Happy Birthday Igor Poliansky !!!
IGOR POLIANSKY (URS) Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1988 OLYMPIC GAMES: gold (200m backstroke), bronze (100m backstroke, 4×100 medley relay); FIVE WORLD RECORDS: 3-100m backstroke, 1-200m backstroke, 1-200m backstroke (S.C.); 1985 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS:gold (100m backstroke, 200m backstroke); 1986 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (100m backstroke, 200m backstroke), bronze (4x100m medley relay); 1986 GOODWILL GAMES: gold (100m backstroke, 200m backstroke); 1987 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: silver (200m backstroke).
Igor Poliansky was the premier backstroke swimmer following the Olympic Games of 1984 when USA’s Rick Carey won both the 100m and 200m backstrokes in Los Angeles. Between 1984 and 1989 Poliansky won every 100m and 200m backstroke event in international competition in which he competed, except one – the 100m at the 1987 European Championships in Strasburg, Austria, where he placed second to teammate Sergei Zabolotnov.
Poliansky emerged as the world backstroke leader at the 1985 European Championships in Sofia, beating Dirk Richter (GDR) and Zabolotnov (URS), respectively, to win gold medals in both the 100m and 200m events. Poliansky broke the 200m backstroke world record in 1985 at Erfurt, with a time of 1:58.14, a record that stood for over six years until Spain’s Martin Zubero broke it using the no-touch backstroke turn adopted in competition that year.
In 1986, Igor won both backstroke events at the Goodwill Games and the World Championships at Madrid, edging out his German Democratic Republic opponents. In 1988 at Tallinn, he broke Rick Carey’s 4 1/2-year-old 100m backstroke world record and repeated it again two more times. That same year in Bonn, he set the 200m backstroke short course world record for a total of five world records in his career.
Of the 200m race, Igor said, “It’s a very long distance and you have to concentrate very hard in order to pace yourself correctly. This gold medal is the best prize for me, but the 100 is my favorite race.”
At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Poliansky surprised everyone by winning the 200m backstroke ahead of Frank Baltrusch (GDR) and Paul Kingsman (NZL), his arch rivals from the previous four years. He won the bronze medal in the 100m backstroke behind Daichi Suzuki (JPN) and David Berkoff (USA) by less than .2 seconds.
Happy Birthday Sandy Neilson !!!
SANDRA NEILSON (USA) 1986 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1972 gold (100m freestyle; 2 relays); PAN AMERICAN GAMES: 1971 gold (100m freestyle, relay), silver (relay); WORLD RECORDS: 3 (relays); AMERICAN RECORD: 4 (100m freestyle; 3 relays); AAU NATIONALS: (100yd freestyle; 1 relay); AIAW CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1977 (50yd, 100yd freestyle).
Matt Mann used to say, “So you won, but who’d you beat?” He could never say this to Sandra Neilson, a triple gold medal winner in the 1972 Munich Olympics. In order to win the 100 Meter Freestyle, Sandy had to beat the favorites: the world’s top woman swimmer Shane Gould (Australia) and the top American woman swimmer Shirley Babashoff. By winning the open 100, Neilson also got to anchor both American relays to World Records and thus three gold medals when she was not supposed to win any. Such was the Olympic dream for a 16 year old high school sophomore.
Ironically, Sandra was repeatedly passed over for induction in the International Swimming Hall of Fame because of the four year retirement rule, until, in August 1984, her coach, Texas sports psychologist Keith Bell, protested that she had actually retired for nine years. Sandy fully retired shortly after her 1972 Olympic triumph but decided to try Masters (Old Folks) Swimming nine years later in 1981. When she won “all” in the 25-29 age group she decided to try big time senior swimming again at 28 and is already more than a second under her 1972 Olympic Record time of 58.59. “I want to swim as fast as I can for as long as I can,” says Neilson, who has only seemed to win the big ones in her long career. She has already changed the swimming world’s thinking on what is old . . . move over Phil Niekro, Pete Rose, Walter Spence, and Arne Borg!
Happy Birthday Jane Asher !!!
Jane Asher 2006 Honor Masters Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD (SWIMMER): World Points – 1859, Masters Pre-1986 points – 0, Total Points – 1859; Since 1983, she has competed in four age groups (55-59 thru 70-74); 75 FINA MASTERS WORLD RECORDS; 30 FINA MASTERS WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS; FIRST MASTERS SWIMMER TO HOLD ALL THE WORLD FREESTYLE RECORDS IN HER AGE GROUP – short course meters and long course meters – simultaneously.
