April 27, Happy Birthday Hilda James !!!
Hilda James (GBR) 2016 Honor Pioneer Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1920 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (4x100m freestyle); SEVEN WORLD RECORDS: two (300yd freestyle), two (150yd freestyle), one (440yd freestyle), one (400m freestyle), two (220yd freestyle), three (300m freestyle); 29 ENGLISH RECORDS: four (300yd freestyle), one (440yd freestyle), one (500yd freestyle), four (220yd freestyle), four (100yd freestyle), four (150yd freestyle), two (440yd freestyle), two (500yd freestyle), one (440m freestyle), one (1750yd freestyle), one (880yd freestyle), one (1000yd freestyle); EIGHT U.K. NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: four (220yd freestyle), one (100yd freestyle), two (Thames Long Distance from Kew Putney five miles 50yd), one (440yd freestyle); FOUR SCOTTISH RECORDS: one (220yd freestyle), two (200yd freestyle), one (300yd freestyle), one (400m freestyle); FOUR OTHER MEET RESULTS: gold (300yd individual medley), gold (220yd freestyle), gold (110yd breaststroke), one River Seine 8k Race.
To avoid attending Church of England religious education classes, which conflicted with her parents religious beliefs, this 11-year old Liverpudlian was assigned to swimming classes at the Garston Baths.
Five years later, Hilda James was Great Britain’s best female swimmer and left for the 1920 Olympic Games with high expectations. Unfortunately in Amsterdam, the USA women completely dominated, sweeping the gold, silver and bronze medals in the 100m and 300m freestyle, the only individual swimming events for women at the 1920 Games. And while the British did win silver medals in the 4x100m relay, they finished a full 30 seconds behind the Americans. The following day Hilda cheekily asked the American coach, Lou de B. Handley, to teach her the American Crawl.
In 1922, Hilda was invited by her American friends to visit the USA for the summer racing season. While she was still behind the American stars Helen Wainwright and Gertrude Ederle, she was closing the gap.
By 1924, Hilda held every British and European freestyle record from 100 meters to the mile, and a handful of world records as well. She easily made the 1924 Olympic team, and it was widely believed that she would return from Paris with a handful of medals. When Hilda’s mother insisted she accompany her daughter as chaperone, and the British Olympic Committee refused, Hilda’s mother refused to let her go. Unfortunately, Hilda was not yet 21, was under the care of her parents – and had to obey.
Hilda turned 21 shortly after the Olympic Games, gained her independence, and took a job with the Cunard Shipping Company, traveling the world as a celebrity spokesperson, at a time when women were just starting to gain their freedom.
We will never know how Hilda would have fared in the 1924 Olympic Games, but she was a trailblazer and one of Europe’s first female sports superstars who inspired future generations of girls to follow in her wake.
Passages: Olympic Golden Boy John Konrads Remembered as “Mr Unbeatable” As Swimming Loses Freestyle Great
by IAN HANSON – OCEANIA CORRESPONDENT
26 April 2021, 01:11am
Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer John Konrads has been described as “Mr Unbeatable” as Australian swimming remembers one of its greatest ever champions, following his death on the Sunshine Coast yesterday.
WORLD RECORD SMILE: John Koinrads will be remembered as one of Australian swimming’s greats. Photo Courtesy: Australian Olympic Committee.
Konrads, the 1960 Olympic champion in the 1500m freestyle, and a prolific world record holder, passed away in Noosa Hospital after a long illness. He was 78.
Along with sister Ilsa Konrads, herself a star-studded teenage world beater, Olympian and Commonwealth Games gold medallist, together they became known as the “Konrads kids” after legendary coach Don Talbot discovered them at Revesby Primary School in 1952.
Gary Winram, a team mate of Konrads from the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, where Konrads at just 13 was selected as an emergency (for experience) and from the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff, described the Latvian-born migrant boy as one of the greatest competitors he ever raced against.
Konrads left his mark on Cardiff, winning three gold medals and Winram experienced first hand just how powerful he was.
At just 16 years of age, Konrads would beat a 21-year-old Winram in the 440 yards and 1650 yards freestyle, where Konrads broke the Games record by over a minute in the heat and by another ten seconds in the final.
Winram, also an Australian champion surf swimmer and North Bondi lifesaver, finished second to Konrads over the 1650 and third over the 440 yards.
Konrads would go on to join Gary Chapman, Brian Wilkinson and John Devitt to add a third gold as the Australians beat Scotland and Canada in the 4×220 yards freestyle relay by 20 seconds in a new Games record time.
