Happy Birthday Nathalie Schneyder!!!
Nathalie Schneyder (USA) 2013 Honor Synchronized Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (team); 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: gold (team); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP: gold (team); 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995 FINA WORLD CUP: gold (team); 1991 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (team); 1988, 1992 SWISS OPEN: gold (team); 1991 ROME OPEN: gold (team); 1993 CHINA OPEN: silver (duet); 1994 FRENCH OPEN: gold (team); 1992 U.S. NATIONALS: gold (team), 4th (solo); 1993 U.S. NATIONALS: silver (team), bronze (duet), 5th (solo); 1994 U.S. NATIONALS: silver (team), 4th (duet) 6th (solo); 1995 U.S. NATIONALS: silver (team), bronze (solo).
When Nathalie fell into the swimming pool at the age of four and almost drowned, her mother decided she needed swimming lessons to keep her safe. Within four years, she was competing in synchro as a member of the Walnut Creek Synchronized Swimming Team.
Like in any sport, a number of coaches helped her along the way. Linda Kreiger started her synchronized swimming career; Betty Hazel coached her when she was twelve; Joan Marie Vanaski was her junior team coach who taught her to dance; Hall of Famer Gail Johnson Pucci brought her from the junior team to the club’s “A” team, developing her creativity; Lynn Virglio provided most of the 3,000 to 6,000 yards training before they started synchro training each day; Karen Babb worked tirelessly to get her figures up to par; and Chris Carver, National Team Coach gave her the final touch. But it was Hall of Fame coach Gail Emery who served as her club coach and developed her into the Olympic champion she would become.
As member of the United States National Team for nine years, she and her team rarely missed the top of the podium, winning five FINA World Cups and two FINA World Championships. Winning the 1994 French Open Team Championship in front of her family was special to Nathalie, because her mom and dad had both emigrated from France to the USA. At the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games, Nathalie reached every athlete’ s dream when she helped the USA win the gold medal with a perfect score of “10 “ in the freestyle event. This was the first and only perfect score of “10” in Olympic synchronized swimming history until Russia received the same award in Beijing for their freestyle routine. But for all of her accomplishments in the pool, she is also famous for the perfect pose with teammate Margo Thien that appeared in “Life Magazines” Celebration of the Olympic Body.
Since retiring from the sport, she has coached, been a consultant and choreographed for teams in China, Great Britain, Argentina and the Netherlands, as well as the U.S. Junior National Team and helped Stanford to their first synchronized swimming Collegiate National Championship.
Watch Nathalie’s induction video and speech here:
Happy Birthday to Adrian Moorhouse who turns 57 today!!!
ADRIAN MOORHOUSE (GBR) Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: 4th (100m breaststroke); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (100m breaststroke); 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: 8th (100m breaststroke); ONE WORLD RECORD: 100m breaststroke: 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (100m breaststroke); 1982 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (100m breaststroke), silver (4x100m medley relay), bronze (200m breaststroke); 1986 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (200m breaststroke), silver (100m breaststroke, 4x100m medley relay); 1990 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (100m breaststroke), silver (4x100m medley relay); 1981 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (200m breaststroke); 1983 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m breaststroke), silver (100m breaststroke); 1985 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke); 1987 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke), silver (4x100m medley relay), bronze (200m breaststroke); 1989 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m breaststroke); 1991 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (100m breaststroke); ONE U.S. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: short course (100y breaststroke); Awarded MBE.
Not since David Wilkie in the 1970’s had Great Britain seen a breaststroker like Adrian Moorhouse. Duncan Goodhew had won the Olympic gold medal in Moscow in 1980, but Moorhouse was equally great in the 100m and 200m races. He was destined to become the world’s best.
It all began in Leeds at age 4 when Moorhouse started swimming. However by age 9, he developed bronchial asthma and the doctor’s antidote was “keep swimming and do more of it”. That’s why under the tutelage of Coach Terry Denison at the Leeds Central Swimming Club, Adrian swam his way into the record books.
