Mary T.'s 200 fly

A swim of beauty ... the question for USMS, though, is this: where is she now and who's going to recruit her back to masters competition? I got to see her swim a 1500 fly one year at Belmont Shores. She was in a guys heat and swimming for Mark Shubert (1983, I think) taking a year off from Cal to train for the Olympics. My coach and I sat in the bleachers watching her counter hold up 11's or 13's and figured out the counter was holding up her splits. Shubert had a deal with her that if she broke 18 minutes he'd buy her dinner. She did it. My coach and I sat there in awe. I got to swim with her at Cal after the 84 Olympics. Pure class act. Great person. Always bugged me that she didn't really get to capitalize on her success like some (because of the 1980 boycott). Talked to her a couple of years ago and she said she has no interest in swimming masters. She's got a family and is busy with all sorts of things.

I got to see her swim a 1500 fly one year at Belmont Shores. She was in a guys heat and swimming for Mark Shubert (1983, I think) taking a year off from Cal to train for the Olympics. My coach and I sat in the bleachers watching her counter hold up 11's or 13's and figured out the counter was holding up her splits. Shubert had a deal with her that if she broke 18 minutes he'd buy her dinner. She did it. My coach and I sat there in awe. I got to swim with her at Cal after the 84 Olympics. Pure class act. Great person. Always bugged me that she didn't really get to capitalize on her success like some (because of the 1980 boycott). Talked to her a couple of years ago and she said she has no interest in swimming masters. She's got a family and is busy with all sorts of things. In that 1500 fly, did she breathe every other stroke, or every stroke?

In that 1500 fly, did she breathe every other stroke, or every stroke? It's a good question and I doubt she breathed every stroke but, as a 40-something mom of three with limited memory capacity, I can't say I know that for sure! I didn't notice her breathing every stroke in the 200 fly video and don't remember her doing that, but, like I said...

You will be at the meet wookie? If so, be sure to say hi. Why watch when Im sure there will be plenty of room for ya to swim the 2fly :) That's ok. When I get fly figured out again, I will join you. Right now, there is no way I would finish.

Thanks for posting, that was nice. (Youtube is great.) It was a kick to see all the little throwbacks in this old video, like the triple lane-lines, the old-style starts from the back of the blocks, breathing every other stroke. (No false start, though...we used to get THREE in LCM, remember?) I don't know about others, but breathing every other stroke was just a matter of course in those days. Our coach would punish anyone who did otherwise. She had a gorgeous, effortless stroke; when done right, I still think butterfly is the most beautiful stroke to watch. And no one ever did it better.

Talked to her a couple of years ago and she said she has no interest in swimming masters. She's got a family and is busy with all sorts of things. T is living in Atlanta. Chris Weissman (also an Atlantan (sp?)) tried without success to get her to come and watch some other (G)olden Bears humiliate themselves at Nationals...

Perfect technique. Not hard to see why she's the greatest flyer ever.

that was just beautiful. Plus, she has a good set of lungs to breathe one up, one down for the 200. Really inspiring to watch. :bow:

A swim of beauty ... the question for USMS, though, is this: where is she now and who's going to recruit her back to masters competition?

She sure made it look easy. Her last 50 was a 32.27.