Happy Birthday Michelle Ford!!!
MICHELLE FORD (AUS) 1994 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1980 Olympic Games: gold (800m Freestyle), bronze (200m Butterfly); Two World Records (800m Freestyle); 1978 Commonwealth Games: gold (200m Butterfly), silver 400m and 800m Freestyle), bronze (200m Freestyle and 4x100m Free Relay); 1982 Commonwealth Games: gold (200m Butterfly), silver (800m Freestyle); Four Australian National Championships (200m Butterfly).
Crazy about the water since age four, she was touted as the coming superstar of Australian swimming, and at age 13 she broke nine records, six state and three national, all in three days. Two of those records were by Shane Gould and Jenny Turrall. That same year she earned a spot on the 1976 Olympic team, the second youngest Australian ever to do so. Just one year later, she set her first world record in the 800 freestyle. Little did she know her times in the 800 free would someday beat the times swum earlier by the immortal Murray Rose and John Konrads.
This blonde haired, blue eyed beauty continued her winning streak at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, taking a gold in the 200 butterfly, two silvers in the 400 and 800 free and two bronzes in the 200 free and 400 freestyle relay.
But Michelle Ford’s greatest memory is winning the gold medal in the 800 freestyle and bronze in the 200 butterfly in the Moscow 1980 Olympics. “Competing in the Olympics helped define everything I am today,” she said. Ford was named Amateur Athlete of the Year in 1980. Her name is cast in gold as the Australian women’s team has not won a gold in the Olympics since 1980.
Ford’s Olympic gold did not stop her. She went out hard and fast in the 1982 Commonwealth Games (her second) to take the gold in the 200 fly and silver in the 800 free. During the course of her career, she won four Australian National Championships.
Michelle Ford was a swimmer who made many coaches look great including Hall of Famer Don Talbot, Bill Sweetenham in Australia and Don Lamont at the University of Southern California. Michelle was elected to the International Olympic Committee Athletes Commission 12 person board and was a member of the Olympic Academy from 1984 to 1988. She retired from active competition in 1985 and two years later was invited to work with the Olympic Museum in Switzerland. In 1988 she edited the FINA learn to swim manual.
Ford has used her master’s degree in sports psychology to manage the growth and budgeting of 15 sports as the head of the University Association of Switzerland. Impacting three countries (Australia, Switzerland and the USA) her fluid and elegant style in and out of the water are her trademark.
Spectacular New ISHOF Video – from the old to the new !
https://www.dropbox.com/s/0vz1xfxvp9ut521/07102023_ISHOF_Rd3_REV2.mp4?dl=0
All of us at ISHOF are so excited about the new video that was just released and give to us. Please take a few minutes to watch it and share it with your friends. The new ISHOF is going to be spectacular!
Happy Birthday Tan Liangde!!
Tan Liangde (CHN)
Honor Diver (2000)
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (3m springboard); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (3m springboard); 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (3m springboard); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (3m springboard); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (3m springboard).
In 1982, at age sixteen, he joined the Chinese National team as a springboarddiver in Beijing and under the coaching of Xu Yiming, the National Team coach, he reviewed films of Greg Louganis, taken by Xu on his trips abroad. Little did this young Chinese diver and champion-to-be, Tan Liangde, know that when he hoarded these tapes of Louganis, he would soon be competing against this greatest diver in the world.
Tan first competed against Louganis at the FINA World Cup in 1983 and was beaten. Tan took the silver medal in the 3m springboard at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics the following year; Louganis won the gold. For the next four years, Louganis won 19 straight international springboard competitions; Tan always received the silver. But at two international invitations just before the 1988 Olympics, Tan beat Greg, the only two times he would beat the superstar. At the Seoul Olympics, Greg returned to defeat Liangde.
At the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the gold medal again evaded Tan when Mark Lenzi (USA) won the springboard event. Just like when Hall of Fame diver Georgio Cagnotto (ITA) had the Olympic gold medal evade him throughout five Olympic Game competitions in the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980, so did Tan Liangde meet the same fate.
But his longevity in the sport was overwhelming. He earned the silver medal in all of his major international competitions, as a result of competing against the great Louganis, a diver who was unbeatable during most of his career. In 1989, the very shy but confident Tan won the FINA World Cup and the Alamo Invitational. He was elected the 1989 Male Springboard Diver of the Year.