Two years later in Rome, Konrads would win Olympic gold in the prestigious 1500m freestyle – beating the legendary Murray Rose, the defending champion and his hero, to become one of five individual gold medallists from 1960, along with Devitt and Dawn Fraser (in their respective 100m freestyles), David Theile (100m backstroke) and Rose (400m freestyle).
“At his best John was unbeatable and so focused. In 1958 as a 16-year-old he was very mature and very focused on what he was doing, no nerves what so ever, he just dived in and that was that, no one in the world could catch him in those days, no one. He was a helluva competitor,” said Winram, as he remembered his former team mate.
“John and I became very close at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff and afterwards when we toured together on our way home through Japan and Hong Kong where we really got to know each other very well.
“He was an amazing swimmer and a great competitor who set 26 world records who was so well known back in the hey day of swimming – it was the golden era of swimming in Australia.
DON’S PARTY: Coach Don Talbot welcomes Australian medley champion Alan Kable (left) John (right) and Ilsa Konrads (centre) to his squad. Photo Courtesy: Swimming NSW.
“It was exciting to be part of it and John and his sister Ilsa were very much among the faces of the sport – with their photos and stories on the front pages of newspapers and magazines.
“John idolised his coach Don Talbot and Don idolised him…it was a two-way street and I have to say it is a very sad day for swimming to see the passing of John Konrads.”
Swimming Australia President, Kieren Perkins, like Konrads, a 1500m freestyle great also remembered Konrads as a dominant force in Australian swimming scene during the ‘50s and ‘60s.
“Firstly, on behalf of Swimming Australia I’d like to send my condolences to John’s family, friends and loved ones – it’s a terribly sad time,” Perkins said.
“John’s story is quite amazing, it’s one of resilience and perseverance. To arrive in Australia as a young boy from Latvia who couldn’t swim, to then attend an Olympic Games as a 14-year-old only a few years later is remarkable.
SPANISH GOLD: Kieren Perkins joins the 1500m gold medal club in Barcelona in 1992. Photo Courtesy: by: Russell McPhedran (Hanson Media Collection)
“During his peak in the 1950s and ’60s John dominated the Australian swimming scene and achieved sensational feats in the distance freestyle events. The 1500m race obviously holds a very special place in my heart and I was lucky to have role models and mentors like John shine a light on this event for Australia – his feats helped cement it as an iconic event for our country at every Olympics.”
Australian Olympic president John Coates paid tribute, saying: “John Konrads also devoted himself to the Olympic movement with significant contributions for Brisbane’s bid for the 1992 Games, Melbourne’s bid for 1996 and ultimately Sydney’s successful bid for 2000.
“Once an Olympian, always an Olympian. That was John Konrads. My sincere condolences to John’s wife Mikki, sister Ilsa and the entire Konrads family,”
And Olympic historian, the late Harry Gordon reflected on the decision to select Konrads as an emergency on the 1956 Olympic Team, just four months before his 14th birthday, when he wrote: “The selection of John Konrads was in fact a fine example of enlightened extravagance. From the start it was known that he would not be required to swim. Several legs would have to break for that to happen. His task was to absorb, to hang around with heroes, to be an investment for the future – and he obliged in a wide-eyed kind of way.”
Konrads himself would also reflect on this many years later, saying: “The excitement was fantastic. Taking delivery of the Olympic tracksuit was close to the biggest event of my life. And just to be on the same team as people like Dawn Fraser and Jon Henricks! I remember trying to talk Latvian to a huge, 7ft 4in guy on the Soviet basketball team. And it was good blooding. Olympics can be overpowering, and I had this great chance to be inside them, at a very impressionable age. I watched Murray Rose win gold medals, and I began to target myself for Rome.”
Konrads was born in Riga, Latvia on May 21, 1942, when that city was under German occupation. In 1944, with the end of World War II still a year away his parents accepted a German invitation to move out and after staying in a series of homeless camps in west Germany, the family eventually accepted another offer to move to Australia and finally settling in Uranquinty, a railway village south of Wagga where John’s father, a dental technician who worked as a laborer, encouraged his children to swim mainly because nearby dams, rivers, creeks and rivers represented a hazard.
But it was the move to Sydney where the Konrads kids, John and sister Ilsa would attend Revesby Public School and in 1952 John, aged 10, met a young student teacher called Don Talbot – himself only 19.
Talbot would eventually ask John to join him in a swimming squad where he was the assistant coach to the great Frank Guthrie, and in 1953 Ilsa, then nine-years-old, joined up as well, the siblings powering to become instant teenage success stories under Talbot’s tutelage.
Ilsa also won Commonwealth Games gold in the 440 yards freestyle in Cardiff in 1958 beating 1956 Olympic champions Dawn Fraser and Lorraine Crapp, in a stunning trifecta as Australia and the “Konrads kids” scooped the pool.