Jane Asher was born in ‘Nkana, Northern Rhodesia in 1931, but grew up in South Africa, loving the water and having swimming access anytime, anywhere. At the age of 22, in 1953, she moved to Britain to take a post-graduate diploma in personnel management at Manchester University. She swam on the university swim team and realized the swimming advantage she had had as a child living in South Africa. The children of Britain did not have the same access to water privileges Jane had, as during World War II and shortly before her arrival, Britain’s beaches were covered with barbed wire, and pool swimming time was at a premium. Jane started to work as a teacher and coach of school children in her area, beginning with the very basics of the sport.
By 1980, she had set up her own private team. While parents waited for their children during training sessions, Jane thought they could spend their time better in the water than on poolside. Thus began the nucleus of the first Masters swim club of the Amateur Swimming Association (A.S.A.) of Great Britain.
Jane became the catalyst and organized the setting up of the East Anglian Swallow Tail (E.A.S.T.) Club for Masters. Many of the swimmers not only were coached by Jane in this new club, they had been coached by her years before in high school.
In 1992, she and a few E.A.S.T. members successfully ran a seminar specifically for Masters. She started a training camp in the French Alps, maybe the first for Masters at high altitude.
Since 1986, as a world-class Masters swimmer, she has set 75 FINA Masters World Records in the freestyle, I.M., backstroke and sprint butterfly events in the 55-59 through 70-74 age groups. She has won gold medals 30 times at FINA Masters World Championships, 36 at Masters European Championships, 6 at Masters Pan Pacifics, and 95 at British Masters National Championships. She has set 76 Masters European Championship records and 117 British Masters national records. She has gold medals at the National Championships of Britain, Scotland, Wales, France, and Holland. When she turned 70 in 2001, she traveled Britain and Europe to try to swim every long and short course event available. The results – she broke all the British records and a whole lot of World and European records too. Even after total hip replacement in 2002, her times continue to drop.
Happy BIrthday to Honor Swimmer Jenny Fletcher, who was born in 1890….
JENNIE FLETCHER (GBR) 1971 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: OLYMPIC GAMES: 1912 gold (4x100m freestyle relay), bronze (100m freestyle); WORLD RECORDS: 100yd freestyle (held for 7 years; broke her own record 11 times); BRITISH CHAMPION: 1906 through 1912.
In the modern Olympic period beginning with the 1896 Games, the first great woman swimmer was Jennie Fletcher of England. Miss Fletcher was born in 1890 in Leichester, the midland’s city that also produced Hall of Famers Matthew Webb, John Jarvis and Henry Taylor. It is ironic that this inland city has turned out the four greatest swimmers in the island country that was the cradle of organized swimming. The public baths in which Jarvis, Taylor and Fletcher worked out in Leichester are still in use now, 75 years later.
The first Olympics to advertise women’s swimming competition were the London Games in 1908.
Jennie, at 18, was at the peak of her career, but the women’s events were cancelled due to the lack of women competitors. She did get to compete in the 1912 Games in Stockholm at the end of her career. She was beaten in the 100 meter freestyle by another Hall of Famer, Australia’s Fanny Durack but she won her gold medal anchoring Great Britain’s 4×100 “Team race” as the freestyle relay was called in those days.
“The crowning moment of my career,” Jennie Fletcher said many years later, “was when King Gustav of Sweden placed the classic laurel wreath on my head, put the gold medal round my neck and said, ‘well done, England’.” This laurel wreath is now on display at the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Interviewed after the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and just before her death at 78 in Canada, Miss Fletcher was asked to compare the athletes of the present and those 60 years earlier. “We did not have the time or the training,” she said. “We swam only after working hours and they were 12 hour days and 6 day weeks.”
Among trudgeon-stroking women training after a 60 hour work week, there were none better than Jennie Fletcher. She held the 100 yard freestyle World Record for seven undefeated years and was British champion from 1906 through 1912. During a three year period, she broke her own world record eleven times.
Coached by the great Jack Jarvis and chaperoned by his wife, Jennie’s parents (she was one of eleven children) turned down an offer for her to turn professional at 17 and tour with the world famous Annette Kellerman. While Annette was startling the public with her daring one-piece silk suit styled with long sleeves and legs, Jennie had been wearing a shorter sleeveless knee length version for years. “We were told bathing suits were shocking and indecent and even when entering competition, we were covered with a floor length cloak until we entered the water.
Aquatic Complex Dive Well Updates – March 13, 2021
The 27M dive tower pile cap was poured on February 26. Planning a trip next week to Gate Precast in Kissimmee to see the last panels cast before the tower is erected. Thank you to our design builder Hensel Phelps Construction Company.
We have the best construction crew ever !
Measurements and calculations are performed by two people for quality control.
Hard at Work !!!!
Sunrise
Hensel Phelps Field Engineer checking calculations.
Putting everything in its place !
Oscar and Chala with the HP craft team down inside the rebar cage checking the details.
Soon to be the GREATEST Dive Well in the WORLD!
