I probably have left out some of people's favorites. If so, please check other and indicate in your reply. And excuse my spellings where incorrect. :) Thanks.
Former Member
I voted for Mark Warnecke.
Fast breaststroker and he seems to be interested in sharing is knowledge about breaststroke and swimming with others.
Brgds
Matthias
*** is an odd stroke. I'll bet you more swimmers would pick *** as their worst stroke than any other stroke. The flip side to this is there are many breaststrokers who really only swim *** well. I'm not saying all breaststrokers are like this, but it seems somewhat common. Those who can swim the other strokes well have a heck of an advantage in IMs, that's for sure.
I went for "other" b/c I grew up in the Steve Lunquist era and liked him the best....(definitely the best all around swimmer that is labeled as predominantly a breaststroker.....he was the fastest 100 freestyler, fastest 100 butterflier, fastest IMer, and fastest breastroker on the SMU squad while he was there....he was also probably the biggest partier of any breasstroker mentioned in your poll as well).....I also like Jeremy Linn because he is a former UT Volunteer!....and I believe he is still the current SCY National record holder??....Somebody correct me if I'm wrong about that.....Something like 51 high in the 100 yard
breaststroke....which is absolutely insane fast!!
Newmastersswimmer
When I first saw this thread, I thought that I really didn't know too mamy breaststrokers. I was really surprised by the list and then the people I thought of who had been left off of the list. *** is my worst stroke. I had to "teach" it to my fellow classmates when I was getting my WSI back in 1977. I barely passed the demonstration. It is for me the hardest stroke.
What about John Hencken a winner in both 72 and 76. As for F Munoz winning breastsroke, maybe a Mexican can win again at the olympics since there are plenty of Mexican kids in the US that go out for swimming.
Jon Blank:
Thanks for sharing your list with us. All of those people are impressive. I had not followed Brian Job in years and was very impressed with the link you provided about his life after swimming. I was not a breastroker but I do remember Brian Job really well because he was originally from Kent Ohio and swam with the Lake Erie Silver Dolphins and I used to see him at the AAU meets in the 1960's. In fact he was the only person that made a first place in the High School All American listings in 1967, that was not from Santa Clara High School. He had a time of 1:00.60 for the 100 Yard *** which was a new national HS record.
He was one of the first swimmers that I remember that moved and ended up at Santa Clara HS the next year which at that time was the top HS program in the country. In fact, Santa HS placed 4th with 20 All American berths behind the states of California, Illinois, and Texas. That is how good they were and they were coached by one of the greatest coaches of our time, George Haines. Before he moved he was not ranked in the World Rankings.
The next year as a Jr. he went :59.2 and lowed his HS record and would have been 2nd at the NCAA championship meet. He also went to the 1968 Olympics and got a bronze medal behind Felipe Muoz in the 200 ***.
His big break through came in 1969 when he lowered the HS record to :57.7 which was an American Record and he would have beaten the NCAA Champion and recent Olympic Gold Medalist, Don McKenize by .06 with his time of :58.3. That HS record stayed on the books until 1976 and was one of the longest records in HS at that time. He never broke the 100 Meter breastroke World Record record because that was held by Nicolia Pankin from Russia who held that record from 1968 to 1972. He did however break the Nicolia Pankin record in the 200 by 2 seconds going 2:23.5 and it stood for 2 years until John Hencken broke it 2 years later going in the 2:22's.
The reason I bring this up is because there was a trend going on in the USA that swimmers with great potential would move and swim for a HS or club like Santa Clara. Don Schollander did this years before and this was the first time someone from the midwest of the country did it that I can remember. Years later one of the best swimming families that was from Akron, Ohio and they relocated to Santa Clara and that was the Bottom family.
In fact this year Joe Bottom is finally being inducted into the ISHOF almost 25 years after he retired from swimming. I feel the Hall was a little slow about this. I am surprised that Brian Job has not been inducted either. Anyways I used to see these guys at all of the AAU meets in the midwest before they moved west and got famous.
I like a lot of the guys on this list, Ed Moses has a great attitude outside the pool ... kinda the bad boy of the sport, does his own thing ... I think that's cool ...
I am with you Skip, Brian Job was faster in high school than the college breaststrokers.
I am glad you brought up Nicolia Pankin, I never could swim like Chet, so I swam like Nicolia.
In 1991 as a Masters I beat Nicolia Pankin in Paris, it was the last time the USSR existed.
I have an old swim video on breaststroke, guys in paisley suits and long hair. David Wilkie stood out because he pancaked started.
If he could have started like Lundquist he would have gone 2:13.
And then there is John Moffet, great guy who did a couple of swim videos in the 1990's.
And what about Bill Mulliken, USMS’s own Olympic gold medalist from 1960? Bill get’s my vote!
Or Masaru Furukawa, another gold medalist from the time when the race was swum completely underwater? Who can’t love a guy who races the 200M *** no-breather?
