Dr. Jane Katz To Be Inducted Into National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame

NEW YORK, New York, March 10. JANE Katz, a world class swimmer for more than 50 years who at age 67 continues to win championships around the world, will be among eight inductees into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum on March 27. Katz will join nine other swimmers – including Mark Spitz, Dara Torres and Jason Lezak – in the Hall, as well as a roster of Jewish sports luminaries including Sandy Koufax, Hank Greenberg, Red Auerbach and Howard Cosell. The ceremony will take place starting at 10:30am at the Museum, which is located in the Suffolk Y Jewish Community Center in Commack, NY.

Katz is a rare Hall of Fame inductee in that she is still active as a competitor in her sport. In July 2011, she will compete in the 13th European Maccabiah Games in Vienna, Austria. Recent accomplishments include winning four gold medals at both the 2010 U.S. Masters Swimming National Championships and the 2009 World Senior Games, competing at the 2009 Maccabiah Games in Israel, winning 13 gold medals at the 2008 Maccabiah Games, and swimming in the 2008 Pan American Masters Maccabiah Swim Championships in Argentina. In addition, she has won a remarkable 34 All-American U.S. Masters Swimming titles, ten of which were long-distance championships.

Early in her swimming career, Katz helped introduce synchronized swimming to the Olympic games as a member of the 1964 U.S. Synchronized Swimming Performance Team in Tokyo.

In addition to still being a competitive swimmer, Katz celebrated 50 years at the City University of New York in 2010. She began her relationship with CUNY as a student in 1961, and from 1964-1989 taught swimming at Bronx Community College. Since 1989, she has taught thousands of students about the benefits of water fitness as a professor at John Jay College in the Department of Health & Physical Education. She also teaches fitness and swimming to New York City's police and firefighters. In 2010, Katz was honored with a Distinguished Faculty Award by John Jay.

In 2007, Katz helped create the KARE (Kids Aquatic Re-Entry) Program, in cooperation with the Department of Juvenile Justice, to help troubled youth learn life's lessons poolside.

The National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum honor is the latest in a long list of recognitions that Katz has received over the years.

In 2000, she was awarded the Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur (FINA) Certificate of Merit to honor her "dedication and contribution to the development" of the sport of Swimming, awarded in Sydney, Australia, during the XXVII Olympiad.

She won the Townsend Harris Academic Medal from her alma mater, CCNY, an award also bestowed to fellow alumnus, former Secretary of State Colin Powell.

In 2004, for the second time, Katz was voted Women's Swimming Coach of the Year of the City University of New York Division III Athletic Conference. In 2005, she was selected by Aquatics International Magazine as one of the 25 most powerful people in the world of aquatics.

She has authored several aquatics publications include Swimming for Total Fitness and Your Water Workout (Random House/ Broadway Books).

Jane Katz is on the Advisory Board of Aquatics International magazine and is a member of the U.S. Masters Swimming Sports Medicine and Education Committee.

Other inductees on March 27 will be Harris Barton (football), Tal Brody (basketball), Steve Mesler (Olympic bobsled), Abe Pollin (executive), Hal Richman (media), Alan Seiden (basketball) and Dick Steinberg (football executive).

More information on Jane Katz, her career and aquatics fitness resources can be found at www.drjanekatz.com. For information on the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame and Museum, visit www.jewishsports.org.

The above article is a press release submitted to Swimming World Magazine. It has been posted in its entirety without editing. Swimming World offers all outlets the chance to reach our audience by contacting us at Newsmaster@swimmingworldmagazine.com. However, Swimming World reserves the right to choose what material is posted.

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