The 1982 Commonwealth Games at Brisbane were his first major international championships – gold in the 100m breaststroke in front of the Queen, silver in the 4×100 medley relay and bronze in the 200-meter. He won the gold medal in the 200m breaststroke the next year at the European Championships. In 1984 two months before the Olympics, Moorhouse was diagnosed with the German measles and told he had had them for the past three months, explaining the tiredness he had been experiencing. He never really recovered for Los Angeles, finishing a disappointing 4th in the 100m breaststroke. This was a time to heal and with the help of Denison, a time to re-evaluate his life goals.
At the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Moorhouse was back on track winning the 200m breaststroke and taking silver medals in the 100m breast and 4x100m medley relay. At the 1986 Madrid World Championships, he touched first in the 100m event but was disqualified due to a rule infraction. First in the World, but he didn’t win the prize. He continued: 1987, gold in the 100m breaststroke and medley relay at the European Championships in Strasbourg. It was on to Seoul and the 1988 Olympic Games.
In Seoul, he defeated Karoly Guttler (HUM) and Dimitri Volkov (URS) to win the 100m breaststroke in a time of 1:02.04. He had previously set the world record in 1989 with a time of 1:01.49 breaking Steve Lundquist’s (USA) 5 year old record and equaling it another 2 times on separate occasions. Moorhouse wanted to continue after the Games. At the 1989 European Championships he won gold in the 100m breast and silver two years later in 1991 for a total of 5 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals in a decade of European Championship swimming.
Adrian competed in his third Olympic Games in 1992 earning an 8th place finish in the 100m breaststroke behind Nelson Diebel (USA).
Spanning a phenomenal 14 year swimming career against such greats as Steve Lundquist (USA), Victor Davis (CAN), Karoly Guttler (HUN) and Mike Barrowman (USA), Adrian set the 100m breaststroke record three times. In all he competed in three Olympic Games and won 3 golds, 4 silver and 1 bronze medal in Commonwealth Games competition. He will be remembered as one of the world’s great breaststroke swimmers.
May 23 – Happy Birthday Raymond C. Rude, who was born 115 years ago!
RAY RUDE (USA) 1992 Honor Contributor
FOR THE RECORD: Designed and developed the Duraflex Diving Board which is used in international competition today. The board’s flexibility and performance revolutionized the sport of diving.
The great springboard divers of today could not perform their magical dives without the help of Ray Rude, designer of the Duraflex diving board. Because of the flexibility of the board, today’s divers are able to execute additional twists, somersaults, and rotations that yesterday’s divers were denied due to inferior equipment.
Ray’s original board was a rejected aircraft wing panel, the first of its kind designed by Lockheed Aircraft Co. in the mid-1940s. Ray, an aircraft engineer, mounted it as an emergency board in a friend’s backyard pool. It was a big success.
Ray began working on developing this new board in his “off” time. By the late 1950s, his first Duraflex board had been tested and accepted by many divers, including Gary Tobian who went on to win the springboard gold medal at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, using a Duraflex board.
It was customary for Olympic divers to bring their own boards to the Games and to try out other boards during practice sessions. When Ray’s board became so popular in Rome, two additional boards were flown in to handle the demand. Along with Tobian, Ingrid Kramer of the German Democratic Republic won the women’s springboard on a Duraflex board that she had been practicing on for several months. Since that time, the Duraflex has been the accepted board and the only one used in Olympic competition.
The Ray Rude board became standardized equipment at college and university pools and outdoor summer pools, improving the levels of competition allowed by the additional height from the spring. Matt Mann, of the University of Oklahoma, was one of the first college coaches to use the Duraflex. He ordered an additional two boards and raised the ceiling level above the pool to accommodate the lift of the Duraflex.
All the boards are made in Ray’s Arcadia Air Products Factory in Sparks, Nevada, now known as Duraflex International. The factory and Ray’s innovative designs continue to create boards which take divers to new heights. The addition of the Maxiflex board in 1972 and the “Swiss Cheese” Maxiflex in 1980 allows divers to perform dives they could never do on the wooden Brandsten, Daughters, Clark, or Buck boards of earlier days.
