International Swimming Hall of Fame Honorees By Last Name (R)

Mike Read was an English school-boy butterfly champion who earned a position on Great Britain's 1960 OlympicTeam in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay. But he loved swimming in the open water and between 1960 and 2000, he swam in more than 150 Brit­ish Long Distance Swimming Association Championships setting more than 25 records. He was the 25 Kilometer Lake Windermere International Champion in 1970 and the first person to swim four lengths of Lake Windermere in succession, a total of 42 miles in 26 hours. In total, Michael Read has completed England's longest lake Windermere 39 times.

When Matthew Webb’s feet touched the sandy beach at Cape Gris Nez, France on the morning of August 25th, 1875, after an ordeal of almost almost 22 hours, he became the first man to swim unaided across the English Channel and became a world-wide celebrity as “King of the Channel.”

Rice first showed promise of being a great swimmer at 16, when she qualified for the 2005 Junior Pan-Pacific Championships. It was there that Stephanie Rice won two gold medals for Team Australia.

In 1900, water polo became the first team sport in the Olympic Games. During those 25 Olympic Games from 1900 to 2008, only 16 nations have medaled in the sport - a remarkably small number. Of those countries, Spain has medaled the fewest times - only twice - and that was due primarily to the efforts of their two star players, Hall of Fame player Manuel Estiarte, perhaps the game’s greatest player, and their remarkable goalie, Jesus Miguel Rollan.