WELC OME BACK: John Konrads and Brian Wilkinson (obscured) welcomes Hayley Lewis onto the 2000 Olympic team.Photo Courtesy: Hanson Media.
Their International Swimming Hall Of Fame citation of 1971 read: “Thirteen year old Ilsa set the Konrads’ first world records in the 800m and 880yd. freestyle on January 9, 1958 under coach Don Talbot. Fifteen year old John set the same 800m and half mile records for men two days later, then followed with 200m, furlong (220 yards), 400m and quarter mile records during the next week. After this week, the swim world, still in shock from Australian dominance in the 1956 Olympics, wondered how anyone would ever catch up. During the next two years, between January 1958 and February 1960, the Konrads Kids established 37 world records.”
Eighteen swimmers had been named among Australia’s 50 most distinguished Olympians by Harry Gordon and Konrads was right amongst them.
The 18 swimmers are: Frank Beaurepaire (1908, 1920, 1924), Andrew “Boy” Charlton (1924, 1928), Lorraine Crapp (1956, 1960), John Devitt (1956, 1960), Sarah “Fanny” Durack (1912), Dawn Fraser (1956, 1960, 1964), Shane Gould (1972), Grant Hackett (2000, 2004), Jodie Henry (2004), John Konrads (1956, 1960, 1964), Freddie Lane (1900), Susie O’Neill (1992, 1996, 2000), Kieren Perkins (1992, 1996, 2000), Murray Rose (1956, 1960), David Theile (1956, 1960), Petria Thomas (1996, 2000, 2004), Ian Thorpe (2000, 2004) and Mike Wenden (1968).
And in a sad week for swimming in Australia, 1952 Olympian, Rex Aubrey also passed away last week aged 86.
In 1954, Aubrey competed at the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and earned a bronze medal in the 110-yard freestyle and a gold medal as a member of Australia’s 880-yard freestyle relay. Following his competitive career, Aubrey served in several Athletic Director positions, including at the Detroit Athletic Club.
Happy Birthday Donna deVarona !!!
DONNA deVARONA (USA) 1969 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1960 (participant); 1964 gold (400m individual medley, 4x100m freestyle relay), 5th (100m butterfly); WORLD RECORDS: 8 long course events; AMERICAN RECORDS: 10 short course events (she broke and re-broke her World and American records in these events many times); NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 37 individual titles in backstroke, butterfly and freestyle (including 18 gold medals and 3 national high point awards); AWARDS (1964): America’s Outstanding Woman Athlete, Outstanding American Female Swimmer, San Francisco’s Outstanding Woman of the Year, Mademoiselle Award, National Academy of Sports Award, and others.
What Eleanor Holm and Esther Williams were to the “Aquacades” 20 years earlier, Donna deVarona was to swimming in the 1960s. Her glamour and showmanship seen on television, in swimsuit ads, and as an after-dinner speaker are a popular reflection of a swimming record second to none in her time.
Miss deVarona won 37 individual national championship medals, including 18 golds and three national high point awards. She held world records in 8 long course events and American records in 10 short course events, which would have been world records if FINA still recognized 25 yard pool times as they did until 1957. Most of Donna’s world and American records were broken and re-broken numerous times by Donna herself, so she actually held many times more records than the 18 events she held them in.
Her versatility is reflected in her absolute dominance of the tough four stroke Individual Medley, often thought of in tract terms as “the decathlon of swimming.” She further won national titles and set world fastest times in 3 of the 4 strokes in individual events (backstroke, butterfly, and freestyle), establishing herself at various times as the world’s fastest as well as the world’s best all-round swimmer of her day. Her day was a 5-year period which extended from the Rome Olympics until retirement after the Tokyo Games. She was the youngest American on the 1960 team, and four years later she won two gold medals.
In between and following these two Olympics, she was the Queen of Swimming and was so recognized by the International Swimming Hall of Fame at its first International Meet in 1965. During her reign, as most photographed woman athlete, Donna was cover girl on “Life”, “Time”, “Saturday Evening Post” and twice on “Sports Illustrated”.
Her biggest award year was 1964 when she was voted America’s Outstanding Woman Athlete, Outstanding American Female Swimmer, and San Francisco’s Outstanding Woman of the Year, plus the Mademoiselle Award, National Academy of Sports Award and many others in as many languages. She has represented the United States, “doing her thing” in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Peru, Brazil, England and Italy.
