International Swimming Hall of Fame Honorees By Year (2015)

Enith Brigitha was born on the West Indian Island of Curacao, where she first learned to swim in the Caribbean Sea. By the time she moved to Holland with her mother and brother in 1970, she had become the island’s most promising swimmer.

He was born in Roma, Italy and as a youth he loved sports, especially basketball, swimming and water polo. Aquatics won out over basketball, and Bartolo Consolo has spent the last 40+ years dedicating his life and his free time to FINA and all its aquatic disciplines.

She is one of the most decorated synchronized swimmers in history with a combined 19 gold and two silver medals at the Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups and World Trophies.

He grew up in San Francisco where he was taught to swim by his father at China Beach, in the shadow of the Golden Gate Bridge. At Sequoia High School, in Redwood City, he developed into a champion swimmer and water polo player under coach Clyde Devine, who predicted Jim Gaughran would one day be an Olympian.

This swimmer joins a list of Australians who have won more Olympic gold medals in the fifteen-hundred meter freestyle than any other nation - starting with Andrew “Boy” Charlton in 1924. Following Charlton were Murray Rose-1956, Jon Konrads-1960, Robert Windle-1964 and Kieran Perkins in 1992 and 1996.

Growing up on the beautiful beaches of Queensland, Australia, Jodie Henry spent a lot of time at the beach with her two sisters, thanks to her parents love for the water. She learned to swim at the early age of three at the local Brisbane Swim School, but didn’t start competing until she was a teenager, which is quite late for a future Olympic Champion in this era.

Masako Kaneko was born in Tokyo, Japan on April 17, 1944 and has contributed as both a swimmer and coach since the beginning of synchronized swimming in Japan.

The success of the Chinese in the sport of diving in the Olympic Games since 1984 has been staggering, and many have asked why this is. Invariably, the answer is because of Boxi Liang, considered by many to be the Father of Chinese Diving.

Lao Lishi actually got into the sport of diving by mistake. She would go to her brother’s practices with her mother and became restless, so while looking for something to do, she found a trampoline. The amateur sports school’s coach, Zhong Quansheng noticed the little girl’s coordination and boldness. So, in 1995, Lao Lishi the pre-schooler became a member of the Chikan Diving School of Amateur Sports Schools.

Olympic gold medals are cherished in any country, but in 2000, Romania was especially desperate to be seen as something other than a poor unstable Balkan nation. That is when an unknown 16 year old girl emerged, who would become known as “Golden Diana”.

She learned to swim at the age of four, competed in her first race for the Lompoc (California) Marlins at age six. She even tackled open water swimming before she was 10. By the time she was 15, she was a Junior National Champion, swimming under Coach Mike Troy at the Coronado Navy Swim Association in San Diego. But Karlyn Pipes did not really come into her own until she became a Masters swimmer. Ever her own woman, Karlyn did it her way: backwards. She got faster as she got older.

The one thing successful open water swimmers all seem to have in common is their appreciation for their crew and team. It’s usually all they can talk about after a swim, and Irene van der Laan is no different.

Don Watson’s swimming life began in the mid-1940s when, having just turned 13, he joined the St. Louis YMCA swim team. Now, as it turned out, the St. Louis Y had among its members, an outstanding swimmer who would have a profound influence not only on Don’s life, but on the sport of swimming. That swimmer was Jim Counsilman, better known to us today as “Doc.”