Let’s take a look back at the ISHOF Museum and some of the memorabilia and artifacts…..
FUN FRIDAY: Watch our video from 2010 below
Throwback Thursday: Janet Evans and Her Super Show in the 400 Freestyle; A Back Half to Behold (Video)
by JOHN LOHN – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
14 December 2023, 12:34am
Janet Evans – Ahead of Her Time
When Janet Evans stepped onto the blocks for the final of the 400 freestyle at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, the American star already had a gold medal in her grasp. A few days earlier, the 17-year-old bested the field in the 400 individual medley, an event that was the weakest of her three entries. As a result, Evans had to feel good heading into freestyle action, which was her strength.
As the world-record holder, Evans was the favorite in the 400 freestyle, but she was expected to be challenged by East Germany’s Heike Friedrich and Anke Mohring. Although they may not have tested positive for doping, it was widely understood that Evans wasn’t just racing against Friedrich and Mohring, but also against the systematic-doping program of East Germany.
Friedrich was riding the momentum of a title the previous night in the 200 freestyle and through the first half of the race, she was with Evans, who made the turn in 2:02.14. Evans turned at the 300-meter mark with a slight advantage, but she blew away Friedrich in the last 100 meters and clocked a world record of 4:03.85, with Friedrich earning the silver medal in 4:05.94. Mohring picked up the bronze in 4:06.64.
Evans produced a split of 1:00.40 for the last two laps and covered the back half of her race in 2:01.71 for an impressive negative split. Her world record endured for more than 17 years and wasn’t wiped out until France’s Laure Manaudou posted a time of 4:03.03 at the 2006 French Championships. Add in the 800 freestyle and the 1500 freestyle, and Evans owned three world records that lasted at least 17 years, a statistic that speaks to her ahead-of-her-era talent
“I wasn’t worrying about my time,” Evans said. “When I saw 4:03, I was really surprised. I knew I was going to have to bring it home really hard that last 100, but I felt really good. I felt really easy. I didn’t think I was going that fast.”
Evans’ time would have won every men’s 400 freestyle in Olympic competition through the 1968 Games in Mexico City.
Happy Birthday Lazlo Kiss!!
Laszlo Kiss (HUN)
Honor Coach (2012)
FOR THE RECORD: 40 YEARS WOMENS NATIONAL TEAM COACH; COACH OF SWIMMERS WINNING SIX GOLD, TWO SILVER, TWO BRONZE OLYMPIC MEDALS; 45 YEARS COACH OF SPARTACUS CLUB TEAM IN BUDAPEST (1963-2008); COACH OF SWIMMERS BREAKING THREE WORLD RECORDS; COACH OF SWIMMERS WINNING FOUR GOLD, TWO SILVER AND TWO BRONZE MEDALS IN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION; COACH OF SWIMMERS WINNING 17 GOLD MEDALS AT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS; HUNGARIAN COACH OF THE YEAR FOR ALL SPORTS: 1991,1992,1993, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2000.
Every so often, a coach will come along who has the ability to lift his swimmers to new heights, as Laszlo Kiss did establishing Olympic champions.
Kiss was a 1960 Olympic swimmer who was disappointed when he failed to win a medal. American champion Mike Troy offered him some training tips which Kiss applied to a new team he began coaching three years later. From then on, Kiss never looked back, and for almost 50 years continued to develop Olympic champions.
As head coach of Budapest’s Club Spartacus Team, he later became the Hungarian National Team Coach for women for an unprecedented 40 years, continuing to develop swimmers from the grass roots level to Olympic champions.
His greatest swimmer was a thin little girl he developed from age five to become the greatest backstroke swimmer, perhaps of all time, Krisztina Egerszegi. Egerszegi is only the second woman, after the great Dawn Fraser, to win the same event in three successive Olympic Games when she won the 200 meter backstroke in 1988, 1992 and 1996, while winning the most gold medals by a female in individual events with five gold medals.
Other swimmers include Agnes Kovacs, who won the gold medal in the 200 meter breaststroke in Sydney, and the bronze medal in the 200 meter breaststroke in Athens. Karoly Guttler won breaststroke silver and bronze medals in Barcelona, 1992 and Atlanta, 1996. All totaled, his swimmers have won six gold, one silver and two bronze medals at Olympic Games and 23 medals at the European Championships, 17 of them gold. Between 1991 and 1999, Kiss was elected Hungarian Coach of the Year seven times for all sports.
