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

Hungary is a land of thermal springs and although landlocked, swimming and water sports are ingrained in its culture. This love of water led to an early domination of international swimming and diving competitions in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1920’s, it was water polo that came to symbolize Hungary’s unique strengths and individuality. So, it was natural for a boy born in 1930 to want to play water polo.

When he wanted to join the local Rowing Club in Durham City as a ten-year old, his mother insisted he should swim first. He liked it so much he took up swimming rather than rowing. Six years later Norman Woods Sarsfield was the city champion.

When he first appeared at the Voronezh Children’s Sports School at the age of seven, no one could have imagined that this youngster would one day reign as the Czar of Diving. Although physically strong and fearless, he was very inflexible and didn’t know how to swim. Yet Tatiana Starodubtseva, the school’s diving coach saw in him the courage, perseverance and determination that would make him one of the greatest divers in the history of the sport.

Jill Savery grew up in Concord, California, as an all-around athlete in gymnastics, swimming, diving, baseball and ballet. But, by the age of 10, she decided where to put her energy: synchronized swimming.

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.

The sport of synchronized swimming had been around since the early 20th century when Annette Kellerman and Katherine Curtis were the first performers of the growing sport, but it did not come to the Soviet Union until decades later. When Olga Sedakova was about nine-years-old, she and her twin sister came upon synchronized swimming by pure chance.

Sun Shuweistarted diving at the age of nine at the Guangdong Provincial Sparetime Sports School. At only 1.55 meters and 45 kilograms, he was a small athlete who relied on perfect technique to score high points.

He started in water polo with the Rowing Club of Naples, moved up to the famed Club Posillipo and became one of the most important players in Neopolitan and Italian water polo history. When he joined the national team in 1992, Italy hadn’t won a gold medal in water polo since 1960 and finished a distant sixth in the 1991 World Championships. But it did have Ratko Rudic, the gruff disciplinarian who coached Yugoslavia to its Olympic championships in 1984 and 1988.

Yugoslavia's Partizan Water Polo Club produced many great water polo players over the years including: Hall of Famers Zoran Jankovic, Ciro Kovacic, Igor Milanovic, and Mirko Sandie. In 1975, at the age of eleven, Alexandar Sostar joined the club. In his 16 years with the club and another 10 years withfour other clubs, he developed into one of the world's greatest water polo goal keepers of all time. At 6 feet 5 inches tall weighing 225 pounds, he kept the opposing team from scoring goals, deflecting many shots on goal. At the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Yugoslavia won the gold medal, losing only one game in the tournament, and defeating the USA in the final round.

She was winning youth championships in Germany at age 14 and was quickly becoming one of the top junior swimmers in all of Europe. At the 1999 European Junior Championships when she was just 15, Britta Steffen won six gold medals.

In 1968, Murray Stephens co-founded the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, which, in the eyes of Olympic Coach Mark Schubert, became “the best swimming club program in America” rivaling clubs in the sunbelts of California and Florida. He trained local swimmers and attracted other swimmers to relocate to his facility where he would turn them from good swimmers into great swimmers.

Petar Stoychev is unique among all the world’s open water swimmers. Stoychev’s versatility in open water swimming is unprecedented. A superman in the water, he has been able to cross great channels and swim in extreme conditions with water temperatures ranging from 35 to 90 degrees. He was the first swimmer to cross the English Channel in under seven hours.

Ever since Jill learned to swim at the age of four, she loved synchronized swimming and competed in the sport for 20 years. Upon reaching the National Team, she practiced five to seven hours a day, six days per week and became one of the world’s all-time best synchronized swimmers.

Bill Sweetenham grew up in poverty in the rural part of Australia, in a place called Mount Isa, a mining town out in the middle of nowhere. He found refuge from this tough environment and from his father’s strict discipline through participation in sports, especially swimming.

In Jozsef Szabo’s competitive swimming days, he became part of a family of swimmers and teammates. Like a family, each member had a role. He was known as the clown, to provide and keep everyone in good spirits and laughs.

In his native Hungary, he was known as “The Swimming Pope.” He was one of the most productive coaches of his generation, developing Olympic medalists at the Central Sports Club of Budapest for a 25-year period beginning in 1972 with Andras Hargatay winning the bronze medal in the 400 m IM at the Munich Olympic Games.

Hungary is a land of thermal springs and although landlocked, swimming and water sports are ingrained in their culture. This love of water led to an early domination of international swimming and diving competitions in the late 19th and early 20th century. In the 1920s, it was water polo that came to symbolize Hungary’s unique strengths and individuality. From 1928 to 1980, the Hungarian National Water Polo Team dominated the sport like no other nation, reaching the podium at twelve consecutive Olympic Games. During this streak the Hungarians won six gold medals, three silver medals, three bronze medals, and back to back titles twice: 1932 and 1936 and, 1952 and 1956. It came to be that anything less than the gold medal was considered a failure.