It was with great sadness today that I found out tha Abou Hief died openwaterswimming.eu/.../267 I had been trying to contact him. I only found out a few minutes ago. He passed on 2008-04-22, Egypt .
I am sorry to hear; it sounds as though he was a personal friend. (The name is familiar; perhaps he is in Connie Wennerberg's book?)
I hope you are writing your memoirs. You've done so much, swum with so many of the best, had so many adventures, including the alligator-aided swim of the lagoons!
:)
He was a great friend and is mentioned many times in Conrad's book Wind Waves and Sunburn. We still talk about when he took my daughter Linda at the Canadian National Exhibition 15 mile swim. She was 5 months old now 41 years old, he told us Linda meant beautiful in his native tongue. He told every one this is George Park's little girl and walked all over the waterfront with her for at least an hour.
Many think he was the greatest Marathon Swimmer of all time. He was known as the Crocodile of the Nile YouTube- Abouheif The Nile Crocodile
What an amazing man. Not only was he an incredible athlete, but he showed the world how to live and live well. The stories of his acts of compassion towards his fellow man bring tears to my eyes. Here's an example paragraph from an article published in 2006:
"What is fact was Abu Heif’s benevolence. He gave his English Channel prize of £1,000, a fortune then, to the seven children of a British swimmer who drowned in 1954 attempting to cross the Channel. He also gave the money he won in Nantes to a French swimmer who had become paralyzed. He donated prize money from an international race to the family of an Egyptian swimmer who had drowned."
You were one of the lucky ones to have known him personally.
I hope you are writing your memoirs. You've done so much, swum with so many of the best, had so many adventures, including the alligator-aided swim of the lagoons!
:)
A few years back, I advocated that George do this. No luck.
George, how about some more Abou Heif stories?
Everything I've read has Abou Heif being not only a great athlete, but a total gentleman and class act as well. The world is a poorer place when people like this leave us.
In that rare category, here is the NY Times obituary of someone I had the true blessing of being able to call my friend. The obituary doesn't even begin to do justice to the person behind the facts. I'm sorry that you all never met him in person:
www.nytimes.com/.../henry-laskau-race-walker-is-dead-at-83.html
-LBJ
Abou Hief
He asked me what I ate before I raced and I told him my favorite race meal was bacon, egg and hashbrowns. He said he could not eat bacon because it was pork, not allowed by his religion. He then had his breakfast of two roasted chickens.
We had a BBQ dinner at our house a couple of days before a race. All of the swimmers were there from all over the world. He ate two of the biggest steaks there. I could only manage one. He had a great appetite and you will see in Conrad's book... he said Abou was a garbage can, he was talking about Abou's ability to eat.
He was indeed a gentelman and his wife a beauty was an Opera singer. His son was a race car driver.
He was an expert at drafting I did not like him swimming beside me.
I never meet Henry Laskau to my knowledge he sounds like someone to be looked up to.
Thank you all so much for this thread. I have a copy of "Wind Waves and Sunburn" so I have read about the feats of Abou Hief. Didn't know he was such a great and benevolent guy.
I had never heard of Henry Laskau, probably because race walking (like marathon swimming I guess) is a niche sport.
I yearn for the days of the "gentlemen - scholar -athlete". The last of the breed were Sebastian Coe and Bill Bradley. Am I forgetting some swimmers? I hope so.
It was with great sadness today that I found out tha Abou Hief died openwaterswimming.eu/.../267 I had been trying to contact him. I only found out a few minutes ago. He passed on 2008-04-22, Egypt .
Sorry to hear about that, George.
I don't keep abreast of news from back home but I'm glad you shared many memories of yours with him (and with Egypt) -in spite of the fish dinner.
He was a National monument to many.
Please accept my condolences on the loss of a friend.