Ray Rude’s contributions in diving board development have created uncommon advancements in athletic performance, safety and consistency and have rewritten the history of Olympic and World level diving forever.
NCAA Voice For Swimming Brian Gordon Joins ISHOF’s One in a Thousand Campaign
by ANDY ROSS
18 May 2021
Long-time swimming contributor Brian Gordon has joined the One in a Thousand campaign, designed to help the Hall of Fame prosper during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Brian Gordon announcing the 2005 NCAA men’s swimming and diving championships. Photo Courtesy: Brian Gordon
“I’ve been a member for a long time,” Brian Gordon said. “When I think Hall of Fame, it dates back to my competitive days when the Hall of Fame and the pool went hand in hand. You didn’t have one without the other and I think we are trending with the renovations having that again hopefully. I went to Y Nationals and to the College Forum as a swimmer and then as a coach I would do the same thing. It always had my attention and as I said I’ve been fortunate to be on the honoree selection committee since the late 80s and always felt it was important to have the Hall honor the legacy of our sport as well as be a voice for the present and the future. Every little bit helps and I want to support it and keep it in the mainstream of competitive swimming, diving, and all the aquatic sports.
Photo Courtesy: Brian Gordon
Gordon first swam at the Hall of Fame pool in the late 70’s as a swimmer at Rider University and had been at numerous events on deck at meets at the Hall of Fame pool. Gordon’s voice is well known in the sport of swimming as he has been the public address announcer at numerous meets all over the world, calling world record swims from Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin and Ian Crocker, among many others.
He had announced the NCAA meet for a number of years with the last occurring in 2009 as he became the swimming and diving secretary rules editor for the NCAA with that term ending in 2017. He has been the voice of the SEC swimming and diving meet for a number of years.
Gordon was a former assistant to Hall of Fame coach Don Gambril at the University of Alabama, who helped him open some doors to become involved with the administrative side of the sport. He is currently still involved in the sport of swimming, announcing the SEC meet each year and has been involved in collegiate administration and been in the private sector for the last couple of years.
Join the One in a Thousand Club by helping ISHOF on a monthly or one-time basis.
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The International Swimming Hall of Fame wants to know if you are one in a thousand? We think you are! Show how special you are and become a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s “One In A Thousand” Club. Help keep the International Swimming Hall of Fame moving forward toward a new vision and museum by joining now!
During these unprecedented times, the ISHOF Board is calling on every member in the aquatic community to make a small monthly commitment of support to show how special you are and how special the International Swimming Hall of Fame is to everyone.
“Our goal is simple. If we get 1,000 people to simply commit $10, $25 or $50 per month, we will generate enough revenue to go beyond this Covid-19 Pandemic Crisis.” – Bill Kent – Chairman of the ISHOF Board
“Those that believe in our vision, mission, and goals can join us in taking ISHOF into the future and be a part of aquatic history.” – Brent Rutemiller – CEO and President of ISHOF
Since 1965, ISHOF has been the global focal point for recording and sharing the history of aquatics, promoting swimming as an essential life-skill, and developing educational programs and events related to water sports. ISHOF’s vision for the future is to build a new museum and expand its reach by offering its museum artifacts digitally through a redesigned website.
The ISHOF Board of Directors is calling on all members of the aquatics community to make a small monthly commitment to show their dedication to aquatics and how special the International Swimming Hall of Fame is to everyone.
Happy Birthday Dick Kimball !!!
DICK KIMBALL (USA)1985 Honor Coach/Diver
FOR THE RECORD: NCAA CHAMPION: 1957 (1m,3m springboard); U.S. OLYMPIC COACH: 1964, 1980, 1984; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP COACH: 1978; 1972 “Mike Malone Memorial Award”. 1972, 1976 “Fred A. Cady Memorial Diving Coaches Award”; Past president American Diving Coaches Association; US Diving Olympic Committee; Rules Committee of US Diving; NCAA Chairman of the Women’s Diving Rules Committee; Diving Coach at the University of Michigan for 25 years; NCAA Women’s & Men’s Diving Coach of the Year 1984; Big Ten Women’s Diving Coach of the Year 1984.