Throughout his ten years of international springboard diving competition, Tan was a consistently great diver who other divers tried to outscore but only a very, very few succeeded.
Happy Birthday Agnes Kovacs!!
Agnes Kovacs (HUN)
Honor Swimmer (2014)
FOR THE RECORD: 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (200m breaststroke); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m breaststroke); 1998 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke); 2001 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke), bronze (100m breaststroke); 1995 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (4x100m medley), bronze (100m breaststroke); 1997 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 2000 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke), silver
(200m breaststroke); 2006 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 1999 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (25m): silvr (50m breaststroke, 100m breaststroke, 200m breaststroke); 2002 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS (25m): bronze (100m breaststroke); two-time EUROPEAN SWIMMER OF THE YEAR: 1997 and 1998; HUNGARIAN SPORTSWOMAN OF THE YEAR: 1997-2000.
Born in Budapest, Agnes Kovacs learned to swim when she was just two and a half years old, and loved the water from the very start. When she was just nine years old, her swimming teacher, Bea Szucs recommended she join the program at the Kőér St. Pool where she made rapid progress. At the age of 13 she had her first success in the Hungarian National Age Group Championships and as a fourteen year old, she won the European Junior Championship in the 100 yard breaststroke. Within days of her fifteenth birthday, she won the Olympic bronze medal in the 200 meter breaststroke in Atlanta, in 1996.
Following in the wake of Hall of Famer Krisztina Egerszegi, Agnes would be named Hungary’s best female swimmer and her country’s Sportswoman of the year for the next four years. Dominating the 200 meter breaststroke in all international competition from 1997 to 2000, she won gold at both the FINA World Championships in 1998, and then the Olympic gold medal, in Sydney, in 2000.
Following her Olympic success, Kovacs won her event again at the 2001 FINA Championships in Fukuoka, Japan, before moving to the United States to attend Arizona State University. When she left ASU in 2005 it was as a fifteen-time All-American, as the schools top senior female athlete, and with a degree in supply chain management.
Returning to Hungary, she rejoined the national team program and was a crowd favorite, winning three medals at the 2006 European Championships in the same pool where she first learned to swim twenty-two years earlier, on Budapest’s historic Margaret Island.
In addition to her Olympic and NCAA success, Agnes won a total of 25 medals at the European Championships, long and short course, and was a 53-time Hungarian National Champion from 1996 through 2007.
For Agnes, the support of her family was key to becoming a top level swimmer. She is currently married and lives with her husband and son in Hungary, where she is a PhD student at the Semmelweis University Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Sciences.
2024 OLYMPIC GAMES: 2017 ISHOF HONOREE GEORGES VALLEREY ( POOL) (RE)JUMPS INTO THE DEEP END
re-shared: BY LUXUS +
Located in the 20th arrondissement, this pool was built in 1924 for the Paris Olympics. A century later, it is being renovated to welcome the athletes of the 2024 Olympics and to become a training site.
D-500 to go before the City of Light welcomes athletes from around the world for the 2024 Olympic Games. For the occasion, Paris is thinking big, and the capital is innovating and renovating. New buildings are coming out of the ground, while old buildings are being given a makeover. Like the Yves-du-Manoir stadium in Colombes, which hosted the 1938 World Cup final, the Georges Vallerey swimming pool is one of the sites that the city of Paris is recycling and renovating for the long-awaited Olympic Games.
Behind the building site structures and barriers, the establishment already displays the Olympic rings, symbols of these world-famous sporting events. And these colored rings, the Georges-Vallerey pool knows them well.
Georges-Vallerey complex
First Olympic pool
A century ago, the large pool of the Georges-Vallerey complex counted great exploits in its waters. Notably that of the American Johnny Weissmuller, three-time Olympic medalist, who later became Tarzan on the screen. In addition to these feats, it was avant-garde. It was, in France, the first Olympic pool with a 50-meter pool, which innovated by separating the pool into several lines, to create lanes.
A place full of nostalgia and victories, which unfortunately will not host new swimming events next year, due to a lack of seats in the stands. It will however be used as a training site before becoming an almost historical monument of the French capital.
