Happy Birthday Dara Torres !!!
Dara Torres (USA) 2016 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4×100 m freestyle); 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (4×100 m medley), bronze (4×100 m freestyle); 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4×100 m freestyle); 2000 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (4×100 m freestyle, 4×100 m medley), bronze (50 m freestyle, 100 m freestyle, 100 m butterfly); 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver (50 m freestyle, 4×100 m freestyle, 4×100 m medley); 1986WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS (LC): silver (4×100 m freestyle); 1987 PAN PACIFIC CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100 m freestyle, 4×100 m freestyle, 4×100 m medley); 1983 PAN AMERICAN GAMES: gold (4×100 m freestyle); SIX WORLD RECORDS: three individual (50m free), three relays (4x100m free, 4x100m medley)
Dara Grace Torres grew up in Beverly Hills, California, where she learned to swim in her family’s backyard pool. At the age of seven, she followed her brothers to swim practice at the local YMCA. During her junior year of high school, Torres moved to Mission Viejo, CA, to train with Hall of Fame Coach Mark Schubert, and in 1983 she broke the world record in the 50-meter freestyle. The next year, while not yet a senior in high school, she won her first Olympic gold medal as a member of the USA’s 4×100 freestyle relay team.
Swimming for Randy Reece at the University of Florida, Torres earned 28 NCAA All-American swimming awards and at the 1988 Olympic Games, she won two silver medals swimming on relays. She finished her collegiate athletic career playing volleyball and took two years off before returning to win her second Olympic relay gold medal in Barcelona, Spain during the summer of 1992.
After 1992, Torres lived what appeared to be a glamorous life. She moved to New York City, worked in television, and as a Wilhelmina model she became the first athlete model in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Then in the spring of 1999, despite not having trained in a pool for seven years, she decided to give the Olympics one more try.
Training with coach Richard Quick in Palo Alto and Santa Clara, Dara made the Olympic team for the fourth time, at the age of 33. She returned home with five medals, more than any other member of the team, including three in individual events, and retired.
In 2005, while pregnant with her first child, Dara began swimming three or four times a week at the Coral Springs Aquatic Complex, to keep fit. After giving birth to her daughter, Tessa Grace, in April 2006, she entered two Masters meets and posted times that emboldened her to try another comeback. She asked Coral Springs coach Michael Lohberg if he would coach her, and a little over a year later, she won the 100-meter freestyle at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis. Three days later, she broke the American record in the 50-meter freestyle for the tenth time – an amazing 24 years after setting it for the very first time. In 2008, Dara qualified for her fifth Olympic team and at the 2008 Beijing Games, she became the oldest swimmer to compete in the Olympics. Dara returned home with three silver medals, including the heartbreaking 50-meter freestyle race where she missed the gold by 1/100th of a second.
In 2009, Dara won the ESPY award for “Best Comeback,” was named one of the “Top Female Athletes of the Decade” by Sports Illustrated magazine and became a best selling author with the release of her inspirational memoir, Age is Just a Number.
Dara continued swimming after recovering from reconstructive knee surgery and with the encouragement of coach Lohberg, she set her sights on making a record sixth U.S. Olympic swim team. When she just missed making the London Olympics by nine-hundredths of a second in the 50-meter freestyle at the 2012 US Swimming Olympic Trials, she announced her retirement with a smile on her face and her six-year old daughter Tessa in her arms.
Olympian, television personality, fitness guru, Queen of the Comeback, best-selling author and mother. Dara Torres is many things to many people, but above all, she is an inspiration.
Happy Birthday Enith Brigitha !!!
Enith Brigitha (NED) 2015 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES: 8th (100m freestyle), 6th (100m backstroke), 6th (200m backstroke), 5th (4x100m freestyle); 1976 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (100m freestyle), bronze (200m freestyle), 4th (4x100m freestyle relay), 5th (4×100 medley relay), 10th (100m backstroke); FIVE SHORT COURSE WORLD RECORDS: 2 (100m freestyle), 2 (200m freestyle), 1 (400m freestyle); 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (100m freestyle); silver (200m backstroke); 1975 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (100m freestyle, 200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle); 1974 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: bronze (100m freestyle, 100m backstroke), silver (200m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle); 1977 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (100m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle).
