MARK SCHUBERT REJOINS THE ISHOF BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Last week 1997 ISHOF Honor Coach, Mark Schubert, rejoined the Board of Directors of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Schubert, who took a leave of absence, was reinstated as an ISHOF Board Member at the Tuesday, June 14, 2023 Board Meeting by an overwhelming vote.
Schubert’s success as a coach is undeniable. The one word describing Schubert on his Linkedin page by USA Swimming CEO, Tim Hinchey: LEGEND. That kind of says it all.
He won his first National Championship, as Coach of the Mission Viejo Nadadore’s Women’s Team in 1974, alongside famed Coach, George Haines of Santa Clara, who took the Men’s and Combined Titles. Schubert was only 25 at the time and Haines was his idol. He would go on to win 44 Club National Championships over a total of 13 years. He would also capture nine National Titles for the Mission Bay Makos in Boca Raton, Florida, where he coached for just over three years in the mid to late 1980’s. Schubert would eventually returned to Mission Viejo, looking to bring the club back to its former glory.
He also had success on the NCAA level. Schubert coached at the University of Southern California and the University of Texas, winning three NCAA Championships and 49 individual NCAA Titles, which included swimmers like Whitney Hedgepeth and Leigh Anne Fetter.
Schubert was a member of the USA Olympic Coaching Staff in 1980, (the Boycott Games) 1984, 1988, 1992 (Head U.S. Women’s Coach), 1996, 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympics.
The swimmers that Schubert has coached is like an Olympic roster of who’s who. Shirley Babashoff (1976), Brian Goodell (1976), Tiffany Cohen (1984), Mike O’Brien (1984), Jesse Vassallo (1984), Dara Torres (1984), and that is just the tip of the iceburg…………
Through his years as a coach, he has served on various USA Swimming Committees, including Steering, Olympic Operations and Technical Operations. He has also been on the American Swimming Coaches Board of Directors and has served as the College Swim Coaches Association of America’s Vice President.
We are very lucky and happy to welcome this extremely knowledgeable man, back to the ISHOF Board of Directors.
If you would like to read Coach Mark Schubert’s entire 1997 Honoree biography, click here: https://www.ishof.org/honoree/honoree-mark-schubert/
Who wants to go to the Movies?
You may have thought Johnny Weissmuller was the first Swimmer turned Movie Star, but you’d be wrong…..Meet Annette Kellerman of Australia and then Hollywood.
The Audacity of Annette Kellerman
by: Chuck Warner
Happy Birthday Margo McGrath!!
Margo McGrath (USA)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (1989)
FOR THE RECORD: AAU SENIOR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 17 (solo, duet, team, 5 successive number 1 figure awards); CANADIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 4 (solo, duet, team); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2 (duet, team); Pacific Assn’s Outstanding Athlete: 1967, 1968; Helms Hall of Fame: 1970; Lawrence Johnson Aquatic Award: 1968; U.S. Synchronized Swimming Hall of Fame: 1969.
“McGrath & Redmond”. So might have read the billing in Vaudeville at the Palace. McGrath and Redmond, the first synchronized duet honored by the International Swimming Hall of Fame would have certainly had top billing anywhere. This dynamic duo were show biz naturals in the art of “Swimdancing” long before synchronized swimming was recognized in our Aquatic World Championships or at the Olympics. These two girls were superb athletes and won solo National & International Championships galore, but it was as a pair that they set duet standards previously unmatched in their sport. Together, they completely dominated U.S. and world synchronized swimming.
Margo McGrath, while modest, honest and generous to a fault was a competitor who dominated synchronized swimming winning a total of 17 U. S. National Championships. She was the youngest Senior National Champion in the history of the sport at age 13. She made believers out of speed swimmers, too, when she won San Francisco’s Golden Gate Swim in 56 degree water beating 23 other girls before hundreds of spectators lining the Golden Gate Bridge.
Margo was the technician who brought figures to a new level of excellence. She put “swim” into synchronized swimming. She was the expert in fluid motion. Her “poetry in swimming” mesmerized her audience and made them feel a part of the water. During the years 1966 and 1967, she never lost a championship and was the first to win all four events — solo, duet, team, figures — and did it four times consecutively.
On Juneteenth 2023, we remember “Black Splash: The history of African-American Swimmers”
ERNESTINE LEBRUN, Competitor of Aileen Riggin
Yes we are doing electronic invites
Not for MISHOF
Happy Birthday Stephanie Rice!!
