International Swimming Hall of Fame Honorees By Year (2013)

At the age of ten, Milivoj Bebic joined the Pošk water polo club. A prodigy almost from the start, he was asked to join the Yugoslavian national team at the age of 17. It was playing with experienced veterans, like Hall of Famer Ratko Rudic and playing under the legendary coach Vahlo Orlic, father of the modern Yugoslavian water polo system, and Miro Circovic, that Bebić developed the skills that made him one of the greatest offensive water polo players of all time.

Considered a coaching genius, Alberto Castagnetti was a “wizard of swimming” who made the Italian colors shine on the world stage. But he did not do magic. The reality was that he obtained magnificent results through hard work and unsurpassed professionalism. These were the talents that allowed him to write his name on the greatest chapter of Italian swimming history.

Growing up in Tianjin, China Mu Chengkuan thrived in an era when China was adopting the western culture of physical fitness. He was a champion cyclist, a Kung-fu master and excelled as a swimmer. In 1941, he dared to challenge foreigners in a swimming match, which was the basis of a scene in the famous movie that was based on his life, “Enter the Water Dragon.” His victories over Western athletes boosted Chinese patriotism and Mu became a household name almost over night.

As a two year old, his dad carried him on to the pool deck of the Montreal Olympic swim stadium. Five years later, he was in Fort Lauderdale to see his dad’s induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

She was born in Thale, a small town in East Germany into a family that wasn’t interested in sports. However, at age seven under the East German sport system, she was discovered by talent scouts, learned to swim, started to compete and was soon sent to a centralized sports academy away from home to further develop her talent.

She was born into an athletic minded family in 1982, in Simferopol, Ukraine, when it was the capital of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea within the old Soviet Union. Because of the Soviet Union’s emphasis on physical education, the Ukraine was left with hundreds of stadiums and swimming pools. This little girl picked the swimming pool to excel. She first started in gymnastics, but once she started swimming at age seven, she never looked back.

Perhaps it was something in the water that drew him to it. At the young age of 16, he turned professional, becoming one of the world’s greatest professional marathon swimmers in the world.

Peter Montgomery was raised on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, where he played water polo and swam competitively in addition to being a surf lifesaver and junior rugby league player.

When Nathalie fell into the swimming pool at the age of four and almost drowned, her mother decided she needed swimming lessons to keep her safe. Within four years, she was competing in synchro as a member of the Walnut Creek Synchronized Swimming Team.

His mother, Astrid Verner, is a former 800 meter freestyle silver medalist of the European Championships. His father Cees is the team doctor with the PSV Eindhovan professional football team and a FINA doctor. Astrid became coach of the Dutch swimming team and Cees provided the foundation to secure a financial base to keep the team operating.

Growing up in Tianjin, China, Mu Chengkuan thrived in an era when China was adopting the western culture of physical fitness. He was a champion cyclist, a Kung-fu master and excelled as a swimmer. In 1941, he dared to challenge foreigners in a swimming match, which was the basis of a scene in the famous movie that was based on his life, “Enter the Water Dragon.” His victories over Western athletes boosted Chinese patriotism and Mu became a household name almost over night.