Americans Joe Zemaitis, Gracie van der Byl Lead IMSHOF 2025 Class
Americans Joe Zemaitis and Gracie van der Byl lead six honor swimmers in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
Joining them in being inducted next spring are honor swimmers Simon Ercoli of Italy, Steve Stievenart and Aurelie Muller of France and Croatia’s Dina Levacic. Pilot Eddie Spelling and coach Jorge “Coco” Villegas Perez are also part of the class.
The 2025 Poseidon Award goes to Nora Toledano Cadena, while Forrest Nelson is being given the Irving Davis/Captain Roger W. Wheeler Award. Richard Broer is the winner of the Dale Petranech Award.
The Class of 2025 Induction and Awards Weekend will be held on May 17, 2025 on the Isle of Jersey. Information about the ceremony and all the honorees is available at IMSHOF’s website.
Ercoli was a fixture for a decade on the Italian national team, which he captained for six years. He won a silver medal at the 2022 FINA World Championships, made the podium in 50 percent of his races and twice placed third on the Grand Prix Circuit, in 2007 and 2013. He won five European Championships medals and added a silver in the pool at the 2004 FINA World Short-Course Championships.
Levavic has been a marathon swimmer for 14 years, starting at age 13 and competing 17 countries on six continents. She competed on the FINA Grand Prix Series for six seasons. Her solo marathon career started in 2017, when she completed the Triple Crown in 84 days. She’s also swam the Irish Triple Crown and the Oceans Seven, and she has the second fastest female time across the Gibraltar Strait. She’s used her swims to raise money for children and adults with developmental disabilities and animal shelters.
Muller won gold at the FINA World Championships in 2015 and 2017 for France, part of a 15-year racing career. She qualified for both the 2008 and 2016 Olympics, finishing 21st in the former and getting disqualified at the latter. She has three silver medals from World Championships meets in the 5km swim.
Stievenart was the first to complete a three-way Catalina Channel crossing and the latest in the year to cross the English Channel (Nov. 11). He’s the first man (second person) to complete a 2-way Triple Crown, comprising Catalina, the English Channel and the Manhattan circumnavigation. He’s completed 15 swims in excess of 25 kilometers and five swims of 50 or more kilometers.
Van der Byl in 2012 set the speed crossing record for the Catalina Channel. She also set overall records for SCAR in 2013, the Eight Bridges of Manhattan swim in 2012 and the Cape May swim in 2013, in addition to the women’s record at Lake Memphremagog in 2014, all of which still stand. Van der Byl has completed dozens of swims across the world. She started the support kayak network used by the Catalina Channel Swimming Foundation and has supported more than 50 swims as a coach, crew, kayaker and captain.
Zemaitis came to marathon swimming after a triathlon career. From 2013-24, he swam 131 marathons over 100 different courses, including 50 marathons in 50 states in 25 days in 2022 to raise $12,000 for charity. His open-water exploits include the 2-way SCAR twice, Round Trip Angel Island twice and a 112-km swim in Roosevelt Lake that is the longest multi-segment lake swim.
Spelling worked for 20 years on the English Channel, piloting 174 one-way solo swimmers, including IMSHOF Honorees Sally Anne Minty-Gravett, Elizabeth Fry, Chloe McCardel, Nick Adams, Courtney Moates Paulk and Sarah Thomas. He was the pilot for the four-way solo swim by Thomas, which covered 132 kilometers in more than 54 hours.
Perez began coaching in 1982 and took up open water swimmers in 1986. He has served as the Mexican national team coach at the Olympics, Pan Pacific Games and FINA World Championship. Among his pupils are IMSHOF honorees Toledano Cadena and Jaime Lomelin Gavaldon, two of some 100 open water swimmers in his career that have completed more than 300 swims in 16 countries, including some of the biggest feats in the world.
Toledano Cadena is the recipient of the Poseidon Award, which recognizes “individuals or organizations that have significantly advanced the sport of Marathon swimming through their personal efforts or initiatives.” She was inducted as an honor swimmer in 2006. She raced on the FINA circuit for eight years, was the first Latin American woman to achieve a two-way English Channel crossing and was the 14th person to complete the Ocean Seven. She helped organize two FINA Marathon World Cup events in Mexico, has served on IMSHOF’s executive committee, has commented on two Olympic Games and has co-authored a book about her swimming life. She has also coached swimmers from eight different nations, including 15 Triple Crown finishers and two Oceans Sevens swimmers.
Nelson is recognized for his contributions to open water administration. The American led the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation from 2011-22, a period that saw growth in the organization with a tripling of successful swims and an increase of 15 times the successful relays. Nelson and the organization have streamlined the registration process, expanded kayak support and observer training and eased the process for the Triple Crown and Oceans Seven. Nelson completed the Triple Crown in 2007, with the speed record for the 74.7-km swim around Catalina, and was an honor swimmer recognized by IMSHOF in 2015.
Broer, of the Netherlands, has been a member of the IMSHOF Executive Committee since 2012, handling the annual ceremony booklet among other tasks. Broer has spent more than 25 years as a leader on the Royal Netherlands Swimming Association’s technical committee for open water. Broer, who won the Davis/Wheeler Memorial Award, adds the Petranech Award, enshrined in 2016 for service to the sport.