Enith Brigitha was born on the West Indian Island of Curacao, where she first learned to swim in the Caribbean Sea. By the time she moved to Holland with her mother and brother in 1970, she had become the island’s most promising swimmer.
Two years later, swimming for Coach Willie Storm at the Club Het Y in Amsterdam, Enith qualified for the 1972 Munich Olympic Games and reached the final in four events, and this was just the start of her success. At the 1973 inaugural FINA World Championships in Belgrade, she claimed a silver medal in the 200 meter backstroke and a bronze medal in the 100 meter freestyle. At the 1974 European Championships she won five medals, including four individual medals for the 100 and 200 meter freestyle and backstroke events. In 1975, at the II FINA World Championships in Cali, Columbia, she added three bronze medals to her collection, including individual pieces of hardware in the 100 and 200 meter freestyle.
At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, she earned individual bronze medals in both the 100 and 200 meter freestyle, and at the 1977 European Championships, she won a silver medal in the 100 meter freestyle.
Enith was a genuine superstar in an era dominated by women swimmers from the German Democratic Republic. All told, she set five short course world records and collected 21 Dutch titles in the freestyle, backstroke, medley and butterfly events. She won the Dutch 100 meter freestyle title seven years in a row, was twice named Dutch Sportswoman of the Year – and has the distinction of being the first person of African descent to win Olympic medals in swimming.
Still, her accomplishments have for too long been diminished by the dazzling success of the East Germans. Of the 11 individual medals Enith won at the Olympic Games, World and European Championships – only East German swimmers finished ahead of her in 10 of those events, the one exception being America’s Shirley Babashoff, in the 200 meter freestyle at Munich.
After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Dr. Werner Franke and his wife Brigitte Berendonk, discovered files from the Stasi – the East German secret police – documenting the fact that all of the East German swimmers who finished ahead of Enith Brigitha had been systematically doped, without the knowledge or consent of them or their parents, as a matter of national policy. To the GDR’s rulers, these young athletes were nothing more than pawns in a global chess game, sacrificial lambs on the altar of East German ideology. Had the world known this at the time, the steroid and testosterone enhanced performances of the GDR’s athletes would have resulted in their disqualification, and Enith’s record would be even more stellar than it is. She also would be recognized today as the first black Olympic champion in swimming history, beating Anthony Nesty of Suriname to the top of the podium by 12 years.
There’s more to life than just swimming, of course. After hanging up her swimsuit and retiring from the sport, Enith married and had three daughters. She moved back to Curacao, where she opened her own swimming school and taught children to swim. Once her daughters were ready to go to University, the family moved back to Holland, where they remain today. Enith says, “With the girls in Holland and with our three grandchildren, it’s not so easy to leave Holland again.”
On this day in 1931, the great Canadian Open Water Swimmer, Cliff Lumsdon was born……
Cliff Lumsdon (CAN) 2013 Honor Open Water Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: FIVE-TIME WORLD PROFESSIONAL MARATHON CHAMPION: 1949-1954; ATLANTIC CITY 22 MILE (35.2K) PROFESSIONAL SWIM: 1st (‘56, ‘59), 2nd (‘54, ‘55, ‘58, ‘60, ‘62), 3rd (‘61), 4th (‘63, ‘64); 10 MILE CANADIAN NATIONAL EXHIBITION (CNE) PROFESSIONAL SWIMS: 1st (‘49, ‘50, ‘52, ‘53), 3rd (‘51), 5th (‘48); 1955 32 MILE CNE SWIM RACE: Only Finisher in Field of 35 Swimmers; CROSSING OF STRAIGHTS OF JUAN DE FUCA: 1956.
Perhaps it was something in the water that drew him to it. At the young age of 16, he turned professional, becoming one of the world’s greatest professional marathon swimmers in the world.
At 18, he won the World Marathon Championship, his first of four wins in the Canadian National Exposition (CNE), beating 46 other world class competitors in this 15 mile Lake Ontario race. That same year he received the Lou Marsh Trophy as Canada’s outstanding athlete of the year. Swimming for the Lake Shore Swim Club and coached by the famed Gus Ryder, he made over $150,000.00 in prize money from 1949 to 1967, a consistent winner of marathon races.