While Dick Kimball was a double N.C.A.A. Champion in 1957, he never reached his diving peak until six years later, when he won the Professional World’s Championship. He was considered the all-time world’s greatest acrobatic diver. Kimball, also a trampoline champion, was the first to put a spotting rig over a diving board. He developed many new dives, first using the mini-tramp, then the mini-board and ultimately off the tower. He was the first to develop many of the newer dives in today’s optional list.
Likewise, Kimball’s divers learned new dives in the process of winning it all. Micki King and Lani Loken were the first women (9167) to do a complete men’s list off the women’s tower. They, along with Phil Boggs and Ron Merriott, were among the Kimball divers to do a new dive first. Kimball’s divers won the Olympic gold three times–Hall of Famers Bob Webster ’69, Micki King ’72 and Phil Boggs ’76.
Twenty-five Kimball divers have represented the United States on international trips. His men and women have won 13 National Collegiate Championships, 37 U.S. and A.A.U. Nationals, three Olympics, two Pan Americans, three World Championships and one World Student Game. His divers finished second in these various championships 54 times.
As a show diver, Kimball became the straightman for comic Hobie Billingsley after the tragic death of Bruce Harlan. When Billingsley retired four years later, Kimball teamed with Ron O’Brien. Presently Kimball runs a successful summer diving camp in Brandon, Florida. Two of his world class divers have been his own son, Bruce, and daughter Vicki.
On this day in 1891, Sir Frank Beaurepaire of Australia was born……
SIR FRANK BEAUREPAIRE (AUS) 1967 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1908 silver (400m freestyle), bronze (1500m freestyle); 1920 silver (4x200m freestyle relay), bronze (1500m freestyle); 1924 , silver (4x200m freestyle relay), bronze (1500m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: 14 (200m, 500m, 1000m, 1 mile freestyle); Principal organizer of the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
In the gigantic task of preparing for and staging an Olympiad, no swimmer has come close to the late Sir Frank Beaurepaire, Lord Mayor of Melbourne and guiding genius of the 1956 Olympic Games. Were not Beaurepaire the outstanding swimmer of his considerable time, he might qualify for the Hall of Fame as the ex-swimmer who had done most to further the Olympics as an organizer.
As it is, we honor him as the top competitor who swam longest, “mostest” and perhaps even “bestest.” If anyone were to call him the greatest swimmer of his era, the natural question would be, which era, or maybe, which eras, for Beaurepaire swam the trudgen in a competitive career lasting from 1903 to 1924. He won a total of 6 Olympic medals, the last at age 33. Holder of 14 world records, he traveled extensively, writing, talking, teaching swimming wherever he went. In 1910 he toured Europe undefeated.
Just as with the Cavill Family, Barney Kieran, Fanny Durack, Annette Kellerman, Freddy Lane in the early 1900s, Beaurepaire was part of Australia’s leading export — swimmers. Three different times, “Bogey” was invalided by sickness and told he would never be able to participate in sports again. Each time he swam his way back to health and to world records.
Beaurepaire set 5 world records from 200 to 500 meters in 1910, his best year, but was still setting records 11 years later, this time in the 1000 meters and the mile. He won more than 200 first class swimming championships and his fastest times were done when he was past 30.
Returning from the 1920 Olympics via Canada, Beaurepaire became interested in the tire business, took the money awarded him for rescuing a man from a shark off Sydney Beach, and started his own re-treading shop in Melbourne. His studious enterprise, thoroughness, and persistence — all characteristics of his swimming — got him through the Great Depression, as he ultimately captained Olympic Consolidated Industries, a 10 1/2 million pound consolidation of his companies. He became Melbourne’s Lord Mayor and was a principal organizer of the 1956 Olympics. He died of a heart attack in a barber shop in the middle of a typically full day in May 1956, just 5 months before “his” Olympic Games.