Happy Birthday Judith van Berkel-de Nijs
Judith van Berkel-de Nijs (NED) 2014 Honor Open Water Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: WORLD PROFESSIONAL MARATHON SWIMMING FEDERATION LADIES CHAMPION 1965–1968; ENGLISH CHANNEL CROSSING: 1969; WINNER OF MANY MARATHON RACES FOR BOTH MEN AND WOMEN.
When women’s swimming was added to the Olympic program in 1912, it was inconceivable that women could ever compete equally against men in sports. The impossible became possible when Gertrude Ederle beat the record time of the male Channel swimmers in 1926.
Before the 1990’s, professional marathon swimming was unique in the world of sports with its inter-gender competitions. Men and women competed head-to-head, mano-o-mano for the same prize money and some extraordinary women often came out on top. In the 1950’s Greta Anderson beat every male marathon swimmer of her era at least once. And then came Judith de Nijs.
Judith was born in Hilversum, Holland, where she trained under the famous Dutch coach and Hall of Famer, Jan Stender, with her older sister, Lenie. Both girls became record breaking, elite swimmers for their native Holland. Judith began her career, specializing in the 400 meter individual medley and in 1961, she set a European record in the event. She then began swimming longer distances, swimming the 1500 meter freestyle, where she became the national champion in the event in 1962.
Inspired by the success of the Flying Dutchman, Herman Wilemse, Judith began competing in open water competitions in 1962. But when she entered the Canadian National Exposition, in 1964, she was a relative unknown among a field of the greatest marathon swimmers ever assembled. The CNE race was a grueling 32 miles across Lake Ontario from Toronto to St. Catherines, in near frigid waters. Almost from the start, Judith and the race favorite, the great Egyptian, Abdellatief Abouhief, swam shoulder to shoulder, trading short leads for fourteen hours before the Egyptian made his move. By then, thirteen of the eighteen swimmers who started the race suffered hypothermia and were pulled from white-capped, 53 degree water. Sixteen hours into the race, Judith, insensible was pulled out and 2 miles short of the finish line, Abouheif, suffered the same fate. While the cruelty of the swim marked the end of the CNE marathon, it was the beginning of Judith’s great career. From 1965 to 1968 and again in 1970, she was ranked number one in the world and in 1969, she joined Hall of Famer, Ada Kok, as the second Dutch woman to swim the English Channel.
In 1968, de Nijs kept to her aquatic roots and married Dutch water polo player, Bob van Berkel. They had a daughter and a son who both played water polo. Judith continues to swim competitively through Masters Swimming, winning national titles. She swims the freestyle events, and currently holds records in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle events.
Like Ederle, Gleitze, and Anderson, Judith helped move the gender-equity movement forward with her courageous swims.
Passages: Hall of Fame Coach Nort Thornton Dies after Battle With Heart Condition
by ANDY ROSS
22 April 2021, 09:54am
Hall of Fame coach Nort Thornton passed away Thursday morning in California after being hospitalized in March with a heart condition. His son, Marc, wrote in a public Facebook group:
Hello “Nort’s” extended family. I am sad to notify you that Dad passed away at 8 AM this morning. The good news is that he passed peacefully. We are in the process of grieving and planning. I will continue to update this group. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers truly inspiring!! Go Bears (and Go Owls from those of you from the Foothill days)
Nort Thornton while at Cal. Photo Courtesy: ISHOF Archives
Thornton coached at Cal Berkeley from 1974 to his official retirement in 2007 where he won two national titles in back to back years in 1979 and 1980. He also served as a coach for the United States’ 1992 Olympic team which was littered with current and former Cal swimmers Matt Biondi, Scott Jaffe, Ron Karnaugh, Sean Killion, Roque Santos and Joel Thomas. Thornton also coached many individual Olympic medalists in his career including backstroker Peter Rocca (USA); freestylers: Pelle Holmertz, Bengt Baron, Par Arvidsson, and Thomas Lejdstrom, (Sweden); and Graham Smith of Canada. Later in his Cal career after his Hall of Fame induction, he coached Anthony Ervin to shared gold in the 50 freestyle in 2000, and nearly repeated that feat with Croatia’s Duje Draganja grabbing silver in 2004.
Nort Thornton was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Coach in 1995.
Thornton started his Cal career during the 1974-75 season. For 28 of the 33 years he coached the Bears, Thornton’s teams finished ranked in the top 10 in the national polls. The veteran coach was named National Coach of the Year twice and was the Pac-10 Coach of the Year four times, most recently in 1999.
Photo Courtesy: ISHOF Archives
Nort Thornton also helped Cal become a national powerhouse in men’s swimming as the school’s first national champion came during his tenure in 1977 with Graham Smith winning the NCAA titles in both the 100 and 200 breaststroke. A year later, the program had its first relay NCAA title with Peter Rocca, Smith, Par Arvidsson and Jim Fairbank winning the 400 medley relay in 1978.
