The final set of outstanding contributors for the International Swimming Hall of Fame’s (ISHOF) Annual Awards evening on Saturday, September 13, 2025, was its group to recieve the Specialty Awards, and like all the others, its recipients did not disappoint.
The list of winners included six awards, including the Every Child A Swimmer Award, presented to Barry Goldwater, Jr. and the ISHOF Lifetime Achievement Award, present to longtime Philadelphia Area Coach Richard W. “Dick” Shoulberg, who was represented by his daughter, Roberta “Bert” and Shoulberg’s longtime friend, University of Georgia and Olympic Coach, Philadelphia native, Jack Bauerle. (Both awards and individuals have been presented in detail in separate articles).
The remaining four award winners were quite accomplished in their own right.
2025 Virginia Hunt Newman Award
Virginia Hunt Newman has been called “The Mother of Infant Swimming.” She pioneered and focused worldwide attention on the non-forceful, non-traumatic method of teaching infants and preschool-age children to swim, earning great respect as an innovator in the field.
Dr. Ludmilla Rosengren (Sweden)
In 1989, Dr. Ludmilla Rosengren entered the world of infant swimming purely by chance, when her eldest daughter was two years old and began her swimming lessons. From the very start, she became actively involved and saw opportunities to develop the program. Shortly thereafter, alongside her medical studies, she founded her infant swimming school: Linnéas Simskola.
After completing her medical degree, Rosengren realised that she needed to hire instructors for the school to grow and maintain its quality. In 1997, she took another major step by launching a training program for infant swimming instructors and founded the Swedish Babyswim Association (Svenska Babysimförbundet). The aim was to increase knowledge among parents and instructors and to improve the quality of infant swimming activities. In the 1990s, infant swimming was still largely focused on “dives” and the diving reflex, but Rosengren instead advocated for a more structured and safety-oriented approach, where clear guidelines and goals provided a professional framework. She was also one of the first to promote the idea that children should not learn the breaststroke as their first stroke, but rather freestyle as it is easier to use earlier.
Rosengren conducted a university study on reflexes and infant swimming (Goksor, E.; Rosengren, L.; Wennergren, G. (2002). “Bradycardic response during submersion in infant swimming”. Acta Paediatr. 91(3): 307–312.), which showed that although various reflexes exist, they are not essential for the actual act of infant swimming. Based on these findings, she developed a new technique in which the child learns to hold their breath before submerging underwater for the first time.
She has also emphasised how crucial it is for parents to be properly prepared and informed, given that the child’s sense of security is entirely dependent on how secure the parents feel. For this reason, she wrote Babysimboken (The Baby Swim Book), which is not only included in beginner courses at her swimming school but is also used by many others and serves as course material for instructor training programs. The book is also available in English.
Over the years, Rosengren has trained baby swimming instructors around the world and has been a frequent speaker at international conferences. In 2008, she experienced a great personal tragedy when her 14-year-old daughter Linnéa took her own life. This event came to shape Ludmilla’s continued commitment as a physician and CBT therapist, and she also founded the organization Suicide Zero in Sweden to combat mental illness and suicide.
Since its inception in 1993, Linnéas Simskola has operated in six different cities and 18 different pools. In 2016, Ludmilla built her own swimming facility in Uppsala, where all instruction is now centralised.
In recent years, she has also managed to combine her two areas of expertise by researching postpartum depression and baby swimming as a therapeutic method (BIDAP – Babyswim as an Intervention for Depressive Symptoms and Deficient Bonding during the Postpartum Period).
In summary, Rosengren’s drive to combine mental security with quality and scientific development has significantly contributed to elevating the status of infant swimming in Sweden and internationally. Her efforts to organize, structure, and train new instructors have had a lasting impact on the entire field.
Alongside her professional endeavours, she is also the mother of five children and grandmother to three grandchildren.
2025 Al Schoenfield Media Award
Al Schoenfield was editor and publisher of Swimming World and Swimming Technique magazines (1960-1977) and served on various international committees for swimming including the FINA Technical Swimming Committee (1980-1984).
Cynthia Potter (USA)
A four-time member of the USA Olympic Diving Team (1968, 1972, 1976, 1980) with 20 gold medals in world competition and a 28-time National Champion making her (still) the winningest U.S. female diver in the sport (1968-1977), gave Cynthia Potter a leg up in her next career.