From this small country of ten million people, Laszlo Kiss joins the other great Hungarian Hall of Fame coaches who have developed outstanding swimmers including Stefen Hunyadfi, Imre Sarosi and Tamas Szechy.
Former ISHOF Board Member and Chairman of the Board Dale Neuburger named as recipient of the 2023 George M. Steinbrenner III Sport Leadership Award ~ Congratulations Dale!
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – The United States Olympic & Paralympic Endowment announced Dale Neuburger as the recipient of the George M. Steinbrenner III Sport Leadership Award. The award was presented during the annual awards ceremony at the New York Athletic Club in New York City recently. In addition to Neuburger, with a lifetime of service to aquatic sports and Olympic ideals, Mary Lou Retton, 1984 Olympic gold gymnast and fitness ambassador, was recognized with the William E. Simon Award and multi-world and Olympic medals wrestler, Bruce Baumgartner, was the honoree of the General Douglas MacArthur Award. Each of these individuals were honored for their commitment andcontributions to the Olympic and Paralympic movements.
Dale Neuburger has held a variety of domestic leadership roles within aquatics, including president ofUnited States Aquatic Sports; president of USA Swimming; and chairman of the board of directors of theInternational Swimming Hall of Fame. Internationally, he has held leadership roles in World Aquatics andhas served as technical delegate within the International Olympic Committee for five Olympic Games. Heserved for eight years as a member of the board of directors of the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee and a member of its executive committee for four years. The Steinbrenner award is presented annually to honor outstanding members of the Olympic and Paralympic family who have contributed to sport through management, sport organization endeavors or the enhancement of competitive opportunities; and who have displayed qualities of leadership, ethical conduct, and dedicated responsibility during a longstanding commitment to sport.
Mary Lou Retton catapulted to international fame, igniting a new era of American dominance ingymnastics during the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984 when she became the first American woman towin a gold medal in gymnastics, scoring two perfect 10s along the way. With five medals, the most of anyathlete during the 1984 Olympic Games, she went on to win numerous national and internationalcompetitions and became the first woman to appear on the iconic Wheaties box. She retired fromcompetition in 1986 but remains deeply involved in the gymnastics community and is a renownedmotivational speaker traveling the world as a fitness ambassador, promoting the benefits of propernutrition and regular exercise. The Simon award is given to an individual or group who has madeextraordinary contributions to the advancement of the Olympic and Paralympic movements.Bruce Baumgartner is one of just eight athletes in American history to medal in four different Olympiads.With five international titles, nine world championship medals and four Olympic medals (2 golds, 1 silver,1 bronze), he has won the most world and Olympic medals among American wrestlers. It was at the 1984Olympic Games that he became Olympic champion and America’s first gold medalist in 60 years of super-heavyweight wrestling and went on to compete in three more Olympic Games, earning three additional Olympic medals. Bruce served as head wrestling coach and director of athletics at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania, establishing numerous student-athlete endowed scholarships and he currently serves as president of USA Wrestling. The Douglas MacArthur award is given to an individual who has exhibited exemplary service to the USOPC and athletes.
The USOPE was established by the USOPC in 1984 to administer and invest the corpus of endowedfunds that resulted from the surplus of the Olympic Games Los Angeles 1984. A nonprofit organization,its objective is to support the USOPC and its member organizations, with the overall aim of enhancingOlympic and Paralympic sports in the United States. A separate entity from the USOPC, the USOPE’s netassets have grown to approximately $235 million, while awarding grants to the USOPC and its memberorganizations totaling $374 million over the last 39 years.
Could Australia Challenge Great Britain, United States for Men’s 800 Free Relay Superiority?
by DAVID RIEDER – SENIOR WRITER
13 December 2023, 07:44am
Could Australia Challenge Great Britain, United States for Men’s 800 Free Relay Superiority?
In recent years, the Australian men has achieved their most consistent success in the 800 freestyle relay since the days when Ian Thorpe was handling anchor duties with teammates Grant Hackett and Michael Klim on board. Currently, Australia is riding a streak of four major meets winning a medal in the event, dating back to an upset gold at the 2019 World Championships. Australia won silver at the 2022 World Championships and bronze in 2023, albeit swimming over one second quicker and with an entirely new quartet.
This year’s Aussie group could not match the firepower of Great Britain, which boasted a team of world champion Matt Richards, Olympic champion Tom Dean and veterans Duncan Scott and James Guy. Also ahead were the Americans, with Carson Foster and Kieran Smith hitting 1:44 splits in a spirited silver-medal effort. But Australia got bronze, more than one-and-a-half seconds clear of fourth-place France, without a single weak leg.