Moving right along………
More aquatic complex photos!!! March 13, 2021
Grandstand seating for 1522
Scaffolding parts
Pile field. Marked augercast piles for the pool deck.
Guess who has beautiful new stainless steel gutters????
New stainless steel gutters for the 50M x 25Y Training Pool.
Pool Depth: 4FT – 12.6FT, no change.
Surge tank for the Training Pool – 749,348 gallons.
Updates from the ISHOF Aquatic facility, March 13, 2021 thanks to Laura Voet.
Happy Birthday Tom Gompf !!!
TOM GOMPF (USA) 2002 Honor Contributor
FOR THE RECORD: 1964 Olympic Games: bronze (10m platform); 3 National AAU Championships: (trampoline-1, 10m platform-2); 4 Foreign National Championships: Japan (3), Spain (1); 2 World Professional High Dive Championships; 11 years Diving Coach: University of Miami (FL) (1971-82); 1976, 1984 U.S. Olympic Diving Team: Coach/Manager; U.S. Olympic Committee Executive Board of Directors: Member (1977-2000); 1984-2004 FINA Technical Diving Committee: Chairman (1988-2000); U.S. Diving, Inc.: President (1985-90); U.S. Aquatic Sports: President (1999-present); Executive Board of Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas: member (1999-present).
Tom Gompf loves all aspects of diving; always has, always will. He started as a young local competitor, advanced to the Olympic Games, performed in professional competition and grew to serve the international diving community as an administrative leader. He is a hard worker for the good of the sport and a friend to all. Gompf has had a profound international influence on the sport of diving.
As a youngster, growing up in Dayton, Ohio, Tom won five National YMCA Diving titles and two National AAU Junior Nationals Championships. He was coached in the early years by Ray Zahn, George Burger and Lou Cox.
By the time he graduated from college at Ohio State University in 1961, diving for Hall of Fame Coach Mike Peppe, Tom had won the NCAA National Trampoline Championships and a year later, the U.S. National AAU Diving Championships twice on the 10m platform. In 1964 at the Tokyo Olympics, and under the eye (1961-1965) of coach Dick Smith, Tom won the bronze medal on the 10m platform, only two points behind gold medalist Bob Webster (USA) and one point behind silver medalist Klaus Dibiasi (Italy) both Hall of Famers. Tom went on to win National Championships in Spain and Japan and then competed in and won first place in the 1970 and 1971 World Professional High Diving Championships in Montreal. His next competition was diving off the cliffs of Acapulco. He survived. All this was while flying several hundred combat missions in Vietnam from 1965 to 1967 earning the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Force Commendation Medal and the Air Medal with multiple silver clusters.
From 1971 to 1982, he coached diving at the University of Miami (FL) developing divers, winning six National Championships and competing on World, Pan American and Olympic teams. Steve McFarland, Melissa Briley, Julie Capps, Greg Garlich and Greg Louganis were among his team members.
But perhaps Tom’s greatest contribution came from behind the scenes as a leader in the sport. Universally acknowledged for his low-key, amiable manner, his stock-in-trade is his ability to work effectively and silently to promote the sport. Extremely intelligent, he can be very persuasive. Says one veteran, “Tom can make you believe a watermelon is an apple.” Since 1977, he has served on the United States Olympic Committee Board of Directors (1977-2004) and Executive Board, working to autonomize the four aquatic disciplines under the Amateur Sports Act of 1978. He helped establish U.S. Diving, Inc. in 1980 and serves as the only continuous board member. He served four years as its president (1985-90) and since 1998 has been president to United States Aquatic Sports which represents all the disciplines and reports directly to FINA.
On the international scene, Tom serves on the Executive Board of the Amateur Swimming Union of the Americas (ASUA). In 1984, he was elected to the FINA Technical Diving Committee and continues in that position today. He served three, four-year terms as chairman during which time he proposed and passed legislation to include 1 meter diving in the FINA World Championships (1986) and synchronized diving for World competitions, with its debut at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. “It lends the element of team, which every other sport has. It’s TV and a proven crowd favorite,” says Tom. Tom is responsible for the renovation of international judging, initiating a judges’ education program involving clinics and manuals. Tom has served as the
Chairman of the FINA Diving Commission for the World Swimming Championships (1990-98) and as Chairman of the FINA Diving Commission for the Olympic Games (1992-2000).
Tom has received the FINA silver and gold pins, served as the U.S. Team Manager for the 1976 and 1984 Olympic Games, was Chairman eight years (1991-98) for the ISHOF Honoree Selection Committee and served four years (1986-90) on the ISHOF Board of Directors. All the while, Tom was airline captain for National (1967-80), Pan American (1980-91) and Delta Airlines (1991-2000). He has received the Mike Malone/Glen McCormick Award (1984) for outstanding contribution to U.S. Diving, the Phil Boggs Award (1995), U.S. Diving’s highest award and the 1997 Paragon Award for competitive diving.