Happy Birthday Sharon Wichman !!!
SHARON WICHMAN (USA) 1991 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1968 gold (200m breaststroke), bronze (100m breaststroke); AAU NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3 (100yd, 200yd breaststroke).
If you had two wishes that might come true, what would they be? This was the question Sharon was asked on a guidance questionnaire in 1965 at Chester T. Lane Junior High School. Sharon’s first wish was, “To get a gold medal in the Olympics.” Little did she know that her wish would come true.
Unlike most of us who have blown our big chance because we didn’t prepare for the unexpected, Sharon was ready to take the reins when world record holder and teammate Catie Ball, became very ill and could not compete at the Olympic Games in Mexico City. Sharon won the 200 meter breaststroke in Olympic record time and became the first American woman in the history of the Olympic Games to capture the 200m breaststroke title. She also won the bronze medal in the 100m breaststroke, barely out-touched by gold medal winner Djurdica Bjedov of Yugoslavia by three tenths of a second.
Sharon began her career at Club Olympia in Fort Wayne, Indiana at age eleven. In 1966, Sharon’s father was transferred to Mexico City and she missed the expert coaching of breaststroke specialist and Hall of Famer, Stefan Hunyadfi. Despite the advantages that could be obtained from high altitude training, Sharon’s training was minimal and she returned home one month early to train with Hunyadfi for the U.S. Summer National Championship of 1967.
Although she returned to Mexico to compete in the Olympic Games in 1968, Sharon was a scared and homesick sixteen year old. It was the Olympic training camp in Colorado Springs and the encouragement from Olympic Coach Frank Elm, that prepared Sharon for the competition. “He said just the right thing because his words were all I though of the last length,” said Sharon.
Having continued success in 1969, Sharon captured the national short course title in the 100 meter breaststroke and placed in the top three in all national competitions. She went on to win international titles at Bremen, Germany in the 100 and 200 meter breaststroke events. Sharon’s attitude was not so much to beat someone, but to have a good race, and she had many good races.
On this day in 1945, Carl Robie was born…..
CARL ROBIE (USA) 1976 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 silver (200m butterfly); 1968 gold (200m butterfly); WORLD RECORDS: 4; U.S. NATIONAL AAU Outdoor Long Course CHAMPIONSHIPS: (6) 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1968 (200m butterfly); 1965 (500m freestyle); U.S. NATIONAL AAU Indoor Short Course CHAMPIONSHIPS: (2) 1965, 1966 (200m butterfly); NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1965 (400m individual medley); 1967 (200m butterfly).
Carl Robie, the Philadelphia flyer, also won nationals in freestyle and individual medley in a long career of national and international swimming; he won his first nationals in 1961 and his last in 1968. His world records were set from 1961 to 1963. When he finished second to Kevin Berry in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, the silver medal he wore around his neck, to him, was a symbol of failure rather than success.
When Carl graduated from college as Michigan captain in 1967, he was expected to retire. But Robie kept on. During his freshman year in law school, he worked out by himself at a YMCA without a coach and came back to make the 1968 Olympic Team as “the old man of swimming” at 23. His gold medal was the most popular come back victory of the 1968 Olympics. “Over the hill” in 1964, he won it all in 1968, co-captaining the US team.
No one except a cherished few thought that he would win. “It was the happiest moment of my life,” said Carl. “You know, I’ve won everything — the Pan American Games, meets all over the world, but this one I didn’t win until my last race. I am a lucky guy!”
Carl has a civil trial practice in Sarasota, Florida and is admitted to 9 bars in 6 states. His interest in swimming continued as his children (Mandy and C.J.) pursued their own swimming goals at the national and international level. He is married to Chris (his paralegal) since 1968 and enjoys many hobbies together with his family.
Happy Birthday Pat McCormick !!!