A mix of newcomers and veterans all produced 1:45 splits, with 100 free superstar Kyle Chalmers going the quickest at 1:45.19 before Alexander Graham and Thomas Neill, both members of the bronze-medal team from the Tokyo (alongside Chalmers), going high 1:45s to seal the deal. But they would never have been in position without the breakout performance of Kai Taylor, a 19-year-old who broke 1:46 for the first time on the leadoff leg. After a disappointing individual performance in the 200 free, where he missed the semifinals, Taylor rebounded to lead off in 1:45.79, and his team was off and rolling.
Those four swimmers provide an excellent base for Australia’s 200 free corps, while Fukuoka alternates Flynn Southam and Elijah Winnington both have the ability to contribute to this relay, with the 18-year-old Southam having clocked 1:46.24 earlier in the year while Winnington led off the finals squad in 2022 in 1:45.83. Sam Short, the world champion in the 400 free and a medalist in the 800 and 1500 at World Championships, has contributed to this relay in the past, while Zac Incerti should return to the mix next year after a shoulder injury knocked him out for this year’s Worlds.
Depth earns relay medals at major meets, and Australia has no problem there. But winning relay gold requires sensational efforts, like when Chalmers split 46.56 anchoring Australia’s 400 free relay in Fukuoka to steal a gold medal. Well, there’s a new Australian star emerging in the 200 free, one with the capabilities of becoming that central relay figure in short order.
Max Giuliani was not too far away from qualifying for Worlds this year, finishing eighth in the 200 free final at the Australian Trials. His time that evening was 1:48.05. But improvements came swiftly. In late July, the 20-year-old traveled to the United States to race at the TYR Pro Championships, and he blasted a mark of 1:46.23. In October, racing in Europe on the World Cup circuit, Giuliani dropped his time of 1:46.18 and then 1:45.42, which made him the country’s top-ranked swimmer for 2023.
And most recently, with a phenomenal effort at the Queensland Championships, Giuliani joined the 1:44-club, leading off a relay in 1:44.79 to become only the third Australian ever under 1:45 and the second-fastest ever from his country, behind only Thorpe (1:44.06).
That time and his ridiculous improvement curve suddenly vaults Giuliani into serious contention for an individual Olympic medal in the 200 free next year. Giuliani is only the ninth man to swim sub-1:45 from a flat start this year, and only five swimmers have surpassed his time all year: Richards, Dean, Hwang Sunwoo, Pan Zhanle and David Popovici.
Add that time onto a relay with Taylor, who could feasibly work his way close to (perhaps even under) the 1:45-barrier in the next year, and supply some veteran reinforcement from Graham, Chalmers, Neill and/or Incerti. Southam has been inconsistent over 200 meters this year, but he is almost two years younger than Giuliani.
Suddenly, the prospect of a sub-7:00 relay, maybe even chasing down the British team, the American team and the world record, does not seem so improbable. As 2023 gives way to 2024, the men from Down Under already own the top spot in the 400 free relay, and they are quietly (or not-so-quietly) building a mighty team for the longer relay as well.
Happy Birthday Otylia Jedrzejczak!!
Otylia Jedrzejczak (POL)
Honor Swimmer (2019)
FOR THE RECORD: 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200 m butterfly), silver (400m freestyle, 100m butterfly); 2001 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): silver (100m butterfly); 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): gold (200m butterfly), silver (100m butterfly); 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): gold (200m butterfly), bronze (100m butterfly); 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): silver (400m freestyle), bronze (200m butterfly) 2000 World Championships (SC): bronze (200m butterfly); 5 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): 5 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze; 3 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (SC): 3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze; 2005 UNIVERSIADE: gold (100m butterfly, 200m butterfly, 200m freestyle)
She was born in Ruda Slaska, Poland in December 1983 and began swimming at six-years-old because doctors thought it would help the slight curvature in her spine. She originally had no interest in the sport, but her father had the last word.
In high school, she started to take swimming seriously, and in 1999 at age 15, Otylia Jedrzejczak won the European Junior titles in the 100 and 200m butterfly.
A year later at the age of 16, Otylia won the 200m butterfly at the 2000 European Senior Championships. Later that year, she represented Poland at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, where she was the youngest on the entire Polish team. In Sydney, she was fifth in the 200 butterfly, but it was clear her career had just begun. Two years later at the 2002 European Championships, Otylia became the first Polish female swimmer to break a world record when she swam a 2:05.78 in the 200 butterfly.
