Please share your true swimming stories of remarkable feats, inspiring, interesting or unsual.
Today Sat Jan 22nd, 2010 at the end of my blog I retold a story I heard UT Men's assistant coach tell the mens team this morning.
Please share yours. I look forward to reading them. Let's gather round the fire and be amazed.
Swim Faster Faster,
Ande
Paul Tietze - greatest relay swim ever.
In the early 70’s SMU and Michigan swam a dual meet in Dallas. At the time, both teams were very strong and evenly matched. The meet came down to the last (4 x 100) free relay. The first three Michigan swimmers gradually built a 1/3 pool length lead and the nearly packed natatorium had quieted - that is until SMU’s anchor, Paul Tietze, took the water. Paul was a big guy who blasted from the block and, in what seemed an impossible feat, caught the Michigan swimmer breaking out of the first turn. The entire crowd was on their feet and louder than any swim meet I have ever attended. I don’t remember the rest of the race except that Paul finished first and SMU won the relay and the meet. At the time, it was the fastest relay split ever recorded.
I watched Jason Lezak beat Alain Barnard in Beijing and while I had the same feeling about it, I still rank Paul’s swim as the greatest relay swim ever.
Paul Tietze - greatest relay swim ever.
In the early 70’s SMU and Michigan swam a dual meet in Dallas. At the time, both teams were very strong and evenly matched. The meet came down to the last (4 x 100) free relay. The first three Michigan swimmers gradually built a 1/3 pool length lead and the nearly packed natatorium had quieted - that is until SMU’s anchor, Paul Tietze, took the water. Paul was a big guy who blasted from the block and, in what seemed an impossible feat, caught the Michigan swimmer breaking out of the first turn. The entire crowd was on their feet and louder than any swim meet I have ever attended. I don’t remember the rest of the race except that Paul finished first and SMU won the relay and the meet. At the time, it was the fastest relay split ever recorded.
I watched Jason Lezak beat Alain Barnard in Beijing and while I had the same feeling about it, I still rank Paul’s swim as the greatest relay swim ever.
