ISHOF: THE U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS—DONNA DeVARONA AND THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF WOMEN’S SWIMMING

THE U.S. OLYMPIC TRIALS: DONNA DE VARONA AND THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE OF WOMEN’S SWIMMING

BY BRUCE WIGO

As usual, the USA Swimming Olympic Trials in Omaha provided stories of triumph and tragedy that will forever be preserved for future generations in the International Swimming Hall of Fame Museum. But there was one moment that linked the past with the present and future of swimming like no other. It came when Donna de Varona presented Olympic qualification medals to Katie Grimes, the youngest member of the 2021 Olympic swimming team, and three-time Olympian Katie Ledecky.

When Donna de Varona was 13 years old, she had been the youngest member of the 1960 Olympic team. After the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games, she was regarded by many as the Greatest of All Time of women’s swimming because of her versatility. But it is what Donna has done after her competitive career ended that has helped make it possible for the two Katies to achieve their Olympic dreams in 2021.

Within the current ISHOF building, there is a small exhibit that includes a magazine cover photo that omnisciently predicted that Don Schollander and Donna de Varona would be the stars of the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games months before the Games were held. In the new ISHOF, this little-remembered Saturday Evening Post cover will have a much more prominent position—for if every picture tells a story, this one has had more impact on the history of women’s and Olympic swimming than any other—with the possible exception of a photo of Annette Kellerman wearing a one-piece bathing suit in 1907!

In this photo, the two California teenagers could be mistaken for fraternal twins. They both swam for the Santa Clara Swim Club and trained under the legendary George Haines. They both attended Santa Clara High School, where Haines was also the coach of the boys’ team, but where there was no team for the girls. While Schollander continued his legendary swimming career after the Games at Yale, there were no scholarships or NCAA swimming programs at the time for Donna to pursue. So like most young female swimmers of her era, she retired with an unbelievable résumé for a girl of 17.

She had won 37 individual national championship medals and three AAU national high-point awards. She had set American or world records or recorded the world’s fastest times in three of the four individual strokes (backstroke, butterfly and freestyle) and had broken the world record in her specialty, the 400 meter IM, six times—the first coming in 1960 when the IM was not an event on the Olympic program.

She was the world’s best all-round swimmer of her day. “Her day” was a five-year period that extended from the Rome Olympics, when she qualified as a member of the 4x100 free relay as a 13-yearold, until her retirement after the Tokyo Games, where she won two gold medals—when there were only six individual events for women. Her biggest award year was 1964 when she was voted America’s Outstanding Woman Athlete, Outstanding American Female Swimmer and San Francisco’s Outstanding Woman of the Year... and she also received the Mademoiselle Award, National Academy of Sports Award and many others in many languages. During her reign, she was arguably the most photographed woman athlete in the world, appearing on the covers of Life, The Saturday Evening Post, twice on Sports Illustrated and on dozens of swimming publications.

GREATEST OF ALL TIME

The internet is loaded with forums and sites debating the question of who is the GOAT—or Greatest of All Time—in every realm of human endeavor from athletes to zoologists. And every field has historians, journalists and social influencers who have established criteria, statistics and, more recently, artificial intelligence algorithms to back up their selection.

In the realm of competitive swimming, where times and length of dominance are the established determiners, Michael Phelps is unquestionably the GOAT of men’s competitive swimming, while the GOAT of the women, depending upon her performances in Tokyo, is arguably Katie Ledecky.

But what if other factors were considered? For example, what if amateur rules had not cut short the careers of Johnny Weissmuller, Eleanor Holm, Adolph Kiefer, Donna de Varona and Mark Spitz? Or, what if we used a criteria established by the ancient Greeks, who saw the role of athletic participation as a means and not an end in itself?

It is with this Greek understanding of athletic purpose that leaders of aquatics have long promoted participation in swimming as being a wonderful chance to build a foundation for success and happiness in life—for swimming provides... • A means to acquire a lifesaving skill and physical development at a time when these are most needed;

• The opportunity to acquire instruction and training from knowledgeable and quality men and women; • A means to learn the importance of perseverance, persistence and willpower;

• A means to acquire self-confidence and courage gained from training and competition; • A means to learn the importance of time management; • A means to learn how collaborating and cooperating with coaches and teammates can achieve greater goals than one can achieve alone...and many other skills.