Leading up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Otylia was reading Oscar and the Lady in Pink, a novel about a ten-year-old boy dying of leukemia as told through his letters to God. Otylia was deeply affected by the story and vowed that if she won a gold medal in Athens, she would auction it off and give the proceeds to a charity that helps children in Poland suffering with leukemia.
Otylia won the 200 butterfly gold medal in Athens, and out-touched Australia’s Petria Thomas to become the first swimmer from Poland to win an Olympic gold medal. As promised, Otylia auctioned off her gold medal and it sold for $101,000 US Dollars.
In 2005, Otylia successfully defended her 200 butterfly World Championship title, taking down her world record in the process with a 2:05.61.
Two months after the World Championships, Otylia was severely injured in a car accident that tragically killed her 19-year-old brother, Szymon. The accident and its aftermath took its toll on Otylia and she took a break from training for nearly eight months.
Leading up to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, Otylia was again one of the favorites to win the 200 butterfly gold medal, but did not have the meet she was hoping for. She finished fourth in the 200 butterfly, missing out on a medal by less than a second.
She initially said she was most likely going to retire from swimming after 2008, but continued her career and qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games in London. There she finished 16th in the 200 fly at the age of 28. She retired after London with three Olympic medals and ten World Championship medals to her name.
She is the founder of the Otylia Jedrzejczak Foundation, which strives to prepare young swimmers, mentally and physically, to be able to compete for medals at the Olympic Games. Her goal is to help athletes benefit from the positive impact of sport she experienced. She says that sport is a great adventure of life, which teaches consistency and determination in pursuing a goal, and failure is a stop on the way to success.
We welcome our first honoree from Poland into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Happy Birthday Lao Lishi!!
Lao Lishi (CHN)
Honor Diver (2015)
FOR THE RECORD: 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (10m platform synchro), silver (10m platform); 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (10m platform synchro), silver (10m platform); 2002 ASIAN GAMES: gold (10m platform)
Lao Lishi actually got into the sport of diving by mistake. She would go to her brother’s practices with her mother and became restless, so while looking for something to do, she found a trampoline. The amateur sports school’s coach, Zhong Quansheng noticed the little girl’s coordination and boldness. So, in 1995, Lao Lishi the pre-schooler became a
member of the Chikan Diving School of Amateur Sports Schools.
Although Lao Lishi was much smaller and much thinner than her peers, she had a strong will and unyielding spirit. It were these qualities that helped her to be selected to the Guangdong Provincial Diving Team in March 1998, and then to the National Team in December of 2001, where she began training under Coach Zhang Ting. It was then that
Lishi’s performance began to skyrocket.
In 2002, Lao Lishi debuted on the international scene, winning the 10 meter platform on the FINA Grand Prix circuit in Spain, Canada and Fort Lauderdale. She was a winner at the FINA World Cup and the Asian Games, returning home to win the Chinese National Championship. She continued winning in 2003, capturing gold medals in Australia and home in China at the Grand Prix, both as 10 meter platform individual and synchronized champion. She finished the year winning gold and silver medals at the FINA World Championships in Barcelona.
The pinnacle of Lao Lishi’s career came at the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, where she and teammate, Li Ting, dove their way to Olympic gold in the 10 meter synchronized diving event. In the individual 10 meter event she won the silver medal.
Lishi’s hometown of Zhanjiang City was so proud of her that the city built a 12.8 meter diving goddess sculpture, commemorating Lao Lishi’s Olympic gold medal performance.
In Athens, Lishi had reached the highest stage and although it was all that she had dreamed it would be, she quickly
left the spotlight and the national team due to injuries and having a desire to pursue her education. She returned to the Guangdong Province Diving Team and competed in her country’s National Games, where she led their team to excellent results based on her wealth of knowledge and experience.
In April of 2010, Lao Lishi officially retired from diving. Two months later she graduated from Zhongshan University and started looking for a job. She found her credentials as an Olympic Champion had little impact, and it was a year before she found work in a government office.
After two years, she quit her secure position as she believed life should be more “colorful”, as she put it and decided to gamble on her entrepreneurial possibilities. At first she thought of opening up a store that might benefit from her celebrity, but rents were high. Instead she established an online e-store on Weibo (China’s version of E-Bay) to begin selling wood bracelets, turning her life away from sports completely. Her store has been a runaway success, and on September 19, 2014, Lao Lishi was invited by Jack Ma to be one of the opening bell ringers as China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba Group began to sell public shares on the New York Stock Exchange. As Lishi learns more about the world of e-commerce, and the world learns of her success in diving, Lishi’s e-store can only continue to grow and succeed like Lao Lishi’s diving career.