A little rejuvenation
Inside, some 50 workers are working hard to complete the work in time for the beginning of next year. In addition to the floors, walls and everything in between of the building from the last century, the biggest part of the renovation concerns the swimming pool and especially the roof covering, which, since January, no longer exists!
This reconstruction was entrusted to the French architectural firm AIA architectes and led by Romain Viault, of the firm Architecte(s). A first construction site between 1986 and 1989 has already allowed the pool to change its cut, or rather its roof with a mechanism that allows to open and close it.
To go into a little more detail, the previous roof, which was made of larch wood will be replaced by Douglas, from forests in the Vosges and Jura. The new roof will be made of polycarbonate, a light and translucent plastic material with a high thermal resistance. This renovation, which will cost around 12 million euros, is financed in equal parts by the city of Paris and Solideo (the company responsible for delivering the Olympic facilities).
Eco-responsibility on the agenda
“Through this renovation project, there is also a very strong environmental and social ambition,” explains Flavie Anet, project manager for the operation within the steering and expertise division of the Paris City Council’s Youth and Sports Department.
A “green” and responsible renovation, since the city of Paris has decided to reuse the waste from the site such as iron, rubble or old installations to give them a second life.
For example, the wood from the old framework will be used to make furniture and signage, which will be placed in the renovated pool. The city of Paris has donated another part of the wood to the Extramuros association, a solidarity carpentry that reuses materials.
Other developments and solutions are currently underway, such as improving accessibility, particularly for the visually impaired, and air quality by renovating the ventilation system, as well as modernizing the lighting, which should reduce energy consumption by 40%.
The opening is scheduled for March 2024, for athletes who will have the chance to train in the footsteps, or rather in the “fathoms” of former medal winners. For Parisians, on the other hand, it will be necessary to wait until the end of the Olympic Games, i.e. around March 2025, to swim in the pool and enjoy the good weather and the sun on summer afternoons, thanks to the future new opening roof.
Read also >THE EVOLUTION OF THE MEDALS OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES
Featured photo : © AIA Architectes
GEORGES VALLEREY was inducted into ISHOF as an HONOR PIONEER SWIMMER in 2017.
Georges Vallerey
The information on this page was written the year of their induction.
FOR THE RECORD: 1948 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (100m backstroke); 1932 CROIX DE GUERRE AVEC ETOILE DE BRONZE (War Cross with Bronze Star); 1947 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m backstroke); MEMBER OF FRENCH WORLD RECORD SETTING MEDLEY RELAY
In the early morning hours of the 8th of November, 1942, an armada of American destroyers, aircraft carriers and troop ships carrying 35,000 American soldiers approached the Moroccan coast under cover of darkness. Their mission was to destroy the French fleet guarding the port of Casablanca and occupy the city. The defending French warships were outgunned by the American fleet and as the battle ensued, several French vessels retreated into the harbor while under attack, hoping to avoid being sunk at sea.
Watching the battle from the beach, which was taking place a few miles out to sea, was Georges Vallerey, Jr. Although he was only 15 years old and not even 5’8” tall, he was a very strong boy, with a Herculean build and could swim like an otter. Nicknamed “Yo-Yo”, he was born in France and moved with his family to Casablanca, in the French colony of Morocco. It was in Casablanca’s Piscine Municipal, the largest swimming pool in the world, where his father taught him and his four brothers and sister to swim. Georges was always ready to help others and when he was only eleven he made news, saving a young girl from drowning.
Standing on the beach, Georges saw a ship being hit by high-explosive shells some 300 meters off the shore. By tradition, many of the sailors did not know how to swim and he quickly realized that many were drowning as they abandoned the ship. Without any hesitation, he undressed, jumped into the water and began to swim to the ship, which was still being hit by bullets and shells, through water covered with burning oil. He would rescue a sailor, return to the beach with him, and immediately swim back out to the burning wreck. While the bombing continued he didn’t stop until he found a little boat on the beach, tied a rope around his waist and swam it out to the ship. By this method he saved scores more seamen.
For his heroics, he was decorated with the Croix de Guerre avec Etoile de Bronze (War Cross with Bronze Star).
Three years later, in 1946, Georges, by now a robust young adult, began his remarkable swimming career that saw him establish with Alfred Nakache and Alexandre Jany the world record for the 300m medley relay. By 1947, he was the best French swimmer in the 200m breaststroke, 100m and 200m backstroke and 400m freestyle.