Generally, swimmers have used the skills learned during their competitive experience to be high achievers—with many becoming teachers, doctors, lawyers, scientists, entrepreneurs, astronauts, entertainers, members of congress, prime ministers, presidents of nations and more.

But it’s extremely rare for an athlete who has achieved the status of an international sports celebrity—i.e., GOAT—to create an even more impressive résumé in their postathletic career...and that brings us back to Donna de Varona.

Since her retirement as an elite athlete, the influential Sports Business Journal says that her life “could serve as a mirror of America’s social history. At every turn, it seems, de Varona has been there. She’s Forrest Gump with gumption, Zelig with a

>> Don Schollander and Donna de Varona on cover of The Saturday Evening Post (July 25-Aug. 1, 1964)

>> De Varona was profiled and honored by the Sports Business Journal in 2015.

mission, unafraid to buttonhole someone in a position of authority and explain what must be done.”

GROUNDBREAKING CAREER

After the 1964 Tokyo Games, Donna enrolled at UCLA, where she majored in political science. She signed an endorsement deal with Speedo and used her “gold card” to break the gender barrier in sports broadcasting, becoming network TV’s youngest and first female sports commentator. She also became one of the few on-air personalities working off-camera as an executive, producing shows, pushing for more African-American commentators and participating in Olympic negotiations.

Her groundbreaking career has earned her an Emmy, two Gracies and the opportunity to cover a wide variety of sports events, including 17 winter and summer Olympic Games. In 2006, she was inducted into the Museum of Television & Radio’s first class of fifty “She Made It” pioneers in media.

She used her celebrity and status as a respected journalist to fight racial injustice, gender inequality and athletes’ rights in the political arena. She spent summers giving clinics for inner-city, underprivileged youth, and after multiple examples of administrative ineptitude at the Munich Games, she testified before Congress for the need to reform amateur sports and the USOC.

At the same time, she worked behind the scenes to have the word “athletics” included in the 1974 amendment to the 1972 landmark legislation of Title IX, which made it unclear if athletics was included.

And that brings us back to The Saturday Evening Post cover—for nothing argued the case for gender equity better than the back-story of that photo. And once the amendment was passed, she fought to ensure Title IX was funded and implemented. In 1976, she temporarily left ABC to work for the Senate committee creating a structure for Olympic sports. The point person, Alaska’s Ted Stevens, had told her, “I can’t get this done without somebody here pushing for it full time.” That someone was Donna, and the Ted Stevens’ Amateur Sports Act of 1978 became a reality. In the 1980s, then-U.S. Senator Joe Biden needed help in dealing with the doping problem in sports. One of his first calls went to Donna de Varona, and that led to her working with Gen. Barry McCaffrey and the establishment of the United States and World Anti-Doping agencies. “She was a heroic figure,” McCaffrey said, “a crucial source of sensible advice and public endorsement. She had no ego. Her only purpose was trying to get elite competition to where doping wasn’t required to stay competitive…. If I had to list the 20 most impressive people I’ve met in my life, she’s one of them.” In addition to her history with nowPresident Joe Biden, she served on Presidential Commissions and has enjoyed personal relationships with five presidents, including Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. It was Donna who reached out to Billie Jean King and other female sports celebrities to create the Women’s Sports Foundation, serving as its first president. She successfully petitioned the IOC to have athlete representation on its governing board. She helped bring women’s soccer into the mainstream as chairman of the highly successful FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1999.

STILL ACTIVELY INVOLVED

As she demonstrated at the Trials in Omaha, Donna is not ready to take her foot off the pedal just yet. She is still actively involved with nearly every organization she’s been connected with during her career—including the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

“Donna continues to amaze me,” says 1972 Olympic diving gold medalist, Micki King. “She’s my superhero—my inspiration, my GOAT—not just for what she has done and continues to do for women’s sports and the Olympic movement, but for doing it all while being a wife and raising two accomplished children.”

Another person who has worked alongside Donna on Olympic issues since 1972 is Olympian and attorney Edward Williams, who said this: “For over 50 years, Donna has been the voice of reason, and her voice continues to be heard, now as a member of the USOPC Board of Directors.”

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I can only hope everyone who follows swimming understands and appreciates that moment in time—when the past, present and future of swimming came together in Omaha! v