On the international scene, the Cal men had only one Olympic medalist in program history before Thornton stepped on the deck – a silver from Ludy Langer in the 400 free in 1920. Peter Rocca won double silver in the 100 and 200 back while swimming for Thornton in 1976 as Sweden’s Bengt Baron and Par Arvidsson became Cal’s first Olympic gold medalists in men’s swimming by winning the 100 back and 100 fly respectively at the Moscow Games in 1980.
Thornton was also key in helping bring current Cal men’s coach and 2020 Olympic head coach Dave Durden to Berkeley to continue the Golden Bear tradition of excellence.
“Nort has been fantastic in helping me get up to speed with our athletes, the traditions at Cal, and the campus,” said Durden at the beginning of the 2007-08 season. “I always leave each day with a nugget of information from Nort, whether through a technical aspect of swimming or the psychological make-up of developing a team. His presence on the deck in working with the guys is tremendously appreciated.”
Before Cal Berkeley, Nort Thornton began coaching at Los Altos High School in California where his team broke thirteen out of twenty national records. At Foothill Junior College, he built the school into the top junior college program in the nation.
“I’m saddened by the loss of Nort Thornton, a legend who impacted our program, our Cal community and the sport of swimming as a whole in so many tremendous ways. Nort will be remembered as one of our sport’s greatest coaches, but his legacy extends much further than the accolades he received throughout his career. He was a passionate leader who made a difference in the lives of everyone who spent time with him on the pool deck. Nort will be greatly missed, and I join all members of our Cal community in sending condolences and prayers to his family.” – Cal Men’s Swimming & Diving Head Coach David Durden
Bob Steele Joins ISHOF’s One in a Thousand Campaign As One of Swimming’s Long-Time Contributors
by ANDY ROSS
20 April 2021, 09:00am
Bob Steele, who is known as one of swimming’s great motivational speakers, has joined the One in a Thousand Campaign, designed to help the Hall of Fame prosper during the COVID pandemic.
“The Hall of Fame has been a favorite since the 50’s when Buck Dawson was there. When I was a swimmer, we trained in Fort Lauderdale and we used the old Casino Pool, which just had ocean water in it. It was old school.”
Steele had first swum down in Fort Lauderdale in January 1958 with coach Rob Casey when he was a freshman at Southern Illinois University. Steele has since contributed about eight paintings to the Swimming Hall of Fame that were on display in the museum over the years and was “on a first name basis” with ISHOF CEO Buck Dawson.
“We always used the Fort Lauderdale Casino Pool for training during Christmas time and the thing that made Christmas training in Fort Lauderdale so good was sub-standard housing. In my coaching, we trained in Fort Lauderdale probably 10 or 15 times. We could spend money elsewhere and enjoy the sunshine.”
Bob Steele has been out of coaching for a couple of decades, but is looking forward to the grand opening of the new facility when it is finished.
“I’ve been to the Hall of Fame induction ceremonies three or four times. When Sam Freas was the director, he had me come down and I had a certificate for training at the Hall of Fame pool because we came there so many times.”
Bob Steele was a long-time coach at Southern Illinois University as he helped the Saluki men finish 12th at NCAAs in 1982 and 1983. Steele received the Distinguished Alumni award from Southern Illinois in 2016 and was also inducted to the American Swim Coaches Association (ASCA) Hall of Fame that same year.
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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
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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 Danyon Loader !!!
DANYON LOADER (NZL) Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (200m butterfly); 1996 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m, 400m freestyle); FOUR WORLD RECORDS: 3-200m butterfly (s.c.), 1-400m freestyle (s.c.); 1994 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (200m butterfly), bronze (200m, 400m freestyle); 1994 COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold (200m butterfly), silver (400m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle), bronze (200m freestyle); 1993 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m butterfly), bronze (100m butterfly); 1995 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m freestyle), silver (400m freestyle); 58 NZL NATIONAL RECORDS.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, Danyon Loader’s first-place finish in both the 400m and 200m freestyles distinguished him as his country’s first Olympic gold medallist in swimming since New Zealander Malcolm Champion swam on a combined Australasia Team (New Zealand and Australia) in the 4 x 200m freestyle relay at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. Loader was his country’s first swimmer to break world records (short course) in two different strokes, butterfly and freestyle. (New Zealander Pip Gould had set world backstroke records in the 100y, 220y, 100m and 200m events in 1957 and 1958.) He won gold medals in Commonwealth Games and Pan-Pacific Championships and won silver and bronze medals at World Championships. Unwantingly, he became a New Zealand hero and his country’s most successful international swimmer ever.