He was known for his ability to swim in cold water, once going 32 miles in 18 hours with water temperatures ranging between 48 and 52 degrees Fahrenheit, the only finisher in the 1955 Lake Ontario CNE Swim. In 1956, he swam 11 hours 35 minutes crossing the Straits of Juan de Fuca between Washington State and Vancouver Island, where the water temperature is 48 degrees.
Between 1949 and 1954, Cliff Lumsdon was the undisputed world professional marathon swimming champion, winning a total of five Marathon World Championships. From 1954 to 1964, he swam ten 23 mile swims around Atlantic City, finishing first or second in most of them. His swimming created a big chested, burly man who was well liked by everyone.
His wife Joan said that he hated to swim alone – he loved to race. He trained in the Credit River with his close friend Marilyn Bell, the first swimmer to cross Lake Ontario.
As a 30 year employee of the City of Etobicoke Recreation Department, he taught thousands of children to swim, including his daughter Kim, who swam across Lake Ontario herself in 1976.
He died young at age 60, but is remembered as a fierce, hard-to-beat competitor, yet a stellar human being and a gentle man.
Happy Birthday Masako Kaneko !!!
Masako Kaneko 2015 Honor Synchronized Swimming Coach
FOR THE RECORD: 1984 OLYMPIC GAMES: Synchro Team Leader; 1988, 1992 OLYMPIC GAMES: Synchro Head Coach; 1996, 2000, 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: Synchro Team Leader; 1978, 1986, 1991 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Synchro Head Coach; 1994, 1998, 2003, 2005, 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Synchro Team Leader; 1979, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993 WORLD CUP: Synchro Head Coach; 1995, 1997, 1999, 2002, 2006 WORLD CUP: Synchro Team Leader; 1980, 1982, 1985, 1991, 1993 PAN PACIFIC GAMES: Synchro Head Coach; COACH OF SWIMMERS WINNING: OLYMPIC GAMES – 2 silver, 6 bronze, WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – 1 gold, 8 silver, 14 bronze, WORLD CUP – 9 silver, 16 bronze, PAN PACIFIC GAMES: 2 gold, 3 silver, 13 bronze.
Masako Kaneko was born in Tokyo, Japan on April 17, 1944 and has contributed as both a swimmer and coach since the beginning of synchronized swimming in Japan.
Masako began her synchronized swimming career with the Tokyo Synchro Club in 1959. After graduating from Tokyo Kasei Gakuin University in 1967, she stopped swimming for the club and became its coach. By 1982 Masako was the National Team Coach and Director. From that time to the present, she has coached or been the team leader of almost every competition in which Japan has competed, including the Olympic Games and the World Championships.
Masako’s first overseas trip was to Santa Clara, California in 1972, as the Japanese National Coach. In 1979 she was selected as the Japanese Synchronized Performance Director. She was the team leader for the 1984 Olympic Games, in Los Angeles, and again in 1988, Seoul and Barcelona, in 1992. She was head coach in Atlanta in 1996, and at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games she served on the delegation of the Japanese Olympic Committee. She was team leader again for the 2008 Beijing and 2012 London Olympics.
As a coach, she has developed her swimmers from beginner to Olympic levels and is the only person to have coached swimmers to medals in every Olympic Games from 1984 (Synchronized Swimming’s first Olympics) to 2004 and has had medal winners in every World Championships from 1978 to 2007 (with the exception of 1982). Her swimmers include Hall of Famer Mikako Kotani, Junko Hasumi (solo bronze-1978 World Championship), Yuki Ishii (solo bronze-1979 World Cup), Miyako Tanaka and Megumi Itho (duet bronze-1988 Olympics, Tanaka/Kotani), Fumiko Okuno and Aki Takayama (duet bronze-1992 Olympics), Fujii, Fujiki, Jinbo, Kawabe, Kawase, Nakajima, Tachibana, Takeda, Tanaka (team bronze-1996 Olympics),Jinbo, Egami, Fujii, Isoda, Tachibana, Takeda, Yoneda, Yoneda, Tatsumi (team silver-2000 Olympics), Fujimaru, Suzuki, Kitao, Tachibana, Takeda, Tatsumi, Harada, Yoneda (silver team-2004 Olympics).
In 1996, Masako became the first female Director of the Japan Swimming Federation and is held in very high esteem.
