SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Rewind: 1985 World Swimmers of the Year

By Jason Marsteller

PHOENIX, Arizona, October 22. IN December, Swimming World Magazine will announce its 2006 World Swimmers of the Year. Additionally, the American, African, European and Pacific Rim Region Swimmers of the Year will be announced in our final edition of the year.

SwimmingWorldMagazine.com Rewind will travel back through the years to reminisce about previous winners throughout the next two months in anticipation of this year's celebration.

Today's Rewind checks out the 1985 winners: Mary T. Meagher and Michael Gross.

Here is an excerpt of the story written in the December issue of 1985:

For the second successive post-Olympic year, Mary T. Meagher of the United States is the female World Swimmer of the Year. In 1981, Meagher won the honor when she set world records in both butterflys (57.93, 2:05.96). This year, she was named American Swimmer of the Year, too.

Mary T., 21, went unbeaten in the butterfly races at major competitions with doubles at the NCAAs, both nationals, the Pan Pacific and World University Games. At the outdoor nationals, she almost got her elusive 200 fly record with a 2:06.09 for the second-fastest performance in history. In the 100 butterfly, her 59.16 Pan Pacific win ranked as the fourth-fastest ever.

The 5-8, 140-pound Meagher swam more than five seconds faster than anyone in the 200 butterfly this year, the biggest margin by a male or female in a 200 race since the world list was first published in 1972. Only the GDR's Kornelia Gressler (59.46) was within a second of her in the 100 fly. Mary T. now owns the top ten 200 fly performances of all time and nine of the 10 in the 100 fly.

For the complete Swimming World Magazine article on the 1985 World Swimmers of the Year, click here.

Premium online subscribers can view the entire 1985 December edition of the magazine, as well as any other edition of the magazine back to 1960. To order a premium subscription, please click here.

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