As a child, Danyon loved being in the water. He would voluntarily take up to four baths a day. His dad, Peter, taught him to swim at the Forbury Indoor Swimming Pool in South Dunedin. At age ten he joined the Zenith Amateur Swimming Club in Dunedin, but spent all of his time trying to get out of training, playing video games and hanging out. “I can remember that before Mom came to pick me up I’d wet my hair and togs and towel so that she thought I had been training,” he would say.
Then, in 1988, at age 12, he joined Coach Duncan Laing’s squad and his swimming career never looked back. Duncan became his mentor. He guided Danyon through a career in which Loader became the fastest swimmer in the world in his events. By age 13 he had won medals in the New Zealand National Age Group Championships and he soon began winning events on the national level. At the young age of 14, he represented New Zealand at the 1990 Auckland Commonwealth Games. Only 2-1/2 years later, as still a young 17-year-old, at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, he surprised the world when he won the silver medal behind USA’s Melvin Stewart in the 200m butterfly. His international dominance was breaking through, and in his humble fashion he was swimming because he enjoyed it and not because he was addicted to the thrill of being number one. The world was now watching this up-and-coming athlete from New Zealand.
Improvement and success were in play each year. In 1993, he set the 200m butterfly short course world record three times in eight days during the European World Cup Tour. The next year, at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, he won gold in the 200m butterfly, silver in the 400m freestyle and both freestyle relays and bronze in the 200m freestyle behind the established Kieren Perkins of Australia. He medaled in the same events at the Rome World Championships later that year.
In 1995, Loader won eight gold medals on the World Cup circuit in Europe, breaking the 400m freestyle short course world record in the process. But this was only the prelude to the next year’s 1996 Atlanta Olympic performance where he won gold medals in both the 200m and 400m freestyles, an Olympic feat accomplished only once before by Evgeni Sadovy of the Russian Unified Team in 1992.
Loader did all of his training with Duncan Laing at their hometown Moana Pool and later while attending Otaga University. Danyon was very low key and never pursued the limelight. According to Coach Laing, “He is a normal Kiwi lad at heart. He just does and gets results. He’s just one of those guys who goes into action and swims to win. Beneath the laid-back exterior is a steely determination, an absolute commitment to fulfill his potential. He does not speak of it, he just does it.” Australian Coach Don Talbot called him “The Quiet Assassin.”
All totaled, he set four world records – three in the 200m butterfly, short course, and one in the 400m freestyle, short course. The 400m freestyle record held for 3-1/2 years until broken by Australian Ian Thorpe.
After Atlanta, Danyon continued swimming for another 2-1/2 years. He attended two semesters at the University of California Berkeley (1997). Without a whole lot of specific training, he competed at the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games, winning a bronze medal as a member of the 4 x 200m freestyle relay. By the time he retired, he had set a record 58 New Zealand national records. But he preferred to go about his business with a minimum of fuss, Danyon Loader the person, not Danyon Loader the great swimmer. He practices Tai Chi for relaxation and is an accomplished SCUBA diver. Three months before the 1998 Commonwealth Games, he joined the New Zealand Army Territorial Force for service experience and to maintain his level of fitness. He has received the prestigious Lonsdale Cup by the New Zealand Olympic Commonwealth (1992) and was twice named Sportsman of the Year (1992, 1997) at the Halberg Awards. In 2000, he was named New Zealand Sportsperson of the Decade (1990s).
Danyon Loader is both ordinary and extraordinary, a quiet achiever who is an inspiration to thousands of his compatriots. He has most definitely raised the level of sport in New Zealand and around the world.
Happy Birthday Rick DeMont !!!
RICK DEMONT (USA) 1990 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: WORLD RECORDS: 3 (400m, 1500m freestyle; relay); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1973 gold (200m freestyle), silver (1500m freestyle); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1975 gold (relay), silver (200m freestyle); AMERICAN RECORDS: 4 (400m, 1500m freestyle; 2 relays); AAU RECORDS: 5 (400m, 1500m freestyle; relays); First under 4 minutes for 400m freestyle.
Rick DeMont was born in San Rafael California, April 21, 1956. It did not take him long to become a record breaker, as seen by his 10 and under age group national record. Rick developed as a dominant middle distance swimmer, leading to his first world mark of 15:52.91 in the 1500 meters freestyle at the age of 16.