Happy Birthday Miya Tachibana!!
Miya Tachibana (JPN)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (2011)
FOR THE RECORD: 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (team); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (team); 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (duet, team); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (duet), bronze (team); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (duet, team), bronze (solo); 2001 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet), bronze (solo), 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (duet, team); 1999 FINA WORLD CUP: silver (duet, team), bronze (solo); 2002 FINA WORLD CUP: silver (solo, duet); 1994 ASIAN GAMES: gold (duet); 1998 ASIAN GAMES: gold (solo, duet); 2002 ASIAN GAMES: gold (solo, duet); 22 JAPAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (10 solo, 12 duet).
Miya Tachibana grew up in Otsu, Shiga, Japan loving the water so much that by the fourth grade, she was competing in synchronized swimming. By high school she was winning the Junior World Championships. Following in the footsteps of her Hall of Fame predecessor, Mikako Kotani, she became one of the world’s most successful synchronized swimmers, and Japan’s most decorated Olympic and World Championship synchronized swimmer of all time.
At three Asian Games, she won all gold medals in solo and duet. At three World Championships, from 1994 to 2003, she placed second in duet. Following the 1998 Perth World Championships, Miya received the FINA Prize for her outstanding performances that year.
Competing in three Olympic Games, she won five medals. Her Olympic performances began in 1996 in Atlanta, with Japan winning the bronze medal in the team event, the only synchronized swimming event of the Atlanta Games. Four years later in Sydney, she and teammate Miho Takeda won the silver medal in duet, less than one point behind the Russian duo of Hall of Famer’s Olga Brusnikina and Maria Kisseleva. Miya and Miho repeated the silver-medal wins four years later in Athens, the only duo to medal in successive Olympic Games after the Josephson twins in 1988 and 1992. Japan continued in the silver medal count for the Team Event in both 2000 and 2004. At Japan’s National Championships, Miya won 22 national titles, ten of them solo.
Happy Birthday Yevgeni Sharonov!!
Yevgeni Sharonov (RUS)
Honor Water Polo (2003)
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 1988, 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze; 1982 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze; 1983, 1985, 1987 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold; 1981 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver.
At the age of 14 in 1972, Evgeni Sharonov launched his water polo career participating in the school children’s spartakiad. Immediately he was named the best goalkeeper. His fast reactions, quick hands and fearless play made Evgeni one of the world’s best goalkeepers and Russia’s stalwart for its fine defense and world prowess during the 1980s.
After two years on the USSR Youth National Team, Sharonov began playing on the National Team in 1979. He rose to prominence during the 1980 Moscow Olympics the following year when he became the team’s starting goalie at the young age of 20. From that time, he evolved into one of the best goalies in the world. He continued his gold-medal winning ways at the 1982 World Championships in Guayaquil, where he was awarded “best player” honors. In tough European Championship competitions of 1981, 1983, 1985 and 1987, he and his team won three gold medals and a silver.
In 1987, Sharonov was voted the top goalie at the FINA CUP in Salonika, Greece, where the Soviet Team finished second to Yugoslavia. Later in the year in Strasbourg, France, he knocked down enough shots to help give his team the gold medal and distinguish himself as Swimming World’s Male Water Polo Player of the Year. In Olympic competition of 1988 and 1992, his teams won bronze medals. Sharonov always had a large following in Europe where female fans dubbed him “velvet eyes.”
Since retiring in 1992, he has been Vice President of the Water Polo Federation of Russia and a member of the FINA Technical Water Polo Committee since 1996.
Happy Birthday Kim Linehan!!
Kim Linehan (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1997)
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 OLYMPIC GAMES: Boycott; 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: 4th (400m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS (2): 400m, 1500m freestyle; 1978 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (400m, 800m freestyle); 1982 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (800m freestyle); 1979 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (800m freestyle), silver (200m freestyle); US NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (17); 9 short course (400yd, 800yd, 1000yd, 1650yd freestyle, relays), 8 long course (400m, 800m, 1500m freestyle, relays); CANADIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (3): (freestyle); NCAA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS (4): (500yd, 1650yd freestyle, relay).
At the age of seven, she and her family moved from New York to Florida where the outdoor nature of sun and warm weather lead her to the water. For the next 14 years she spent most of her time in the aqua blue, 11 of them in serious competitive training in the age group and YMCA swimming programs of Sarasota.