Potter began her broadcasting career at ABC in 1983, her first show was covering the US National Championships for the ABC Wide World of Sports with Frank Gifford, in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, along with 1964 Olympic gold medalist Ken Sitzberger, covering the men. Potter was under exclusive contract for ABC and when Sitzberger suddenly died on New Years Eve, 1983, and they were suddenly without Potter’s male counterpart.
After interviewing several replacements and with the LA Games just around the corner, they asked Potter, “Can you comment on the men too?” She assured them there was no difference aside from the bathing suits! Since she was under exclusive contract with ABC, she continued with them through the 1988 Diving Trials, but NBC now had the right to the Olympic Games, so Potter had to sit this one out.
By 1992, her contract was no longer exclusive, and she was back covering the Olympic Games. The Barcelona Games was the year NBC aired two different broadcasts of diving. One was the primetime event, and the other was called the “Triple Cast”, where she and Steve McFarland, broadcast every dive, every diver, in every event. Potter said it was so much fun, “one of the best events I’ve ever done!” With the exclusion of the 1988 Games, Cynthia has covered every Olympic Games from 1984 in Los Angeles through this last Games in Paris, 2024 and most of them working with last year’s 2024 Al Schoenfield recipient, Peter Diamond.
Potter has worked for just about every broadcasting company there is, including, Turner, ESPN, ABC, CBS, and NBC. She also began covering the NCAA’s starting in the 1980s too, and she just finished covering the 2025 NCAA’s in Federal Way, Washington.
She has covered World Championships all over the world, as well as World Cups, Grand Prix’s, and many other events and she has worked with many different people. Early in her career, she was lucky enough to work with leaders in the industry, even people from other sports. In addition to Frank Gifford, she worked with Jack Whitaker – Main play by play people who already knew the television business, when she did not ~ she was just starting and out and learning it, and they gave her help.
Potter says “Back then, they had a professional producer help anyone who needed it or wanted it before the 1984 Games. She took advantage of it, of any help she could get, and in return she helped others with her sport. Potter said, “they would have meetings and brainstorm ideas ~ to help the audience appreciate diving more. There were a lot of discussions on how to help the spectator understand diving, how to show off diving, how it works, what the divers are doing, what the judges are looking for…..” “We had split screen tv to be able to pinpoint things in dives and stop the diver in the middle of a dive. It was all ways to help the viewer. We were proud to learn that diving got some the highest ratings during the Olympics, sometimes even second only to the opening ceremonies”. NBC was interested in hearing from what Cynthia had to say, her ideas on how to improve diving for the viewer. She always cared about making it better for the viewer.
Potter even took the international judges certification training, not just to become an international judge but to be able to learn how these judges would critique a dive so she could honestly and thoughtfully discuss it with her audience. She continues to take this certification course every time it became available.
Prior to covering events, like the Olympic Games, Potter would map out the field. She loves numbers. She would take the athletes, the dives and scores, what she thought they needed to win and map it all out for herself, so she had an idea of what was needed to win the Games or the event she was covering, so she could talk about it. And she loved doing it, she loves her sport, and most importantly her audience.
2025 Buck Dawson Author’s Award
The Award is presented to the author of an aquatics- related book for which the book’s content has had a profound educational or entertaining impact on the aquatic disciplines or population in general.
Anita Mitchell (USA)
We were proud to present this year’s Buck Dawson Author’s Award to a local author, someone who swims at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center. The author, Anita Mitchell, who wrote the book, and the subject that she wrote about, Abbas Karimi, both swim right here in Fort Lauderdale, at our very own Swim Fort Lauderdale Masters. The book: “God Took My Arms, But He Gave Me THIS GIFT” is a wonderfully moving story and we are especially proud that they are both from our community.
Anita Mitchell met Abbas Karimi during swim practice… They are both members of Swim Fort Lauderdale Masters at the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center. Mitchell has been a masters fitness swimmer that dabbles in competition since 2004 and Karimi is a world class athlete who competed in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games and won two silver medals in the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
They became fast friends while Mitchell wrote his story. For 26 years, Mitchell worked at WSVN-7 as a field producer/assignment editor/writer. Abbas’ story became a blog piece in her retirement project, “Broward People,” which then became the book, “God took my arms but he gave me THIS GIFT” and is now being produced into a documentary.