Then it was the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich. At age 16, Rick DeMont became the youngest male swimmer ever to win the Olympic 400 meter freestyle, and he was favored to win the 1500 meter event too. He had already qualified for the finals. Then, suddenly he was removed form the pool, stripped of his medal and disqualified from any further competition. It seemed grossly unfair at the time, and times have not changed the feeling in most of us. It seems that Rick’s asthma medication included a trace of a substance called ephedrine, which was banned by the Olympic Medical Commission. When he was tested, it showed up in his sample. He made no attempt to hide it, for he had written it on his medical questionnaire form. The U.S. team doctors, not the 16 year old kid, were guilty. There was no way this trace of medication could have affected the outcome of DeMont’s race performance, even though he had been using medication to enable him to exercise with asthma since the age of four. However, the rule was innocently broken, and Rick is still hoping someday his case will be reviewed.
In 1973, at the first World Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, DeMont won the 400 meter freestyle, without the banned substance, beating Brad Cooper, the Australian who had won DeMonts’s Olympic gold medal by default. Cooper, who wanted to win it in the pool, was magnificent, but he lost by .52 seconds as Rick won in a new world record of 3:58.18 the first man to break the four minute barrier for the distance. Cooper was also under the four minute barrier, but lost by a touch.
1973 is the same year Rick was voted World Swimmer of the Year.
Today, Rick is an artist living in Arizona. His achievements as the best in the world will always remain.
Happy Birthday Alex Baumann !!!
ALEX BAUMANN (CAN) 1992 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1984 gold (200m & 400m individual medley); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1979 bronze (400m individual medley); FINA CUP: 1979 gold (400m individual medley); WORLD RECORDS: 5 (200m individual medley), 5 (400m individual medley); COMMONWEALTH GAMES: gold, 2 (200m individual medley), 2 (400m individual medley); CANADIAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS: 34 titles, 32 national records; WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1986 silver ( 200m individual medley), bronze (400m individual medley).
It was in 1912 that Canadian Olympian George Hodgson won gold medals in swimming for Canada. It was not until 72 years later that Alex Baumann of Sudbury, Ontario won the next gold medal for Canada in swimming. Baumann won the 200m and 400m individual medley, establishing world records in both. Bauman joins only two other Canadians to win in a summer Olympics before him–Hodgson and runner Percy Williams in 1928. Teammates Victor Davis and Ann Ottenbrite joined Alex as Olympic champions in 1984, winning the men’s and women’s breaststroke.
From 1978-1987, Baumann won 34 Canadian National Championships, establishing 32 national records in the sprint freestyle as well as both individual medley events. He swam all events: backstroke, breaststroke and butterfly. He started as an age group swimmer who reached every young swimmer’s goal–the Olympic gold. Baumann won five golds in Commonwealth Games competition and established a total of three world records in the 200 I.M. and two world records in the 400 I.M.. Undefeated from 1981 through 1986, Alex’s records stood for six years.
Alex, known as Sasa to his family and close friends, was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia and came to Canada with his parents as a young boy. He learned how to swim at age five and soon after joining the Laurentian University Swim Club, which he would coach 20 years later, showed talent for the sport. His large hands and feet worked like paddles and his intense training turned swimming into his life.
Through long-term collaboration with his coach of fourteen years, Dr. Jeno Tihanyi, Alex overcame obstacles which would have defeated a lesser champion. He had repeated bouts of tendonitis and shoulder problems which prevented him from competing for most of 1982, including having to miss the World Championships. The deaths of his father and older brother left profound gaps in his life, but Tihanyi played a major role in keeping him focused on his goals. Perhaps his single most admired quality was his disciplined approach to swimming. He always gave 100 percent. Every swim was a race. Nothing was wasted. Alex was a bit of a prankster, but never lost his humbleness and feel for his teammates and others. His self-determination to excel, coupled with a swimming program geared to his style, were the keys to his success.
Following his retirement, Alex became a sports broadcaster for CBC television at the 1988 Olympic Games. Among his many honors, he was the Canadian Press Male Athlete of the Year in 1984 and was chosen as the flag bearer at the 1982 Commonwealth Games, 1983 World University Games and the 1984 Olympic Games.
Eddie Reese to Receive ISHOF’s 2021 Lifetime Achievement Award
20 April 2021, 10:30am
The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) is proud to announce that it has selected Coach Eddie Reese as this year’s recipient of the ISHOF Lifetime Achievement Award for 2021. The ISHOF Lifetime Achievement Award is an award not given every year, but only when someone is deemed worthy.
The award has only been given out four other times in ISHOF’s history. The ISHOF Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes the lifetime dedication and achievements in the swimming/aquatics community. ISHOF felt that Coach Reese was the perfect selection for our award in 2021, particularly after his recent announcement of his retirement last month, the timing is perfect.