Stephanie Rice (AUS)
Honor Swimmer (2019)
FOR THE RECORD: 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m I.M, 400m I.M, 4x200m freestyle; 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): bronze (200m I.M, 400m I.M.); 2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): silver (200m I.M, 4x100m medley); bronze (400m I.M.); 2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): bronze (400m I.M., 4x100m medley); 2006 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (200m I.M., 400m I.M); 2006 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (200m I.M, 400m I.M)
She first showed promise of being a great swimmer at 16, when she qualified for the 2005 Junior Pan-Pacific Championships. It was there that Stephanie Rice won two gold medals for Team Australia.
Rice burst onto the international senior scene in 2006 under coach Michael Bohl, winning two gold medals in both IMs at the Commonwealth Games in her home country. The next year at the World Championships also in front of a home crowd, Rice won two bronze medals in both IMs, lowering the Australian record in the 200.
In March 2008 at the Australian Olympic Trials in Sydney, Rice unexpectedly broke the world record in the 400m IM by a full second. Three days later, she broke the 200m IM world record that had stood for 11 years and qualified for her first Olympic team.
At the Olympic Games in Beijing, Rice became just the sixth Australian athlete to win three gold medals at a single Olympics when she won both IMs and led off Australia’s 4x200m freestyle relay team.
Stephanie became the first woman to break 4:30 in the 400m IM and lowered her own world record in the 200m IM later in the meet. To finish off her meet, she broke the Australian record in the 200m freestyle en route to Australia breaking the world record in the 4x200m freestyle relay. Rice was honored as the World Swimmer of the Year by Swimming World Magazine and in January 2009 was awarded the prestigious Order of Australia Medal.
After the Olympics, Rice started dealing with nagging shoulder pain while she swam. At the 2009 World Championships, she won silver in the 200m IM and bronze in the 400m IM, not quite as good as her Olympics performances.
In 2010, her shoulder pain had gotten so bad, she underwent surgery, causing her to drop out of international competition.
Her surgery was successful but nine months before the 2012 Olympic Games in London, she tore a tendon in her shoulder. She was going to need surgery with a six-month recovery, but with the Olympic Trials only ten weeks away, full surgery was not an option. She elected for a smaller surgery that would hopefully keep her healthy for the Olympics. Despite these injuries, Rice qualified for the London Olympics in both the 200m and 400m IM, posting times near the top of the world rankings at the Olympic Trials.
In the weeks leading up to the Olympics, the pain in her shoulder continued to get worse. She was cutting her work load in the pool to ease the pain, but it was still a struggle. With all the injuries behind her, Rice was proud of her 4th place 200m IM and 6th place 400m IM performances in London and announced her retirement in 2014 at the age of 24.
She co-authored the book, The Art of Wellness, and is an ambassador for numerous well-known Australian health brands. Rice’s passion in life is to share her wealth of knowledge and her insights to positively impact others’ lives and inspire them to be the best they can be.
She is now giving back to the sport of swimming with her coach Michael Bohl. They are planning to build Learn-to- Swim programs all throughout India. In addition, they plan to develop the “Stephanie Rice Elite Academy,” with the goal of producing India’s very first Olympic swimming medalist in the next decade.
Happy Birthday Michael Gross!!
Michael Gross (FRG)
Honor Swimmer (1995)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1980 silver (4x100m medley relay); 1984 gold (200m freestyle, 100m butterfly), silver (200m butterfly); 1988 gold (200m butterfly), bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); WORLD RECORDS: 12 (4-200m freestyle, 1-400m freestyle, 1-100m butterfly, 4-200m butterfly, 2-4x200m freestyle relay); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1982 gold (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly), silver (100m butterfly), bronze (4x200m freestyle relay); 1986 gold (200m freestyle, 200m butterfly), silver (4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay); 1991 gold (4x200m freestyle relay), silver (100m, 200m butterfly), bronze (4x100m medley relay); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1981 gold (200m butterfly); 1983 gold (200m freestyle, 100m, 200m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle relay), silver (4x100m medley relay); 1985 gold (200m freestyle, 100m, 200m butterfly, 4x100m medley relay, 4x200m freestyle relay); 1987 gold (200m butterfly, 4x200m freestyle relay), silver (100m butterfly), bronze (200m freestyle); EUROPEAN RECORDS: 24.
What does this West German superstar’s Porsche and swimming have in common? They are both very, very fast.
At 19, Michael Gross set his first world record at the German nationals in 1983. The next three years Michael broke his own record in the 200meter freestyle four times and set world marks in the 200m butterfly (four times) and 100m butterfly and 100m freestyle. At one time, Michael actually held four world records in four different events.
This 6-foot-6 record breaker has dominated the surface of the water for a decade as one of the greatest West German swimmers in history. His stature is so large that his wing span reaches almost lane-to-lane. For this, he has been coined, the “Albatross.” Michael says he likes his nickname, “because there are much more stupid nicknames in the world.”
