Olympic Swimming History Question

The winter Olympics have been in Lake Placid twice... and as everyone knows, the polar bear swim has been part of every winter Olympics since 1783... :rofl:

Or is she fibbing? Sounds like at the very least she doesn't have her facts straight.

Summer Olympics: 1896, Athens 1900, Paris 1904, St. Louis 1908, London 1912, Stockholm 1916, Berlin, Germany – cancelled due to World War I 1920, Antwerp, Belgium 1924, Paris, France 1928, Amsterdam 1932, Los Angeles 1936, Berlin 1940, Tokyo, Japan → Helsinki, Finland – cancelled due to World War II 1944, London – cancelled due to World War II 1948, London 1952, Helsinki 1956, Melbourne 1960, Rome 1964, Tokyo 1968, Mexico City 1972, Munich

Thanks. Red tide is kind of ominous looking. I figured the name had something to do with the rivers. And speaking of ominous, so is their swim club (The Red Tide), there must be a couple of hundred or more. Not sure if it turns this red in the Hudson River, but swimming in murky water doesn't hold too much appeal. Thank goodness for pools. en.wikipedia.org/.../Image:La-Jolla-Red-Tide.780.jpg

Boy, you've come to the right place for this type of inquiry. If your friend is 40 her grandfather is probably pretty old, at least 80 probably,or roughly 25 years younger than our resident hisortian, geochuck. That would most likely put him in the LA, Amsterdam, London, Berlin era. Seems fishy to me. Maybe there was something in the Hudson but doesn't seem probable it was the Olympics or the Trials. He could have been in the Olympics and they did some sort of publicity thing in the Hudson, you never know.

There is a major issue of people not really knowing the difference between the Olympic Games and any other athletic competition. Just because your apartment building advertises an "olympic" sized pool does not make it so. I swam in the senior olympics back when they were still called that. Does that make me an olympian? No, and I do not present myself as one.

Obviously, if you get his full name, it would be easy to find out if he ever was on the OG. That aside, keep in mind that grandparents sometimes tell kids things in jest that the kids take seriously. My maternal grandfather used to tell me that my grandmother used to hunt buffalo with Buffalo Bill. Keep in mind that she never lived more than 15 miles from NYC. I told some of my friends this and a minor kid-urban-legend flourished in Morris Plains, NJ for awhile in the 1960's. -LBJ

Out of curiosity, I had to look this up. I grew up on the banks of the Hudson after we relocated from California. The water back in the 1960's and 70's was badly polluted with PCB's, so swimming was always off limits. But it appears that back in the earlier part of last century, they did in fact hold swimming competitions. August 19, 1928, Sunday Hudson River Swim Captured By Nolan select.nytimes.com/.../abstract.html July 14, 1912, Sunday Brooklyn Boy Wins Hudson River Swim query.nytimes.com/.../abstract.html

Out of curiosity, I had to look this up. I grew up on the banks of the Hudson after we relocated from California. The water back in the 1960's and 70's was badly polluted with PCB's, so swimming was always off limits. But it appears that back in the earlier part of last century, they did in fact hold swimming competitions. August 19, 1928, Sunday Hudson River Swim Captured By Nolan select.nytimes.com/.../abstract.html July 14, 1912, Sunday Brooklyn Boy Wins Hudson River Swim query.nytimes.com/.../abstract.html Umm -- they hold competitions in the Hudson now. There was one yesterday (the Lady Liberty Swim) and of course the Manhattan Island Marathon (not that I've ever been in any).

Haven't been to the city in a very long while. But yes they have many OW events there. I'm not sure I'd want to venture into it. No matter how clean they say it is these days. Here's a trivia question...where did the name for the "Red Tide" Masters Swim Team come from? :)