Swimming

SWIMMING began competitively in VICTORIA during the 1860s but did not become a regular event until it was introduced as part of the Queen's birthday regatta in 1888. The Royal Navy organized many aquatic events for VANCOUVER ISLAND but swimming was unpopular due to the cold waters of the Pacific Northwest and social inhibitions against scantily clad young people bathing in the harbour. In VANCOUVER, lifeguard Joe FORTES helped to popularize the sport recreationally as he taught children to swim at the beach in ENGLISH BAY.

Competitive Beginnings

However, competitive swimming gradually caught on as the Vancouver Amateur Swimming Club was established in 1903, the YMCA Victoria Swimming Club held its first meeting in 1908 and BC joined the newly formed Canadian Amateur Swimming Assoc in 1910. By 1915, annual BC swimming championships were being held, alternating between Vancouver and Victoria. Another popular event held at this time was Victoria's 3-Mile swim, first won by Audrey (Griffin) Kieran, a member of the BC SPORTS HALL OF FAME. Racing against men, Kieran won the 3-Mile swim 7 of 10 times, and racing against women she never lost the provincial championship. She was one of the greatest female athletes in BC history, but there was no funding available in the 1920s for her to compete internationally. In 1925, the Crystal Gardens pool opened and became the capital's main location for swimming races. Less populated areas were also getting more serious about competitive swimming, as the CRESCENT BEACH and WHITE ROCK swim clubs bought and christened the Semiahmoo Cup for competition among men's relay teams. An interest in conquering BC's natural waters also developed as Ann (Mundigel) MERAW became the first person to swim to BOWEN ISLAND (1938) and set long-standing distance and endurance records for women by swimming the length of OKANAGAN LK in 1958. She also attempted JUAN DE FUCA STRAIT but her body could not hold up. Bert Thomas, a colourful logger from Tacoma who had rum and coke funnelled to him through a garden hose during his swim, and lit up a Cuban cigar as he backstroked to shore, was the first man to cross the strait in 1955.

In the early 1930s the 2 most important pioneers of Canadian swimming emerged from BC as Percy NORMAN became president of the Vancouver Amateur Swimming Club and Archie McKINNON debuted as the coach of Canada's national team. Among Norman's first stars were Shirley Muir, Irene Strong, Gerry and Kay McNamee, Ted Simpson, Bill Slater and 2 unofficial world-record holders in short-distance, Jack POMFRET (100-yd freestyle, 1941) and Joan Langdon (50-yd breaststroke, 1940). Langdon (1922-2022), who at age 13 was one of Canada's youngest ever Olympians in 1936, broke more than 20 Canadian records and was named Canada's most outstanding swimmer in 1943. McKinnon taught Peter Salmon, a 2-time Olympic swimmer and 1950 BRITISH EMPIRE AND COMMONWEALTH GAMES gold medallist, as well as virtually everyone else in Victoria.

Ocean Falls Dynasty

Though Norman and McKinnon built their own swimming legacies in BC's 2 largest cities, the most impressive BC swimming centre was the small pulp mill community of OCEAN FALLS, which formed its Ocean Falls Amateur Athletic Assoc in 1921 and built an indoor swimming pool in 1928. Important pioneers were James Wood, Jack Jacquest and Tom Jones, who later became coach for the British Empire Games, but the most influential person at the Ocean Falls Swim Club was George Gate, who became coach in 1950. Ocean Falls had already led Canada to international success earlier that year at Auckland's British Empire Games, with Jim Portelance capturing the silver medal in the 1,650-yd freestyle, and freestyle specialist Allen Gilchrist, the winner of the 1948 Sir Edward Beatty Trophy as Canada's top swimmer, participating in the silver medal-winning freestyle relay team. The club's top female was Lenora Fisher, unbeaten in Canada in the 100-yd, 100-m and 110-yd backstrokes from 1952 to 1956. After winning gold in the 100-m backstroke at the 1953 Pan Am Games, Fisher was declared Canada's top female swimmer that year. Also at the 1953 Games, Percy Norman's prodigy Helen STEWART won the 100-m freestyle. Norman, assisted by Gate, coached the Canadian team at the 1954 British Empire Games in Vancouver, which made use of the new Empire Pool at UBC. Stewart's other coach, Howard Firby, was Canada's 1964 Olympic coach and shaped the careers of Helen's sister Mary Stewart as well as Elaine TANNER, Jane HUGHES and Margaret Iwasaki. At the 1964 games, Hughes finished 5th in the 400-m and set a world record in the 880-yd freestyle later that year. At the 1971 Pan Am Games, Sylvia Dockerill won gold in the 100-m breaststroke. Mary Stewart was a world-record breaker as well, while Tanner, with 4 world records and a double-silver performance at the 1968 Olympics, is considered Canada's best-ever female swimmer.