Throughout his swimming career, Michael won gold medals at the European Championships in 1981, 1983, 1985, 1987; the World Championship Games in 1982, 1986 and 1991; and was a triple gold medalist and a silver medalist at the 1984 Olympics. In the 1988 Olympics he won the gold again in the 200m freestyle and two silver medals in both butterfly events.
Michael’s last meet was at the 1991 World Championships in Perth, but he has no intention of leaving the world of sports. He is looking forward to enjoying sports such as skiing and marathon running.
Aside from his swimming, Michael is a philosopher and holds a doctorate in this thought provoking science. To him, this achievement is as important as being an Olympic champion. Gross believes, “The worst thing in life is to have no wishes, no goals, because then you have nothing to reach for, nothing to live for.” Needless to say, Michael has had much to live for.
Happy Birthday Steve Clark!!
Steve Clark (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1966)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 (participant); 1964 gold (4x100m, 4x200m freestyle relay; 4x100m medley relay); WORLD RECORDS: 50yd, 100yd, 100m, 200yd, 200m freestyle.
Steve Clark swam the 1960 Olympics out of Los Altos High School and the 1964 Olympics out of Yale and Santa Clara. He won five NCAA individual championships at Yale and six AAU titles for Santa Clara Swim Club. He won 3 gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics, setting a world record of 52.9 for the 100 meter freestyle.
Clark is the first man in the world to have swum faster than 21 seconds for 50 yards, 46 seconds for 100 yards, 53 seconds for 100 meters, 1:50 for 200 yards and 2 minutes for 200 meters.
Clark’s 9 world records would have been at least 29 in an earlier time when FINA was accepting short course times for 50, 100, 200 and 220 yard, 100 meter and 200 meter freestyle. Steve Clark was Santa Clara’s first great male swimmer at the time Hall of Famer Chris Von Saltza was Santa Clara’s premier woman swimmer. Whereas Chris’ father characterized Chris by saying, “The longer the distance, the better the Von Saltza”, he might have added, “and the shorter the distance, the better the Clark.” Steve Clark was unquestionably the World’s fastest freestyle sprint swimmer for five years retiring to Harvard Law School with his records unchallenged.
In speculating on what might have been, swim buffs will always wonder on the fate that might have kept Steve from being the first man to win four gold medals in an Olympiad. Steve had tendonitis in his shoulder during the USA’s sudden-death Olympic Trials. His fourth place made the team, but only as a relay swimmer. By Tokyo, the tendonitis was gone, but U.S. rules limited Steve to 3 relays and 3 gold medals. He started off the 400 freestyle relay in the fastest gun start 100 of the Olympics. It was a new world record, but Steve didn’t get to do it when it would count for that fourth gold medal.
Clark’s book, Competitive Swimming As I See It , is a swimming best seller.
Happy Birthday Chi Lieh Yung!!
Chi Lieh Yung (CHN)
Honor Swimmer (2013)
His talent for swimming was recognized while playing at a beach in Hong Kong, by coaches of the Lai Tsun Swimming Union of the Chinese Y.M.C.A. Under the guidance of his coaches, Chan and Huang, he was shown how frogs leapt great distances by releasing explosive power in their legs and learned to swim the breaststroke. Taking this cue from nature and with the dream of becoming the “King of the Frogs,” Chi became the most celebrated swimmer in Hong Kong. Having the option to represent Hong Kong, Formosa or the New China in international competition, Chi chose the latter and crossed the border on April 8, 1954 to join the training camp in Guangdong.
Coached by a collaborative of Hungarian, Russian and Chinese coaches, and from his own observations and studies, Chi developed a unique style of swimming that came to be known as “the high sailing position,” that utilized his powerful kick. During the national swimming championships in 1955, his efforts paid off as he won first place in the men’s 100 and 200 meter breaststroke.
In October of 1956, Chi Lieh Yung was one of 12 swimmers, 11 male and 1 female, selected to represent the People’s Republic at the 16th Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. The only female swimmer, Dai Lihua, later became Chi’s wife. Unfortunately, politics intervened and China did not send its team.
The following year, on May 1st, a swimming competition was organized to commemorate the International Labor Day. Chi was in his prime, and all the best breaststrokers were entered. He broke the world record in the men’s 100 meter breaststroke with a time of 1:11.6. This was the first world record by a Chinese swimmer recognized by FINA. His accomplishment was an immense source of pride and an inspiration for the new nation. Although Chi never got the chance to compete in the Olympics, he did realize his childhood dream of becoming “The King of Frogs” and he will forever be remembered as China’s first world record setter in swimming.
After retiring, he and his wife devoted themselves to coaching the national swimming team until 1976 when they returned to Hong Kong, where Chi started his own successful business. His interest has always been swimming and music, even now he spends more than one hour a day in the pool.