For her contributions to the sport, she has earned many awards including the Women’s Sports Order from the International Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Education’s Sports Achievement Award, Citizen’s Cultural Award and the Avon Award.
Although she retired as the Synchronized Swimming Chairperson in 2009, she continues to teach at the Tokyo Synchronized Swimming Club where she is a club director and serves as a supervisor for the Japanese Swimming
Federation. She is also a visiting professor at the Women’s College of Home Economics.
One hundred and fourteen years ago, Honor Diver, Pete desjardins was born…….
PETE DESJARDINS (USA) 1966 Honor Diver
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1924 silver (springboard), 6th (plain high diving); 1928 gold (springboard, platform); NATIONAL AAU CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3m springboard, 10m springboard, plain high diving; After turning professional, he was star performer for Billy Rose’s World’s Fair Aquacades; produced his own Water Shows.
Billed as “The Little Bronze Statue from the Land of Real Estate, Grapefruit and Alligators”, Pete Desjardins, 16, representing the Roman Pools, Miami Beach, Florida, arrived in Chicago for the 1924 Indoor AAU Swimming & Diving Championships. He placed second to Al White in the 3 meter dive. Pete took second to White again at the Olympic Tryouts, and again in the Paris Olympics.
At the 1925 Outdoor Senior National AAU Championships, Desjardins won 3 First Places in the diving events — the 3 meter Springboard, the 10 meter Platform and for the first time ever held in America, the National Plain High Diving Contest consisting of four swan dives, two from the 5 meter and two from the 10 meter levels. This type of contest was a European idea which the AAU held in 1925 and 1927. Desjardins won both of these titles, and this new event enabled him to tie Johnny Weissmuller for the high point trophies with 3 wins each.
In between, the Philadelphia Sesquicentennial was host for the 1926 Outdoor Nationals where Pete successfully defended both his 3 meter and 10 meter titles. He won nine Senior National titles while still a Miami High School student. Stanford’s Ernst Brandsten put the finishing touches to Pete Desjardins’ diving, which resulted in the highest scoring ever by a diver in the Olympic Games. In the 1928 Olympics springboard event, Pete received all 10s as a perfect score in two of his dives, the half-gainer and the gainer 1 1/2. He received four 10s and a 9 in his back dive. His average for the 10 dives was 9.2.
In the 10 meter event, Desjardins was closely contested by Farid Simaika of Egypt, who had learned all of his diving while a student at UCLA. The method of scoring at that time was such that at first it was announced that Simaika had won the 10 meter event. While the Egyptian’s national anthem was being played, it was abruptly interrupted with due apologies to the Egyptian officials who announced that an error had been made and that Desjardins had won first place from four out of five judges.
Pete Desjardins shares two titles, most U.S. Diving Nationals–13 (with Helen Meany) and a grand slam of all available diving crowns in one year (with Earl Clark).
After the 1928 Olympics, Desjardins was declared pro for appearing in Miami water shows along with Johnny Weissmuller, Martha Norelius and Helen Meany. This ended his chance to continue his diving dominance possibly through the 1932 and 1936 Olympic Games, since he was still taking on all comers in the Billy Rose Aquacades of the late 1930’s and was still featured in diving shows in to the 1960s.
On this day in 1945, Aussie Swimmer Kevin Berry was born!!!
KEVIN BERRY (AUS) 1980 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 gold (200m butterfly), bronze 9medley relay); WORLD RECORDS: 12 (200m, 110yd, 220yd butterfly); NATIONAL AAU: 1 (relay); COMMONWEALTH GAMES: 1962 gold (200m, 200m butterfly; relay); AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 6 (100m, 200m butterfly); AMERICAN RECORDS: 1 (100m butterfly).
Australian press photographer Kevin Berry likes to take action pictures of swimmers. He has been at home (and abroad) on both sides of the camera but he still has a way to go before his medal count for winning photography reaches that he set as an Olympic gold medal and world record holding swimmer. Berry was a specialist in the finest sense. His 12 World Records, 2 Olympic medals (one gold and one bronze in Tokyo), 3 Commonwealth gold medals (Perth), 6 Australian Championships, and one American record were all in the butterfly stroke (24). He was finishing Indiana University the year before Mark Spitz started. Berry’s longest world record, the 200 meter butterfly set against Carl Robie in winning the Olympic title at Tokyo (1964), lasted a remarkable three years until broken in 1967 by (you guessed it) Mark Spitz. Berry’s coaches were Don Talbot and “Doc” Counsilman.
