One Hit Wonders

I hardly think of Kurt Krumpholtz has a one hit. I was there and witnessed that 400 Meter Free swim of 4:00.11 that set the World Record. What I remember is that everyone was very suprised because I believe he was ranked like 22nd or something like that. He swam in a heat in lane 7 or 2 and I remember Mike Burton was in his heat and he had to be about 4 seconds in front of him at the 200 mark. I believe he dropped his best time by 6 seconds and he beat all of the favorites that I remember like Kinsella, Burton, McConica, Tingley, Genter, Favero, Northway, and McBrean. Considering he placed 7th in the 500 at the recent NCAA Championships and in doing so lost to John Kinsella by 10 seconds (4:34.49 to 4:24.45) this was a swim out of nowhere. The fact that he could not duplicate it was not surprising to me. This happened to George Breen at the 1956 Olympics in the 1500 Free setting a World Record in qualifing but placing 3rd in the final and his prelim time would have won the gold medal. Jessica Hardy did this last year in the 100 *** in Montreal so this has happened before. So he placed 6th with his second best time. He went on from there to a great swim career being selected All American for 4 years in both Swimming and Water Polo at UCLA. The next year he got second at the World Championships in the 200 Free losing narrowly to a new an upcoming star Jim Montgomery. At the 1974 NCAA Championships he got 2nd in the 200 Free again to Jim Montgomery. He readshirted in 1975 and swam to a second place in the 800 Free Relay for UCLA in 1976. My Michigan Masters teamate, Dan Stephenson was on that relay as a freshmen at UCLA. He did all this by playing Water Polo and being part of 2 NCAA Championship teams. Today he is on the Executive Committee of USA Water Polo as Secretary. He also was involved heavily in the success of organizing the 2004 Olympic Trials in Long Beach. Kurt Krumpholtz a one-hit wonder?....no way. I was in the '72 Trials at Portage Park, Ill in both the 400 free and 200 fly. My 400 heat was 2-3 heats ahead of Kurt - watched his race from the locker room. Because his swim shocked the swimming world, Kurt spent the next 4-5 hours talking to the news media while everyone else went back to the hotel to rest. Kurt was dead tired in the final. My team-mate on the Lakewood Aquatic Club, Steve Genter, and the others just played with him. Kurt BTW was a better water polo player than swimmer - extremely quick. Saw Kurt last Fall at the UCLA-Cal Berkeley water polo game at the Rose Bowl. We all have aged gracefully !!

I hardly think of Kurt Krumpholtz has a one hit. I was there and witnessed that 400 Meter Free swim of 4:00.11 that set the World Record. What I remember is that everyone was very suprised because I believe he was ranked like 22nd or something like that. He swam in a heat in lane 7 or 2 and I remember Mike Burton was in his heat and he had to be about 4 seconds in front of him at the 200 mark. I believe he dropped his best time by 6 seconds and he beat all of the favorites that I remember like Kinsella, Burton, McConica, Tingley, Genter, Favero, Northway, and McBrean. Considering he placed 7th in the 500 at the recent NCAA Championships and in doing so lost to John Kinsella by 10 seconds (4:34.49 to 4:24.45) this was a swim out of nowhere. The fact that he could not duplicate it was not surprising to me. This happened to George Breen at the 1956 Olympics in the 1500 Free setting a World Record in qualifing but placing 3rd in the final and his prelim time would have won the gold medal. Jessica Hardy did this last year in the 100 *** in Montreal so this has happened before. So he placed 6th with his second best time. He went on from there to a great swim career being selected All American for 4 years in both Swimming and Water Polo at UCLA. The next year he got second at the World Championships in the 200 Free losing narrowly to a new an upcoming star Jim Montgomery. At the 1974 NCAA Championships he got 2nd in the 200 Free again to Jim Montgomery. He readshirted in 1975 and swam to a second place in the 800 Free Relay for UCLA in 1976. My Michigan Masters teamate, Dan Stephenson was on that relay as a freshmen at UCLA. He did all this by playing Water Polo and being part of 2 NCAA Championship teams. Today he is on the Executive Committee of USA Water Polo as Secretary. He also was involved heavily in the success of organizing the 2004 Olympic Trials in Long Beach. Kurt Krumpholtz a one-hit wonder?....no way. I was in the '72 Trials at Portage Park, Ill in both the 400 free and 200 fly. My 400 heat was 2-3 heats ahead of Kurt - watched his race from the locker room. Because his swim shocked the swimming world, Kurt spent the next 4-5 hours talking to the news media while everyone else went back to the hotel to rest. Kurt was dead tired in the final. My team-mate on the Lakewood Aquatic Club, Steve Genter, and the others just played with him. Kurt BTW was a better water polo player than swimmer - extremely quick. Saw Kurt last Fall at the UCLA-Cal Berkeley water polo game at the Rose Bowl. We all have aged gracefully !!