PAT MCCORMICK (USA) 1965 Honor Diver
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1952 gold (springboard, platform); 1956 gold (springboard, platform); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1955 gold (springboard, platform); U.S. NATIONALS: 77 (springboard, platform); Babe Zaharia’s Woman Athlete of the Year; Helm’s Hall North American Athlete of the Year; Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year; AAU’s Sullivan Award.
Pat was born as Pat Keller in the small town of Seal Bach, California. Throughout her younger years, she was kept very active in trying to keep up with her older brother Bob. In 1947 while diving in Long Beach, Pat was seen by Mrs. Aileen Allen, then the diving coach at the Los Angeles Athletic Club, and was invited to try out for the team. At the club, she not only enjoyed the advantages of formal coaching and excellent facilities, but also received help and inspiration from such diving stars as Vicki Draves and Sammy Lee.
After taking a surprising second in the 1947 National Platform event, Pat went back to Detroit for the 1948 Olympic tryouts. Although still a rookie in diving circles, she missed the team by less than 1 point.
In 1949, Pat formally changed her status from Miss to Mrs. and continued her diving career as Pat McCormick. In 1949, Pat won her first big meet, taking the National Platform event in San Antonio, Texas. Then in 1950 she startled the diving world by not only successfully defending her national platform crown, but also by winning the one meter and 3 meter national championships on springboard. The following year, she scored an all time first in competitive diving as she won all five national titles (2 indoor and 3 outdoor) in one year.
In 1951, Pat competed in her first international meet at Buenos Aires, taking the gold medal in the Pan American Games platform event, 2nd in the springboard. In 1952 Pat McCormick gained world-wide recognition by winning both the Olympic platform and springboard gold medals in Helsinki, Finland.
Throughout the next four years, Pat continued to dominate the diving scene, winning a total of 77 national championships as well as the platform and springboard gold medals in the 1955 Pan American Games in Mexico City.
In 1956 at Melbourne, Australia, Pat successfully defended both her Olympic platform and springboard championships, becoming the only person, man or woman, in diving history ever to score a “double-double” in Olympic competition. It was Pat McCormick’s Olympic double-double that led the Swimming Hall of Fame’s 52 coach nominating committee to pick her as the world’s premier woman diver, the first selected in the Swimming Hall of Fame.and international competition he entered.
Like many athletes, Greg anticipated the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. Unfortunately, the United States government boycotted the Games in protest of the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. Disappointed, but not discouraged, Louganis decided to continue to pursue his dream.
In 1984 Louganis became the first man in 56 years to win two Olympic gold medals in diving. Hall of Famer Pete Desjardins of Miami had done it at the 1928 Games in Paris. In 1988, competing against divers half his age, Louganis became the first man to win double gold medals for diving in two consecutive Olympic Games, a feat duplicated only once in Olympic history by women’s champion Pat McCormick in 1952-1956.
Happy Birthday Gunnar Larsson !!!
GUNNAR LARSSON (SWE) 1979 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1972 gold (200m, 400m individual medley); WORLD RECORDS: 3; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1973 gold (200m individual medley); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (400m freestyle; 200m medley; 400m individual medley), silver (200m freestyle); SWEDISH NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 21; NATIONAL AAU CHAMPIONSHIPS: 2.
Gunnar Larsson failed to make a final in the 1968 Olympics then came on like a surprise bombshell to be the best swimmer in Europe two years later. At Barcelona in 1970, he set World Records in the 400m freestyle and 200m medley plus another gold medal in the 400 I.M. and a silver in the 200 freestyle. In the 1972 Munich Olympics he won the “decathlon” events of swimming coming from behind to win gold medals in both the four-stroke 200 and 400 individual medleys over Tim McKee by two thousandths of a second in the 400 and by 1.2 seconds in the 200 in World Record time. Once more Gunnar pulled it off in the First World Championships in Belgrade in 1973. Larsson’s best time before the meet was unlikely to make the finals but he again won the 200 individual medley. Coached by Don Gambril at Long Beach State and Harvard and by Lars-Erik Paulsson at home, Larsson must rank with Arne Borg as one of Sweden’s two greatest all-time swimmers.