Tom’s accomplishments were never for personal fame, but always an honest attempt to help the sport he loves. He has applied the same determination and passion that made him an Olympic medalist to pursuing the goal of advancing and improving all aspects of diving on the international scene for the good of the sport and the athletes.
Happy Birthday Andras Hargitay !!!
Andras Hargitay (HUN) 2008 Honor Swimmer
FOR THE RECORD: 1972 OLYMPIC GAMES: bronze (400m I.M.); ONE WORLD RECORD: 400m I.M.; 1973 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (400m I.M.); 1975 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m I.M., 400m I.M.); 1974 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m butterfly, 400m I.M.), bronze (200m I.M.); 1977 EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: gold (200m I.M.).
The small, European country of Hungary is noted for producing the world’s great individual medley swimmers including Olympic champions, Tamas Darnyi and Attila Czsne. But it all began with a young 16 year old swimmer, who in 1972 won the Olympic bronze medal in the 400 IM in Munich, less than one second behind Gunnar Larson of Sweden and Tim McKee of the US who finished with identical times. Under the coaching guidance of Tamas Szechy, Andras Hargitay was on his way to become the great IM swimmer of the 1970’s.
At the first World Championships in 1973 Belgrade and again in 1975, Hargitay beat the competition by over three seconds to win gold in the 400 meter IM as well as a gold medal in the 200 IM in 1975. At the Vienna European Championships of 1974, he not only won the gold medals in the 200 meter butterfly and 400 IM, he broke Gary Hall’s 400 IM five-year old world record by two seconds, holding the record for two years until it was broken by his team mate, Zolton Verraszto. In 1977, he again won the European Championships, this time in the 200 IM. All told, he won six titles at World and European Championships and was named the Hungarian Sportsman of the Year for 1975.
Passages: ISHOF Honor Player and Coach, Ivo Trumbic, Croatian Olympic Gold Medalist in Water Polo, Dies at 86
Olympic water polo player Ivo Trumbic died on March 12 at the age of 86 in Zagreb.
The Croatian water polo player and coach was a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Trumbic was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale in 2005. Last year, he received the “Franjo Bucar” Lifetime Achievement Award, which is the highest award for exceptional achievements in developing the sport in Croatia.
• More from Trumbic’s ISHOF page
Trumbic started his career in water polo as a goalkeeper, moved to defender, then coach; an Olympic legend and expert for all times. Born in the town of Split, in the former Yugoslavia, he played for Jadran VK up to 1962, and from then on for Mladost, in Zagreb, because they were willing to pay for his tuition at the Faculty of Physical Education at Zagreb University. Graduating in 1966 with a degree in Kinesiology, he began working as assistant coach for Mladost while still a player, helping them to win the 1968, 1969 and 1970 European Cup for the National Champions. As a member of the Yugoslavian National Team, always wearing cap number 2, he had 140 appearances, winning the silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and Yugoslavia’s first Olympic gold medal in water polo, in 1968.
• More water polo news
As a player, the gold medal match in Mexico City against the Russians is his most memorable. Not only because of his gold medal, or because he was named the World’s Best Player after the finals, but because it was one of the roughest games ever played. With just 12 seconds left to play, Yugoslavia held a one goal lead before the Russians were awarded a four-meter penalty shot that tied the game. In extra time Trumbic was on the receiving end of a vicious kick to his abdomen that left him without air and unconscious. Pulled from the pool and placed on a stretcher bound for the hospital, he revived, insisting on returning to the game. And the rest, as they say, is history.
Ivo Trumbic started his career as a head coach in Greece by winning the national title with the team of “Olympiacos Piraeus” in 1971. In 1973 he moved to the Netherlands, hired as coach of the Dutch National Team. Leading up to the 1976 Olympic Games, the Dutch finished fourth at the European Championships in Vienna, in 1974, and although they slipped to seventh place at the FINA World Championships in Cali, in 1975, they were much improved.
It was at the Montreal Olympic Games in 1976 where Ivo Trumbic stamped his credential as a coaching legend.
Montreal was a round-robin format, without extra-time, and it proved to be one of the deepest and most competitive water polo tournaments in Olympic history, with 11 tie games. In the opening round the Dutch upset the 1975 FINA World Champion Russians. The Dutch lost only one game, to eventual winner Hungary, and settled for the bronze medal with a one goal difference after a tie in their final game with Italy.
During his amazing career, after Montreal Ivo Trumbic was a much traveled expert consultant who never promised the impossible, but before every game he would say: “We’ll do our best, let’s compete.’’
In addition to coaching and giving hundreds of clinics, he wrote several water polo books and produced instructional video tapes, contributing to spread his knowledge all over the world.