The next year, at the London Olympic Games, he won the bronze medal in the 100m backstroke. Unfortunately, the medley relay was not part of the 1948 Olympic program. The next year America’s Allen Stack, the 100m backstroke Olympic champion at London, thinking that the Casablanca swimming pool was fast, wanted to try for the world record and asked Vallerey to accompany him. Vallerey won the race in a time faster than Stack’s winning Olympic time had been.
Then in December, he swam in a Christmas Cup, where the water was at 1° Celsius (34° Fahrenheit). He developed a throat infection, that would incapacitate him for four years and finally claim his life on October 4, 1954, in Casablanca, seventeen days before his twenty-seventh birthday. In his memory, the Les Tourelles Piscine, where the swimming events of the 1924 Olympic Games were held, was renamed Piscine Georges-Vallerey. Today the pool has been renovated and is one of the great pools of the world – a lasting tribute to a great swimmer and hero who died too young.
2023 ISHOF Honoree Podcast: Listen to the greatest Paralympian: Swimmer, TRISCHA ZORN
ISHOF has some great news that we are excited to share: The Ruling Sports Podcast featuring 2023 ISHOF Honor Paraplymic Swimmer, Trischa Zorn is now available for your listening pleasure on podcast! The host of The Ruling Sports Podcast said that the Trischa Zorn episode is outperforming her normal episodes!
The episodes are available wherever podcasts can be found but we have pulled the Trischa Zorn episodes on a few of the most popular platforms below for you:
Click and enjoy!
Apple Podcasts: 41. Trischa Zorn-Hudson – Most-Decorated Paralympian On Overcoming Stigma To Find Success
Spotify: 41. Trischa Zorn-Hudson – Most-Decorated Paralympian On Overcoming Stigma To Find Success
Come and be a part of Trischa’s induction, Saturday, September 30, 2023.
ISHOF to induct Trischa Zorn as first Paralympic Swmmer into ISHOF as part of the Class of 2023
Happy Birthday Pamela Morris!!
Pamela Morris (USA)
Honor Synchronized / Artistic Swimmer (1965)
FOR THE RECORD: U.S. SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING NATIONALS: 1965 Indoor Titles (solo, duet, team); 1965 Outdoor Titles (solo, duet, team).
In the young sport of synchronized swimming so popular in the United States and Canada, the quality and quantity of competition has improved dramatically since the sport began its national competition in 1946, adding solo in 1950. Ruth and Gloria Geduldig of the Chicago Town Club were the first indoor and outdoor duet champions.
June Taylor and Beulah Gundling respectively won the first four indoor and outdoor solo titles, but in the entire 16 years of three way competition, only one girl, Pame Morris of the San Francisco Merionettes has been a triple winner. Pame accomplished this difficult combination of individual and team performance twice, winning solo, duet and team titles (the synchronized swimming hat trick) in both the 1965 indoor and outdoor championships at Houston, Texas and Maumee, Ohio. Pame’s duets teamed with Patty Willard. These two great performers were joined in the winning San Francisco Merionettes team competition by Margo McGrath, Rhea Irvine, Patsy Mical, Carol Redmond, Kathie McBride and Sharon Lawson.
In recognizing the recently retired Pame Morris as an honoree, the Swimming Hall of Fame acknowledges synchronized swimming as a mature sport in the swimming framework of aquatic sports.
Happy Birthday Lillian “Pokey” Watson!!
Lillian “Pokey” Watson (USA)
Honor Swimmer (1984)
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 gold (freestyle relay); 1968 gold (200m backstroke); WORLD RECORDS: 7 (200m freestyle; 6 relays); AAU NATIONALS Titles: 26 (100m, 200m, 200yd freestyle; 100m, 200m backstroke; 20 relays); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1967 bronze (100m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS: 42 (100yd, 100m, 200yd, 500yd, 500m freestyle; 200m backstroke; 29 relays).