Soon after Tanner slipped from the spotlight, Vancouver's Leslie CLIFF emerged to win a silver medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics, and Donna-Marie GURR brought home the bronze from the 200-m backstroke. BC men also made marks at Munich as Bill Mahony, a breaststroke specialist who won 4 Commonwealth gold medals over his career, earned a bronze for his participation on the Canadian medley relay team. The 1972 Olympics also marked the last competitive appearance of Ocean Falls "iron man" Ralph HUTTON, who had established himself as BC's most successful swimmer by collecting 24 major international medals. The end of his career also marked the end of the Ocean Falls dynasty: Gate had already left and the CROWN ZELLERBACH paper mill, on which the town's economy was based, closed. Other notable Ocean Falls swimmers included Sandy Gilchrist, the winner of 16 major international medals, Jack Kelso (6 medals), Ian McKenzie (4 medals) and Dick POUND, who won 3 medals and was an Olympic finalist in 1960. In 2013 the 1965 edition of the club, which included Hutton, was inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame.

Champions Since 1972

Vancouver butterfly specialist Bruce ROBERTSON followed in Hutton's wake by taking a silver in Munich (along with a bronze in the freestyle relay), then winning Canada's first swimming gold since 1912 at the 1973 World Championships. Wendy COOK followed Cliff as Canada's top woman swimmer by setting a world record in 100-m backstroke and winning 3 gold medals at the 1974 Commonwealth Games. At the 1976 Montreal Olympics, Vancouver's Shannon SMITH emerged to win the bronze in the 400-m freestyle, Gary McDonald and Stephen Pickell won silver in the 4X100 medley relay, and Gail Amundrud, the winner of 12 major international medals, was part of the bronze-winning 400-m freestyle relay team. Smith was coached by Ron Jacks, winner of 11 international medals including the gold in the 110-yd butterfly at the 1966 British Empire Games (and brother of singer Terry JACKS). Lisa Borsholt of Vancouver's Canadian Dolphin Swim Club won the gold in the 200-m breaststroke at the 1978 Commonwealth Games. Other notable BC swimmers between 1970 and 2005 were Wade Flemons, Graham Welbourn, Turlough O'Hare, Kevin Draxinger, Gregg Hamm, Brian Johns, Brent Hayden, Nikki Dryden, Sarah Evanetz, Courtney Chuy, Lauren Van Oosten and Kelly Stefanyshyn. In the 1990s Jacks also coached distance swimmers Greg STREPPEL, who won a 1994 World Championship 25-km open water gold, and Kim Dyke, who was ranked fourth in the world in 1993–94. The Canadian Dolphin Swim Club, first brought to the forefront of Canadian swimming by Howard Firby in the 1960s, continued its success as the Pacific Dolphin Swimming Assoc/UBC Swim Team, with Derek Snelling coaching through the 1970s and Tom Johnson taking the helm in 1979. As well as producing many world-class swimmers, it dominated national team competition from 1961 to 1999 with 50 team titles, more than twice the number of the second and third most successful clubs combined. The Dolphins attracted top talent from across the country; in 1998 they became the first club to capture all 8 national club and CIAU championships, and they repeated the feat in 1999. Also in 1999, homegrown Dolphin Jessica Deglau became the first Canadian swimmer to win 4 golds (200-m freestyle and butterfly, 4X100-m and 4X200-m freestyle relays) at a single Pan Am Games. In 2006 UBC's women's and men's teams won national university championships for the 9th straight year. The Dolphin International Swim Meet, inaugurated in 1963 and later called the Mel Zajac Jr Meet, continued to attract top-level international talent as the longest-running swim meet in N America.
by Silas White