Shirley Babashoff was presented the Coach Bob Ousley Award Thursday evening at the American Swim Coaches Association banquet in Ft. Lauderdale.
Legendary coach Mark Schubert introduced Babashoff, referring to her as “the person who made people think that I could coach swimming.”
“Shirley, the reason we’re giving you this award is not because of your great swimming accomplishments. It’s because, in the 1970s, you were the first person to stand up to doping,” Schubert said.
Babashoff entered the 1976 Olympics as an American darling after she qualified to swim the 100, 200, 400 and 800 free, as well as the 400 IM, and she posed for the cover of Sports Illustrated.
In Montreal, Babashoff accused East German swimmers of doping, and they went on to win all but one women’s gold medal in 1976. But Babashoff and her teammates did get one notch in the win column over the East Germans in Montreal as they took gold in the women’s 400 free relay—as chronicled in USA Swimming’s new movie The Last Gold.
Babashoff admitted in her acceptance speech that it’s tough to think about losing to swimmers who were on steroids and how those medical experiments affected her life, but she says that she’s glad that the wider public is now taking note of doping internationally.
Babashoff gave a shout-out to every coach that she ever swam for in her career and issued a thank-you to all the coaches in the audience, noting that it takes a special type of person to coach swimming.
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Great banquet tonight!