“Pokey” Watson swam her way from Minneola, New York to Honolulu, Hawaii with gold medal stop-offs in Tokyo for the 1964 Olympics and Mexico City for the 1968 Games. Between her Olympic gold medals, the omnipotent “Pokey” (who never was pokey in the water) made nine overseas trips with U.S. teams. A freckle-faced prodigy for George Haines at Santa Clara, she won the first of her 22 National Championships at 13 and five years later hung it up to become a coach. Along the way, Pokey set six World Records individually and had a relay leg up on 20- more for a total of 26. Her American records were even more impressive with 13 and 29 relays. Thought of principally as a crawl swimmer who had been at it a long, long time, Pokey and her coach George Haines decided to turn her over and almost unnoticed, she won the 100 backstroke at the 1967 U.S. Outdoor Nationals. It was still a surprise when, abandoning freestyle completely, she won the Olympic gold medal in the 200m Back at Mexico by 2.6 seconds over the reigning world Record holder Elaine Tanner of Canada. Pokey was never a good breaststroker. She took care of this when she married one of the best in June, 1971, and became Mr. Allen Richardson. Her coaching career at U.S.C. was cut short when the Richardsons moved back to Hawaii where Allen set up his medical practice.
Cesar Cielo, Brazilian Sprinter & Olympic Gold Medalist to be inducted into ISHOF, September 2023
Cesar Cielo will be the third Brazilian swimmer to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame, after Maria Lenk and Gustavo Borges. Ranked as the top teenager in Brazil, Cielo’s career took off when he made the decision to attend college in the United States at Auburn University. Joining forces with coaches David Marsh and Brett Hawke, Cielo not only further fueled the NCAA championship tradition of the Tigers but emerged as a world-class threat who would alter the landscape of future Olympic Games and World Championships.
Cielo’s time at Auburn also allowed him to develop into a global star. At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Cielo qualified for the finals of the 50 free and 100 free, where he placed sixth and fourth, respectively. Most important, Cielo recognized he belonged on the biggest of stages, and used this knowledge to fuel him on the road to the 2008 Olympics.
At the Beijing Games, Cielo fended off a stacked field in the 50-meter freestyle to become Olympic champion. His meet also featured a bronze medal in the 100 freestyle, and his gold in the shorter event is the only title won by a Brazilian in the Olympic pool.
The next year, at the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Cielo doubled in the 50 freestyle and 100 freestyle, the 100 free producing a world record. Later in the year, Cielo broke the world record in the 50 freestyle, with his 20.91 outing still standing as the global standard.
Cielo’s sprint success continued at the next two editions of the World Championships. In 2011 and 2013, he was golden in the 50 freestyle and 50 butterfly, his efforts in the fly demonstrating his ability to take his speed to another stroke. In between, he added a bronze medal in the 50 freestyle at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. Cielo was also a world champion in the short-course pool.
A three-time Olympic medalist and seven-time medalist at the long-course version of the World Championships, Cesar Cielo will long be recalled as one of the finest sprinters the sport has seen.
Come join Sprinter Cesar Cielo and this year’s spectacular class of 2023 in Ft. Lauderdale. If you cannot join us, consider making a donation. To make a donation, click here: https://ishof.org/donate/
Class of 2023 Honorees
Bob Bowman (USA) / Honor Coach
Chris Carver (USA) / Honor Coach
Cesar Cielo (BRA) / Honor Swimmer
Kirsty Coventry (ZIM) / Honor Swimmer
Missy Franklin (USA / Honor Swimmer
Natalia Ischenko (RUS) / Honor Synchronized Swimmer
Kosuke Kitajima (JPN) / Honor Swimmer
Heather Petri (USA) / Honor Water Polo Player
Michael Phelps (USA) / Honor Swimmer
Wu Minxia (CHN / Honor Diver
Sam Ramsamy (RSA) / Honor Contributor
Stephane Lecat (FRA) / Honor Open Water Swimmer
Trischa Zorn (USA) / Honor Paralympic Swimmer
2023 ISHOF Aquatic Awards – Presented by AquaCal(Formerly the Paragon Awards)
2023 ISHOF Specialty AwardsFriday, September 29, 2023
Purchase Friday Night Tickets Here
5:00 – Cocktails and hors d’oeuvresOceanview Veranda Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach, 3030 Holiday Drive, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 954.525.40006:00 – Awards Ceremony Caribbean BallroomFort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach8:30 – Dinner on own
ISHOF Aquatic Awards – Presented by AquaCal
Swimming: Mike Unger (USA)Diving: Ellie Smart (USA)Water Polo: Mark Koganov (AZB)Synchro: Maria Jose Brunel (ESP)Aquatic Safety: Cullen Jones (USA)Recreational Swimming: Sophia Forte (USA)
ISHOF Specialty Awards John K. Williams Jr. Award: Gail M. Dummer (USA)Judge Martin Award: Norman Taplin (USA)ISHOF Service Award: Laura Voet (USA)Buck Dawson Author’s Award: Elaine K. Howley (USA)Buck Dawson Author’s Award: Tom Gompf (USA)Al Schoenfield Media Award: John Lohn Virginia Hunt Newman Award: Amanda GawthropeSammy Lee Award: USA Diving/Duraflex
**More ticket information to come**
**All ticket sales are final unless event is canceled**
HOTEL INFORMATION
Host Hotel: Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa
The Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa, (3030, Harbor Drive, Fort Lauderdale, 33316, 954. 525.4000) site of the Friday night awards ceremony is our host hotel. The hotel has given us a special rate of $229 per room night. Please make your reservations through the link below prior to August 29.
