Poll: Favorite Swimmer of all time?

I attended the 1972 NCAA championships at West Point with a competitor's pass cadged from a teammate (I was a spectator.) I walked on deck at the pool Friday night just as they were about to start the 200 Fly final. Spitz was on the block in lane 3, about 12 yards away. He touched the wall in 1:45 with the 2nd place swimmer a good 8 yards behind when Spitz finished. Insane margin in an NCAA final. Next morning I got on the elevator at the Thayer Hotel to go down to breakfast. Spitz was the only other occupant. He was carrying a box of Uncle Sam cereal (flax seeds and other laxatives - we call them fiber now). I bought a box as soon as I got home. Terry: The actual time that Mark Spitz did for the 200 Yard Fly was 1:46.89, which broke the American Record that was held by Gary Hall at 1:48.44 in 1971. You are correct that he did win by about 3 seconds. What was significant about that swim is that he skipped thru the 1:47's and dropped some major time. However, I believe that the :47.98 time in the 100 Yard Fly from the same meet was just as impressive if not more so. That time stood as an NCAA/American record until Joe Bottom broke it at the 1977 NCAA meet in Cleveland with a :47.77 and this was the same meet that Joe went under :20 for the 50 Yard Free. A lot of people thought the swim by Spitz in the 100 was long over due because he set the American Record in HS at Santa Clara in 1967 at :49.1 and that time was not bettered until this meet. Another reason why I think the 100 Fly was more impressive is because in 1974 at the NCAA Championships Robin Backhaus went 1:47.04 in the 200 Fly and missed the record by .15 and the next year in 1975 he missed it again going 1:47.16 and I remember this well because at the 1974 meet people were chanting "Fly Robin Fly" which was a popular song during that era when it was announced that he was going for the record. Steve Gregg missed the record in 1976 going 1:47.00 and finally in 1977 Mike Bruner broke the record at 1:45.24 at the NCAA meet. In fact Mike broke both of the Short Course and Lon Course records of Mark Spitz in the 200 Fly. The first two people to go under 1:45 in the 200 Yard Fly is either Craig Beardsley or Par Ardvidsson and I am not sure which one it was but it was around the 1980 time period. Par could only get credit for the US Open Record and not the American Record because he was from Sweden.

On this forum? How about George, who gets up early to answer any questions, has a history from way back and still swims. Besides, he doesn't offend any nationalities, as Canada only became partly independent in 1981 and is still part of the British Empire, with the Queen as head of state. Cheers, billy fanstone posted by fanstone I will second that vote for the most impressive regular poster on this forum. George certainly has a very impressive swimming background. I think Frank Thompson comes in second for his overall knowledge of the sport.....he's mind is a freakin encyclopedia of swimming related information. Newmastersswimmer Newswimmer: Thanks for the compliment and George certainly does have an impressive background. I have had the pleasure of meeting three people in my lifetime that would blow away almost everyone when it comes to impressive swimming background and knowing the history of the sport. I would put all three of these people on equal status as contributors to our great sport. They are Cecil Colwin, Peter Daland, and Buck Dawson. Two of the three have written books on the subject and Peter is working on writting two books and I believe one is about the history of swimming. You talk to these guys and you will just be blown away on what they know and remember about all facets of swimming.

Chet Jastremski! He gave us the whip kick and finally made the "new" Breaststroke, as opposed to the "Butterfly Breaststroke" a powerful, dare one say, sexy, stroke! PS For you oldies, what was the name used for Breaststroke to distinguish it from Butterfly?

I read somewhere recently that Biondi was a doper and experimented with creatine. Alison Fortress: Are you sure it was Matt Biondi doing this. The reason I say this is because he was one of the athelte leader/supporters of all world drug testing that was not being done back in the middle 1980's. In fact I believe it was Michael Gross that took up this initiative in Europe and asked Matt to do the same in the Amercia's to have on the spot testing and the athletes fully support this measure regardless of the lack of privacy issues in the swimmers lives. Matt and everyone else sign petitons to FINA and got behind this measure because they really wanted to clean up the sport of swimming because at that time it was tainted and was moving slowly to solve this world problem. When I saw Matt Biondi talk in 1994 at the USAS convention he said this was one of his most proud moments because he got behind this initiative and there was worldwide support for this even in countries like East Germany and Soviet bloc nations. Eventually FINA did adopt worldwide unannounced drug testing but it was nice that the swimmers stood up and fought for this along with coaches and administrators in the world of swimming. Now about the use of creatine, I don't know about that. I don't even know if its on the banned list today or in the past. I know as a master swimmer I use to get information mailed to me on how to order it and use it to get advantages in athletic performance, but I never used the stuff. Mr. Goodsmith has stated he has used it and found some disadvantages with its use. Now, don't get me wrong I am not making this up because I read it here on the discussion forums a couple of weeks ago. I don't think its illegal but maybe I am wrong because I have not been keeping up with the drug scene lately in swimming. Meaning I don't know what is banned and what is not and whats legal on therapeutic use forms submitted to the NGB and FINA.

Another reason why I think the 100 Fly was more impressive is because in 1974 at the NCAA Championships Robin Backhaus went 1:47.04 in the 200 Fly and missed the record by .15 and the next year in 1975 he missed it again going 1:47.16 That 1:47.04 time is still the men's record at the University of Washington, by the way. Backhaus also still holds the record in the 500 free with a 4:22.91.

Fish tail! It's been a long time since I heard that term, but that's what it was in the mid-fifties when I started swimming. One of my early swim meet friends was a master of fish-tail: Carl Roby, who won the 200 meter fly at the 68 games, at the then advanced age of 23. When I started, we referred to the new Breaststroke as Orthodox Breaststroke. Anyone else heard of that term, or is it just the delusion of an aging frog-kicker!

Chet a great swimmer, I met him at a swim meet in Buffalo NY. He wore his nose plugs. Buck Dawson has some funny true stories that he brought up last time I talked to him. He was at Camp Ak-o-Mak when I phoned there a few years ago. If you talk to him mention my name, ask about my favorite drug story that I told the reporter at the Camp doing a story for Life magazine on Marty Simm. The reporter later wrote a book on a drug addict and I was his leading character. When I talked to the reporter I showed him a buch of pills that I was taking I told him these pills are the ones that make me go. The pills and capsules I showed him, wheat germ oil capsules, beautiful three colored sleeping pills, yellow pills vitamin B omplex with c fortis, orange colored asprin.

Breaststroke was the name for both then butterly became the name for the breakaway stroke. The butterfly stroke was called breaststroke and the kick was a frog kick or you would be DQ'd, arms for breastroke were allowed to be recovered above water. I had leg problems and could not frog kick so did not race breaststroke except for the team relays or an IM. The first time I saw butterfly with a new kick was 1952, Matt Mann jr. did it in London Ontario he used what was called one beat fish tail kick. Hence 2 beats and name changed to dolphin kick. Buck Dawson married Rosemary, Matt Manns daughter.

Tracy Caulkins didn't hold world records in all 4 strokes and IM only because the East German women were roided-up. On a level playing field she would have been unbeatable. If the 1980 Olympics weren't boycotted and the E. Germans didn't cheat who knows how many golds she would have gotten.

Orthodox Breaststroke was not an official name I believe, but yes it was a term used by the true breaststrokers they did not like the flyers swimming with the over the water recovery in their race. Backstroke was sometimes swum with a two arm recovery and a frog kick the first time I saw it thet tried to DQ the swimmer, but he did not get DQ'd