Eddie Reese & Brendan Hansen. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
The ISHOF Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to Coach Reese on Friday, October 8, 2021, during the occasion of the 2021 Honoree Induction and Awards Ceremony Weekend in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, home of ISHOF. It will be an added bonus that one of Reese’s most prolific swimmers, Brendan Hansen, will be inducted into ISHOF as an Honor Swimmer, this same weekend as well.
Past Recipients of the ISHOF Lifetime Achievement Award, include:
2019: Jim Wood
2015: Greta Anderson
2014: John McLaughlin
2008: Bob and Norma Maxwell.
Please plan to attend the ISHOF Awards Ceremony on Friday, October 8, 2021, and celebrate this great honor with Coach Reese. For more information please visit the ISHOF website: https://www.swimmingworldmagazine.com/news/international-swimming-hall-of-fame-announces-2020-induction-class-and-annual-ceremony-2/
Or call Meg Keller-Marvin at: 570.594-4367 or e-mail: meg@ishof.org
In addition to the ISHOF and Paragon Awards on Friday, October 8, 2021, The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) will induct it’s prestigious Class of2021.
This year ISHOF will induct thirteen honorees from seven countries; five swimmers, two coaches, one diver, one water polo player, one synchronized swimmer, one open water swimmer, and two contributors. ISHOF Honoree and Sullivan Award Winner, Debbie Meyer, and double Olympic gold-medalist and everyone’s favorite Olympic swimming broadcaster, Rowdy Gaines will be co-emcees and hosts of the induction on Saturday, October 9, 2021 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Brendan Hansen and coach Eddie Reese. Photo Courtesy: Peter H. Bick
This year’s International Swimming Hall of Fame Honorees include:
HONOR SWIMMERS: Brendan Hansen (USA), Michael Klim (AUS), Jon Sieben (AUS), Rebecca Soni (USA), and Daichi Suzuki (JPN)
HONOR DIVER: Matthew Mitcham (AUS)
HONOR SYNCHRONIZED (ARTISTIC) SWIMMER: Elvira Khasyanova (RUS)
HONOR WATER POLO: Mirko Vičević (YUG/MON)
HONOR OPEN WATER SWIMMER: Marilyn Bell (CAN)
HONOR COACH: Ursula Carlile (AUS) and David Marsh (USA)
HONOR CONTRIBUTOR: Bob Duenkel*(USA) and Peter Hürzeler (SUI)
Get more information about this year’s induction class here and more information about Otylia Jedrzejczak and Li Ting.
*deceased
The Induction Weekend Schedule
Friday, October 8, 2021
Paragon & ISHOF Awards Night
5:30 pm Cocktails
6:30 pm ISHOF and Paragon Awards
Saturday, October 9, 2021
Honoree Induction Day Luncheon – Meet Rowdy Gaines and go on a behind the scenes tour of the Aquatic Complex construction
12-1:30 pm Luncheon
Official 56th Annual International Swimming Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Dinner
5:30 pm VIP Reception
6:30 –10:00 pm Induction Ceremony & Dinner
Ticket Information
October 8-9th Complete Weekend Package (Includes Paragon/ISHOF Awards Night, Saturday Luncheon, and Induction Ceremony)
ISHOF Members $350
ISHOF Non-Members $425 BEST PRICE!!
October 8th Paragon Awards and ISHOF Awards Night (Hors D’oeuvres and Open Bar) 5:30 pm
ISHOF Members $75
ISHOF Non-Members $100
October 9th Saturday Luncheon 12:00-1:30 pm
ISHOF Members $35
ISHOF Non-Members $50
October 9th Induction Ceremony and Dinner5:30 pm
ISHOF Members $275
ISHOF Non-Members $300
10 Person Table $3,500 and $5,000 (Prime location) options
*See all ticket options here.
HOTEL INFORMATION
Host Hotel: Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa
Upscale retreat with private beach access, two pools, four restaurants, full service spa and oceanside bar. Location of the Saturday evening induction ceremony. ¼ mile south of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
3030 Holiday Drive, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316 (954) 525-4000
Special ISHOF Guest Rate of $259 per night
Book your group rate for International Swimming Hall of Fame
NOTE: RESORT FEE IS INCLUDED in the $259 rate
Courtyard by Marriott Fort Lauderdale Beach
440 Seabreeze Blvd., Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33316 (954) 524-8733
Special ISHOF Guest Rate of $169 per night
Honoree Ceremony October 9, 2021Start Date: Wednesday, October 7, 2021End Date: Tuesday, October 12, 2021Last Day to Book: Friday, September 15, 2021
Book your group rate for Honoree Ceremony October 2021
Questions: contact Meg Keller-Marvin at meg@ishof.org or 570-594-4367