Passages: Cecil Colwin, 85

OTTAWA, Canada, June 27. THE sport is mourning the loss of Cecil Colwin, who passed away at the age of 85 and was buried at The Jewish Memorial Gardens in Ottawa on June 25, according to SwimNews.

Cecil passed away with his son Robert and daughter Pauline by his side in Ottawa. Robert Colwin writes: “As my father's illness progressed it quickly became evident that the doctor's were not dealing with the average patient. Last week after been given a couple days at best my father was moved to a wonderful Hospice facility. As I sat with him in his new room while he was sleeping, his arm raised up from under the covers and started to practice a freestyle entry! I must tell you it was still flawless. In his own words, he said: “I've had a great run”.

Colwin was born in 1927 in Port Elizabeth, Cape Province, South Africa. He coached swimmers from 1945 to 1971 there, moved to Australia 1971-72, and was Canada's National Technical Director 1973-1977.

Colwin became South Africa's first full-time swimming coach and for 26 years placed swimmers on every Olympic team until South Africa was banned from Olympic competition. His swimmers broke four world records.

In 1993, he was induced into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as Honor Contributor. He was a much published author. He was first to conduct extensive research in the fluid dynamics of swimming (“Vortex Theory” and “Functional Shaping”) he wrote 100s of articles for various magazines and journals. His main published works were Cecil Colwin on Swimming (1969), Introduction to Swimming Coaching (1977) (Canadian Level 1 Coaching Manual) Swimming Into the 21st Century (1991) Editor of Level II and Level III Manuals of the Canadian Coaches Certification Program., Swimming Dynamics (1999) and Breakthrough Swimming (2002).

Special thanks to SwimNews for permission to reprint their obituary.

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