Canadian Open Water Swimmer Marilyn Bell To Be Inducted Into the International Swimming Hall of Fame As Class of 2021
by MEG KELLER-MARVIN
07 April 2021
At age 16, Miss Marilyn Bell was inspired when she learned that American star swimmer, ISHOF Honoree, Florence Chadwick, was being offered a $10,000 purse to complete a swim across Lake Ontario. Bell wanted the honor to go to a Canadian swimmer. Three swimmers showed up for the attempt with waves of almost 5 meters (15 feet), water temperature of 21°C (65°F) and hungry lamprey eels lurking. The other two dropped out, but Bell continued. The 20-hour, 59 minutes swim was covered by live radio broadcasts and special newspaper “extras”.
Marilyn Bell, in her Lake Shore jacket; Photo Courtesy: Marilyn Bell
As a result, her landing was witnessed by a crowd of 300,000 people in Toronto. Bell was awarded the purse. This young woman’s courage and achievement resulted in the Canadian Press naming her the Canadian Newsmaker of the Year in 1954.
Meet Bell in person and hear her incredible life story at the ISHOF Induction dinner on Saturday, October 9, 2021. Become an ISHOF Legacy Member and attend the ISHOF Induction Dinner for FREE. Can’t attend the event? Please consider donating to ISHOF, support Bell and our other inspirational Honorees.
Canadian Marilyn Bell became the youngest person to swim the English Channel.
About Marilyn Bell
Bell went on to become the youngest person to swim the English Channel. She later swam the Strait of Juan de Fuca off the Pacific coast – her woman’s speed record held for more than 60 years! Bell became a Canadian hero, and the awards and recognition include: Induction into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame and the Ontario Swimming Hall of Fame. She was named one of Canada’s top athletes of the century and was presented with the Order of Ontario.
George Young, Ed Sullivan, Marilyn Bell, and Cliff Lumsdon in 1954
The Canadian National Historic Sites and Monuments Board designated Bell’s crossing of the lake an Event of National Historic Significance (Canada) and a federal plaque was erected near the site of her landfall. In addition, the land was named the Marilyn Bell Park.
Marilyn Bell teaching children to swim
About the International Swimming Hall of Fame Induction Weekend:
The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) Induction Ceremony is shaping up to be a star-studded weekend with ISHOF Honoree and Sullivan Award Winner, Debbie Meyer, and double Olympic gold-medalist and everyone’s favorite Olympic swimming broadcaster, Rowdy Gaines acting as co-emcees and hosts of the induction with multiple events spread out over two days in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Make your plans now to attend the weekend of October 8-9, 2021! ISHOF Members can purchase the Complete Weekend Package (see below) and save! (Get info on membership here.) Can’t attend the event? Donate to ISHOF to support our honorees.
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)
In addition to the Class of 2020, two Honorees from the Class of 2019, who were unable to attend last year, will be present to be inducted. Honor Swimmer: Otylia Jedrzejczak (POL) and Honor Diver: Li Ting (CHN).
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
FYI: 27M Dive Tower Panel Installation Begins – Hensel Phelps, Gate Precast
Update: Crane delivery is scheduled to arrive at the end of the week, April 9-10. The first pieces are planned to be set on Monday, April 12.
60 precast panels, designed by Gate Precast in Kissimmee, Florida. It will take approximately 1 month to build the 27M Dive Tower
Gate Precast | Precast Concrete Systems
Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex | City of Fort Lauderdale, FL (henselphelps.com)
Video of Construction Process
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNGcW7xtF9k&feature=youtu.be
April 8: Happy Birthday Anastasia Ermakova !!!
Anastasia Ermakova (RUS) 2015 Honor Synchronized Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 2004 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (duet, team); 2008 OLYMPICGAMES: gold (duet, team); 2001 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (duet),gold (team); 2003 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (solo), gold (duet, team); gold (team); 2005 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (duet, free combination); 2007 WORLD CHAMPIONSHPS: gold (duet technical, duet free, combination; 2002 WORLD CUP: gold (duet, team); 2006 WORLD CUP: gold (duet, team, combination); 2006 WORLD TROPHY: gold (duet); 2007 WORLD TROPHY: gold (team); 2010 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (combination).
