Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

Due to the high volume of requests that I make this post, I'm getting to my Don Schollander article. Ok, ok, not that many people wrote it. Fine, no one even so much as mentioned Schollander to me this week. Still, I wanted to write a companion piece to my argument for Ragnhild Hveger as the greatest female swimmer of all time. The problem was, I just couldn't decide who the greatest male swimmer ever is. Phelps and Spitz are obvious picks, Weismuller if you want to way back. However, I'm choosing to write about Don Schollander first. Schollander is often overshadowed by Spitz, who burst onto the world scene just as Schollander was past his prime and immediately broke his records. Still, to many in the swimming community, Schollander remains one of the all time greats.

Schollander possessed a unique ability to dominate across distances that has been matched by few. In 1964 he won Olympic gold in both the 100 and 400 meter freestyle. The 200 was his best event but was not contested at the Tokyo Games. The best modern analogue for Schollander is the recently retired Ian Thorpe, who at one time was the world's best in the 200, 400 and 800 free. Schollander's performances, however, changed the ceiling in the sport far more drastically than Thorpe. Before Don Schollander, the world record in the 200 free was 2:00.3, and by the time he retired it would be 1:54.3. Amazingly he lowered the world record by %5 over the course of a few years. To compare, Thorpe lowered the world record from 1:46.70 to 1:44.09, a drop of %2.5. If Thorpe had assaulted the world record in the 200 free the same way, the current world record would stand at 1:41.46, far faster than Phelps' current time. It could be argued that the 200 free was less competitive in those days because it wasn't an Olympic event. Yet, when Spitz was done lowering the 200 freestyle during his legendary Munich run, he had only managed to beat Schollander by a second and a half.

One of the other reasons Schollander attracts less attention is because of his relatively short prime. Again, today we are accustomed to swimmers having international careers that span multiple Olympics. Ian Thorpe shocked the world by retiring at the age of 24. Schollander was only 22 when he hung up his goggles following the Mexico City games, and his career length was fairly typical for amateur athletes of his day.

Two more Schollander related notes before I wrap this up. Amazingly enough there is some footage of Schollander swimming at the Tokyo games:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hj-N0BGoLmo

Also for a lighthearted story about Schollander's competitive tendencies, I suggest you read this Craig Lord story about the recent death of one of Schollander's rivals:

http://www.swimnews.com/News/displayStory.jhtml?id=5902

Got any other submissions for a possible greatest male swimmer of all time outside of Phelps, Spitz and Weismuller? Send it in and if I agree you can expect a post with me singing his praises.