Since 2017 Mitchell has served on the Board of Directors of the Broward County Sports Hall of Fame and currently runs the writers group Write Brains for the city of Fort Lauderdale Club 55 members. Mitchell has a BA in Communications from Michigan State University and was part of the Journalism master’s program at Florida International University. Recently she was awarded a grant by the South Florida Writers Association to complete her next project, “Broward People”.
The Book: God Took My Arms but He Gave Me THIS GIFT
by Anita Mitchell
Is the unlikely story of how an armless Afghan boy became a world champion swimmer.
The road to the Olympics and Paralympics comes from unlikely places and often reveals the best of humanity. Abbas’ journey from Kabul, Afghanistan to Turkish refugee camps to the Tokyo and Paris Paralympic Games has been profiled in the New York Times, CNN and News Nation. He has been interviewed by Angelina Jolie and Khaled Hosseini and has one of the most inspiring stories written.
2025 John K. Williams, Jr. International Adapted Aquatics Award
Honors an individual who has made significant and substantial contributions to the field of adaptive aquatics (aquatics for persons with disabilities) as a participant, athlete, teacher, instructor, coach, organizer, administrator or media representative.
Terri Mitchell (USA)
Terri Mitchell is a Licensed Physical Therapist Assistant (partially retired) with over 30 years as an Aquatic Specialist. Terri specializes in therapy and rehabilitation for all disabilities including neurological and orthopedic injuries and provides techniques for improved functional outcomes to improve the quality of daily life. She helped host training workshops for aquatic therapy professionals in the proper use of aquatic techniques to assist patients in correct use of the water for safe recovery. Terri created a Pain Management program and participated in a SCUBA program for persons with Spinal Cord Injuries. She finished her PTA career in the out-patient setting working in the pool with orthopedic and neurologically involved patients. She has written and published articles and taught workshops focused on Bridging the Gap to manage the transition from rehabilitation to fitness and wellness.
A major contribution for the proper use of aquatics was co-authoring the development of a program for the United States Marine Corp at their request. The Marines faced the challenge of over 15,000 injuries in six months from combat injuries and overtraining injuries. Overtraining was identified as the primary cause of over 50% of the injured Marines. The solution was development of the Aquatic Maximum Program – Intensity Training (AMPIT). This program substituted a running session in the pool with the same intensity as on land and kept Marines eligible for deployment and everyday assignments. Terri was quick to identify the problem. Her expertise in Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation (PNF) provided the knowledge to promote the needed additional functional movement skills to assist in the reduction of injuries. The AMP IT program provided a curriculum of deep-water intervals, strengthening with drag resistance equipment, and a post stretching program.
A Training Specialist of 25 years for the Aquatic Exercise Association (AEA), Terri trained and “AEA Certified” hundreds of aquatic fitness professional, as well as provided specialized workshops that offered continuing education credits for attendees. During this time, she was also a senior instructor for the Aquatic Therapy and Rehab Institute (ATRI), teaching various aquatic therapy techniques to specialists at major training events.
Terri has taught and demonstrated aquatic specialty skills to therapists and aquatic professionals across the US and internationally including Canada, Italy, Japan, England, Spain, South Korea, Mexico and Australia.
Terri is adept at specialty aquatic programs including Ai Chi, AquaStretch, PNF, PiYoChi, Orthopedic Aquatics, Unpredictable Command Technique, Intervals, Strength Training and more. She co-authored a manual and video on bringing PNF (Proprioceptive Neuromuscular Facilitation) to the Pool, a technique for treating patients with neurological deficits.
Terri was an Aquatic Specialist at the University of Texas at Austin for 15 years, where she taught Water Exercise, Triathlon Training and Swim Conditioning to college students.
She continues to teach aquatic fitness classes locally and share her ideas and experience with adults of all ages and abilities including Arthritis, Parkinson’s, Knee and Hip Replacements, Back pain and more.
Terri has served her clients and class participants by sharing her knowledge, enthusiasm and energy to positively impact countless lives. She loves the water and in her free time, she can be found at the pool, on a trail, at the pickleball court, on her bicycle, or enjoying her family and friends
About ISHOF
The International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) museum opened its doors to the public in December of 1968 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. That same year, the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA) – the governing body for Olympic aquatic sports – designated the ISHOF museum as the “Official Repository for Aquatic History”. Today, ISHOF’s vision is to be the global focal point for recording and sharing the history of aquatics, promoting swimming as an essential life-skill, developing educational programs and working toward the dream of making every child a swimmer..
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