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Times Have Changed
A Brief History of the First 25 Years of
USA Swimming

 - USA Swimming website

In 1978, polyester, leisure suits and long hair ruled the fashion world, and disco was king.

The Bee Gees topped the charts with "Stayin' Alive,'' the movie "Annie Hall" made Diane Keaton a star and won four Oscars, while sharing the big screen with the powerful anti-war drama "Coming Home,'' and the nostalgia-oriented "Grease.''

Bill Rodgers won the Boston Marathon. More than 900 people died when they drank cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in the South American jungle compound of the People's Temple in Jonestown, Guyana; and in New York, David Berkowitz was found guilty of the serial "Son of Sam" murders.

Amid those contrasting images, Jenny Thompson toddled off to kindergarten, 2000 Olympians Kristy Kowal, Nate Dusing and Chris Thompson were born, and Congress passed the Amateur Sports Act, laying the groundwork for the birth of USA Swimming, and setting off waves that changed the sport forever.

With the new law, the Amateur Athletic Union's rule went the way of polyester, and a new governing body took over the sport of swimming - first USS, then USA Swimming. It grew from a fledgling four-person operation in Indianapolis to a 52-person organization that today manages a $17.4 million budget and sanctions thousands of meets nationally for its more than 260,000 members.

Dale Neuburger, the vice-president of FINA, and President of United States Aquatic Sports, remembers having "a pretty good mustache and sideburns combo'' and wearing lots of double knits in 1978 when he was the assistant swimming coach at Syracuse University.  And, he can cite a host of technological style changes just as startling in the sport since then:

  • Deep pools, big gutters, and lane lines that actually limit wave action
  • The change to no false starts rules
  • Swimsuits that cover more, not less
  • Horn starts instead of starter's pistols
  • Alphanumeric scoreboards
  • Computerized meet management systems and electronic timing at all meets

He notes one big sociological change: Swimmers can make money for going fast.

It's that change - especially in women's swimming -- that Ray Essick, the organization's first executive director, remembers as one of the biggest during his 17-year tenure.

"Increased opportunities for girls and women have allowed swimming to remove itself from the group of sports that are 'little girl' sports,'' said Essick. "We can now look to having female athletes represent our country at their peak ages of performance.''

Texas women's coach Jill Sterkel was one of those "little girls" when at age 15 she made her Olympic debut, swimming the third leg on the winning 4x100 freestyle relay in 1976. That was the only gold the U.S. women could wrest from the East German juggernaut, though the East Germans were later discredited when their systematic drug use was documented. Sterkel went on to make history by becoming the first U.S. woman to make four Olympic teams, and was part of the first wave of women to swim in college and beyond. 

"The money coming into the sport opened doors for women, big-time,'' said Sterkel. "First it was the college scholarships, then the sponsorships that allow people like Jenny Thompson and Dara Torres to swim on through their 20s, when before it was just too difficult.''

Sterkel's most vivid memory of the last 25 years is of one of USA Swimming's biggest stars, Mary T. Meagher.

Sterkel was in the lane next to Meagher in Brown Deer, Wisconsin on Aug. 16, 1981 when Meagher lowered the 100-meter butterfly record from 59.26 to 57.93. That was two days after she'd taken the 200 butterfly record from 2:06.37 to 2:05.96. Both records stood for nearly two decades .

"I touched the wall, and just thought 'Holy cow!''' said Sterkel. "She made me and everyone else look like we were moving in slow motion.''

USA Swimming's first official championship meet was a bittersweet one. On March 21, 1980, not long after the USA's Miracle on Ice and Eric Heiden's five speedskating gold medals in the Lake Placid Winter Olympics, President Jimmy Carter announced that there would be no Summer Olympic glory for U.S. athletes - the country would boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

So when USA Swimming held its first national championships, all it could do was name an honorary U.S. Olympic team. John Collins, who coached Rick Carey to the 1984 Olympic team, and Cristina Teuscher to the '96 and 2000 teams, blames that boycott for much of the sport's troubles during the `80s and parts of the `90s.

In 1980, FINA passed legislation reducing the number of swimmers per country in an event to two, which cut the medal potential for the U.S., and Collins thinks the lack of good international competitive opportunities the boycott - and the counter-boycott by the Eastern Bloc in 1984 - caused, along with a general malaise the boycott brought on, cut that potential more, and led to a decade or so of declining U.S. dominance.

"There was a long period there, when we didn't see a lot of our prime rivals,'' he said. "We were blindsided by some things, we were guilty of training our opposition, and we weren't able to effectively deal with the drug issues that came up.''

But both Collins and Sterkel have seen a resurgence in the past couple of years, especially with the emergence of a group of versatile new stars like world record-holders Natalie Coughlin and Michael Phelps.

"To me, Natalie Coughlin is the next-generation Tracy Caulkins,'' said Sterkel. "She does things you know aren't easy, but she's so good she makes them look easy.''

Collins said this past summer season was the best he's seen in a long time for "great swims," and credits the "pro-active" approach USA Swimming is taking.

"(Executive director) Chuck Wielgus has done a marvelous job of anticipating the athletes' needs and trying to meet them,'' Collins said. "With Phelps and Coughlin leading the way, I think the U.S. is poised to do a great job in 2004. This summer we proved again that we are the major swimming country in the world, and there were times, maybe, in the last 25 years, when we couldn't always say that. Right now, looking at the talent we have, we can say that the greatest things are ahead of us.''

 

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