(Be sure to say you do not want the resort fee or you will be charged $259)
To make reservations click here: https://book.passkey.com/e/50527236
Upscale retreat with private beach access, two pools, four restaurants, full-service spa and oceanside bar. Location of the Friday evening awards ceremony.
¼ mile south of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
($30 Resort fee – Guests can opt out if not interested in resort amenities)
Additional Hotel Option:
Courtyard Marriott Fort Lauderdale Beach, 440 Seabreeze Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316
(954) 524-8733.
Click Here: Book your group rate for Honoree Ceremony
Special ISHOF Guest Rate of $169 – $189 per night
Honoree Ceremony September 29-30, 2023: Last Day to Book: Friday, August 31, 2023.
Happy Birthday Christine “Kiki” Caron!!
Christine “Kiki” Caron (FRA)
Honor Swimmer (1998)
FOR THE RECORD: 1964 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (l00m backstroke); ONE WORLD RECORD: l00m backstroke; 1966 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); 11 EUROPEAN RECORDS: 100m, 200m backstroke; 14 FRENCH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: l00m & 200m backstroke, l00m & 200m butterfly; 1965 U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); AUSTRALIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); MEXICAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (l00m backstroke); ONE FRENCH NATIONAL RECORD: l00m butterfly.
In 1948, following World War II, sport was reclaiming its importance in the world and the swimming world was awakening to a surge in international female participation. In Europe, Hall of Famer’s Jean Boiteaux and Alex Jany were France’s star swimmers. Born in Paris during this time of resurgence in the sport, little did Christine “Kiki” Caron know that she would grow to become the best backstroke swimmer in the world and compete in the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, just 4 Olympiads later.
In fact, over a career in which Caron won 14 French National Championships within a 7 year period, setting both the backstroke and butterfly records of her country in both 100m and 200m distances, Kiki became one of France’s most famous athletes. With film star beauty, vivaciousness and great swimming ability, she was probably the most photographed of all French athletes. At the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, she was the glamour girl, the child prodigy and as her coach Suzanne Berlioux would say “a little temperamental.”
On June 14, 1964 in Paris, Kiki had broken the world 100m backstroke record held by USA’s Dona deVarona. The stage was set for an exciting 100m race between record holders Cathy Ferguson and Ginny Duenkel of the USA and Satoko Tanaka of Japan, all competing at the Tokyo Olympics in October of 1964. In one of the closest races in Olympic history Ferguson, Caron and Duenkel all touched one-two-three, within a blink of the eye in the 50m Olympic Pool. It was the first official use of the electronic timing touch pads to determine race results, in Olympic competition and Kiki finished second for the silver medal behind Ferguson. All of these swimmers were within three-tenths of a second of each other. There was no 200m backstroke for women.
But Kiki didn’t stop there. She competed in the U.S. National Championships in 1965 beating Olympic Champion Ferguson. She also won the 100m backstroke National Championships of Australia and Mexico. She was the 1966 European Champion gold medalist in the 100m backstroke and set the 100m and 200m backstroke European records 11 times. Kiki competed in the 1968 Mexico City Olympics and was the first European woman to carry her country’s flag in the opening ceremony of an Olympic Games.
Today, Kiki is in the swimming pool public relations business.