Distance freestyle became her event and at 5 feet 4 inches tall and 118 pounds, Kim Linehan became the world’s best female swimmer during the late 1970s, just like her 1960s predecessor, Hall of Famer Patty Caretto of similar size.
Kim began swimming for coach Tim Blood. In those early days this swimmer with the pretty smile was “out for blood”. She was a veracious competitor who wanted to please her coach and family as well as herself. She soon became the Sarasota Y Shark’s swimmer on whom every one could depend, winning the Y national championship titles in the 200yd and 500yd freestyles and the 200yd IM and leading the team to national team titles. She also swam for the Riverview High School team, winning many titles.
Her first big breakthrough on the international scene came at the 1978 US World Championship Trials at the Woodlands, Texas. At age 15, she had moved to Austin to train with coach Paul Bergen of the Texas Longhorn Aquatic Club. They developed a special swimmer/coach relationship which gave Kim the confidence, technique and training to excel against the best in the world.
At these World Championship Trials she set the world record in the 400m freestyle with a time of 4:07.66, beating East German Petra Thumer’s record time established the previous year. The World Championships of Berlin were her first international test, and she won the bronze medal behind Australia’s Hall of Fame Tracy Wickham, who re-set the record, and USA’s Hall of Famer, Sippy Woodhead, in both the 400m and 800m freestyles.
The next year, 1979, Kim came back with a vengeance. At the Pan American Games of San Juan, she won the gold medal in the 800m freestyle beating silver medalist Jennifer Hooker of the USA by over 11 seconds. She won the silver medal in the 200m free behind Woodhead. The first FINA World Cup of Tokyo also saw a gold medal swim in the 800m race, coming within eight one-hundredths of a second from Tracy Wickham’s record.
Her big swim of the year was at the USS National Championships in Fort Lauderdale where, at age 16, Kim broke Wickham’s world record in the 1500m freestyle by over two seconds, a record that stood for an astounding eight years until Janet Evans of the United States broke it in 1987. Kim broke Woodhead’s American record in the 400m freestyle that year.
But even with two world records and bronze medals at the World Championships, Kim was going in to the 1980 Moscow Olympics without a major international title. At the US Olympic Trials she qualified for the team in three events, the 400m and 800m freestyles and the 200m butterfly. The stage was set to meet the world in Moscow. She held the 1500m free world record, although not an Olympic event for women, was the former world record holder in the 400m free and was only .08 seconds off the record in the 800m freestyle. She and Coach Bergen worked out her training schedule and race strategies, which usually were to go out fast and make the other swimmers play catch up.
Then came the horrifying announcement form the White House. The US team was not to go to Moscow. The Olympics were being used as a “political football” as retribution to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. All American athletes would be denied participating in the world’s most prestigious athletic event. In the peak of her athletic career, Kim was denied the chance to win the coveted Olympic gold. Frustrating it was, because her times were faster than the winning gold medal Olympic times. The head-to-head races against Tracy Wickham never materialized. (Australia allowed their athletes to choose individually whether or not they boycott; Tracy Wickham elected to honor the boycott and also did not compete). Although presented specially minted commemorative medals by the President, the luster was taken out of the dreams of Kim and other athletes to win at the Olympic during a period of time when the “window of opportunity for them” seemed the clearest to succeed. But…as Kim said, “You deal with it, and go on.”
After taking a break in 1981, Kim swam slower than she had in four years. She was recruited to the University of Texas where, in her freshman year, she won the 200yd butterfly at the NCAA Championships. She did attend the FISU Games in Bucharest, Romania, winning the 400m and 800m freestyles and 200m butterfly. And she managed a second place finish in the 800m free behind Mission Viejo’s Tiffany Cohen at the 1982 World Championship Trials winning the event in Guayaquil weeks later with a big smile as she paraded around the pool during the victory march. Linehan had no intention of finishing second and led the race the whole distance of her 8:27.48 seconds in the water. Again she was on top of the world.
Another brief rest and it was off to Canada to train with her coach Bergen who had left Texas for Toronto to oversee the Etobicoke Swim Club. At age 21, Kim made the US Olympic Team in the 400m free but did not medal. Her world record in the 1500m free still stood but it was not an Olympic event for women. So after almost 12 years of hard training and competing, Kim retired for good, a very successful national, international and collegiate career behind her.
She loves helping others and today coaches and teaches children the same values she was taught growing up in the world of swimming.