She is one of the most decorated synchronized swimmers in history with a combined 19 gold and two silver medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups and World Trophies.
Anastasia Ermakova was born in Moscow, Russia in 1983. At the age of four, she joined a choreography school in Moscow, where she began down a road of the creative world of dance, art, and eventually synchronized swimming. The next year, at the age of five, she passed the test and made the selection for synchronized swimming. Anastasia says that from that moment on, “sport became the most important part of her life, and the gold medal was the goal to reach!” Synchronized swimming did not come to her naturally. She did not have natural ability, was not flexible like other athletes; but what she lacked in talent, she had twice as much in determination and willpower.
Training became a way of life, and then came the competitions. In 1998, Anastasia won her first Youth Olympic Games, which were held in Moscow; she won gold medals in the solo, duet and team. Anastasia began competing internationally and the medals continued to be gold. She competed at the 1999 World Junior Championships in California and won gold in duet and team; at the 2000 European Junior Championships Bonn-Berlin, gold medals in figures, solo, duet, team; and the 2001 World Junior Championships in Seattle, where she again won the gold in solo, duet and team.
After Anastasia proved herself as a junior synchronized swimmer, she advanced to become a member of the Russian National Synchronized Swimming Team in 2000. In 2004, she won the duet and team at the Athens Olympic Games, and then won the same at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008, becoming a four-time Olympic Champion. She’s also a nine-time World Champion and has won gold medals in every synchronized event – solo, duet, team and figures.
Anastasia has received many honors for her success in synchronized swimming. She has been awarded the Order of Friendship by Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2005, and in 2009 she was awarded the Order of Honor by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
After retiring from synchronized swimming earlier than she had hoped, due to a shoulder injury, Anastasia began coaching.
In October 2011, she relocated to Savona, Italy, to become the Executive Coach for the RARI Nantes Synchronized Swimming Team, as well as coach and choreographer for the Italian National Synchronized Swimming Team.
Happy Birthday Andras Bodnar!!!
Andras Bodnar (HUN) 2017 Honor Water Polo Player
FOR THE RECORD: 1960 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze; 1964 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold; 1968 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze; 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES: silver
Hungary is a land of thermal springs and although landlocked, swimming and water sports are ingrained in their culture. This love of water led to an early domination of international swimming and diving competitions in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1920s, it was water polo that came to symbolize Hungary’s unique strengths and individuality.
Andras Bodnar was born on April 9, 1942 in Ungvar, Hungary, a town that today is known as Uzhgorod, in the Ukraine. In 1952, he began swimming and playing water polo for various clubs in Eger until 1962, when he joined the team of the Budapest University Medical Association. In addition to being an outstanding water polo player, he was also one of Hungary’s top middle distance swimmers and qualified for the 1960 and 1964 Olympic Games in both sports.
Although he did not make the finals in swimming, he did win the bronze medal in Rome and the gold medal in Tokyo as a member of Hungary’s water polo team. After 1964, the academic demands of medical school limited him to one sport. He was a member of Hungary’s water polo team that won the Olympic silver medal at the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, and again at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972. In 1973, his team won the gold at the first FINA World Aquatic Championships in Belgrade. Between 1960 and 1976, he played for the Hungarian National Team in 186 international games. At the same time he was pursuing his medical career.
In 1968, Bodnar earned his medical degree from the Budapest Semmelweis Medical University, where he was an Assistant Professor of Surgery until 1985, when he became Head of Surgery at Frigyes Koranyi Hospital and later National Public Health and Medical Office Supervisor. A man of incredible energy and dedication to his sport, he served as Vice President of the Hungarian Swimming Federation, water polo division from 1981 to 1989, and as president of the newly formed Hungarian Water Polo Federation from 1989 to 1992. Since 1990, he has been a member of LEN (European Swimming Federation Medical Committee) and since 2004 a member of the Francis Field Foundation Board of Trustees.
In a swimming and water polo career spanning almost two decades, in which he won four Olympic medals (one gold, two silver, one bronze), the inaugural World Championship gold, two European Championships and seven Hungarian Championships, Dr. Andras Bodnar goes down in history as one of the greatest players of all time and the twentieth player from Hungary to be so honored.
