stroke lessons at the pool and began swimming for Coach Jaap Ploeg, soon finding herself swimming on a team with Olympians. Irene was inspired!
After 11 years of pool swimming, she tried an open water swim of 500 meters in the rowing track in Amsterdam. The year after, she swam 1,000 meters, and she was hooked on open water racing. Her parents were very supportive as she began swimming longer and longer races.
In 1976, after getting special permission from the federation because she was not the minimum age of 16, Irene swam her first 16 kilometer race. Irene completed the race in 4 hours and18 minutes and was the first female to finish, but she wanted even longer races. In 1978, she went to the biggest event at that time, the 25 kilometer Lake Windermere race in the U.K. It was Irene’s first international race and she finished third.
The year 1979 was the pinnacle of her open water swimming: The English Channel. Irene easily swam it in 8 hours and 44 minutes. The pilot said, “I know you can do it two-way.” So, in 1982, Irene tried a two-way. She nearly finished the first half of the two way crossing in record time, but two ships got in her way. Because of the very fast first-half effort, her team decided to stop when they came in at France. In 1983, she finally succeeded at the two-way Channel crossing in world record time, 18 hours and 15 minutes. Irene also turned pro that year, as other long swims were waiting: Capri-Napoli was a favorite. In both 1982 and 1983 she won the Rolex watch for the fastest Channel swim of the year.
Irene loved to travel and swim; swimming in the summer and working part time in the winter. There were not really enough swims on the pro circuit each year, but still, she says, it was a good life. She loved traveling to Australia, Egypt, Argentina, Mexico, the USA, Canada and Italy, always finishing in the top three. Then in 1988, after five years of second place finishes, she became the Woman’s world champion of professional swimming.
Among her favorite races were the Traversee International du lac St. Jean, in Canada, where she raced 27 times; Farosmarathon in Stari Grad, Croatia, 21 times; and Lake Memphremagog, Canada, 20 times.
In her prime, Irene van der Laan was one of the fastest and most durable marathon swimmers in the world. Having competed in over 200 marathon swimming competitions during her career, she has arguably competed over a greater distance in the water than anyone in history.