The biggest news in American collegiate water polo this season is the #3 seeding of Fordham University (@fordhamwpolo) in the upcoming NCAA Division I Men’s Water Polo Championships.

The water polo players from Fordham have been highlighted in various publications including the Wall Street Journal, a publication that only very rarely mentions water polo.

The players rose to the challenge this year, enjoying an undefeated 31-0 during the regular season. The Rams beat California Baptist University, University of California San Diego, University of California Santa Barbara, San Jose State, West Valley College, University of Pacific, and University of California Merced, all schools from California that have been traditionally on the winning side of the ledger against the school from the Bronx.

The players are hard-nosed and intense, never backed down especially when the games were close.

The fundamental commonalities between water polo players and open water swimmers include these characteristics. They tend to excel when physicality in the water is involved. Additionally, a water polo player’s team mentality is well-suited to establishing a team mindset on a marathon swim or channel crossing. Water polo players – like open water swimmers – are very capable of adapting to dynamic and unexpected conditions in the water.

Tom Burgess, the second person to swim the English Channel in 1911 in 22 hours 35 minutes on his 16th attempt, competed in both water polo (winning a bronze medal at the 1900 Paris Olympics) and open water swimming (4th in the 4 km freestyle at the 1900 Paris Olympics). He set in motion a century-long link between the two sports with hundreds of interesting characters who followed.

Duke Kahanamoku followed. The 5-time Olympic medalist and alternate for the USA water polo team at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics from Hawaii spent a lifetime in the open water promoting surfing, swimming and lifesaving, leaving one of the most enduring legacies in the open water.

His contemporary, Johnny Weissmuller, won one of his six Olympic medals in water polo (at the 1924 Paris Olympics) and is another quintessential waterman who later starred as the iconic Tarzan in Hollywood films.

As the generations passed since Kahanamoku and Weissmuller ruled the pool and the waves, hundreds of water polo players and coaches from ISHOF and IMSHOF dual inductee Penny Dean to International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame inductees Tomi Stefanovski [above on left], Ned Denison [above middle], Vicko Šoljan, Tom Burgess, Johnny Weissmuller, Jim Anderson, Éva Risztov, Ricardo Ratto, Bob Duenkel, and Steven Munatones did both sports for many years.

English Channel and Catalina Channel record holder Penny Dean also coached water polo at Pomona College in Southern California for over 25 years before her retirement. Macedonia’s Tomi Stefanovski who took up professional marathon swimming winning the famed 34 km Traversée Internationale du lac St-Jean at the age of 43 after ending his water polo player career. Former water polo goalie Ned Denison transformed his aquatic orientation from vertical to horizontal as he began a global tour of ice swimming, marathon swimming and prison island swimming. His historic knowledge of marathon swimming is rivaled by his knowledge of American water polo.

Before they both achieved the Oceans Seven and did all kinds of ice swimming, Adam Walker [@adamoceanwalker, above on right] was a water polo goalie while Paul Georgescu was a field player.

One of the oldest living channel swimmers is 73-year-old Toshio Tominaga of Japan completed a fast crossing of the Tsugaru Channel in northern Japan, a realization of his lifelong dream.

Water polo players in the past and contemporary global open water swimming communities include the following individuals:

• Tom Burgess was second person to complete a crossing of the English Channel and a 2-sport Olympian who won a bronze medal in water polo at the 1900 Paris Olympics
• Duke Kahanamoku was an Olympic champion and water polo player from Hawaii
• Johnny Weissmuller was a 6-time Olympic medalist including one in water polo in 1924
• Niko Nestor was the first Macedonian and Soviet bloc swimmer to cross the English Channel and a former professional marathon swimmer
• Bill Ireland has competed in more open water events over the last four decades than any other American
• Joseph Locke was a Harvard University water polo player who later took seven attempts to complete a Farallon Island crossing as well as an English Channel, Catalina Channel, and Strait of Gibraltar crossings
• John Chung was a member of the Deep Enders and Ventura Deep Six that was selected as the 2010 World Open Water Swimming Performance of the Year
• Doug Woodring of University of California Berkeley who created the Ocean Recovery Alliance organizes numerous ocean swims including the Cold Half and Clean Half Extreme Marathon Swims in Hong Kong
• Tracy Grilli was a member of the Mighty Mermaids open water relays and Fighting Flamingos water polo team
• Samantha Sears wasa water polo coach in Huntington Beach, California and a member of the record-setting Long Beach Swim Focus Catalina Channel Relay (6 hours 53 minutes)
• Klaus Barth was a German Olympian and triathlete who finished fourth at the 1986 Hawaiian Ironman World Championships while coaching swimmers, water polo players and open water swimmers in Long Beach, California
• Ellery McGowan was a water polo coach in Surrey, England who won world titles at the 2010, 2012 and 2016 World Winter Swimming Championships and completed a number of marathon swims and English Channel relays
• Jim Anderson of Honolulu, Hawaii organized the 1999 USA Swimming National Open Water Swimming Championships, the 2000 FINA World Open Water Swimming Championships, the Waikiki Roughwater Swim, and the Hawaiian Christmas Looong Distance Invitational Rough-H2O Swim as well as served as an observer and consultant for international open water events
• Mustapha Larfaoui was a water polo player in his native Algeria and the former president of FINA who helped add the 10 km marathon swim to the Olympic calendar
• Clark Bird was a water polo player in California who completed a north-to-south crossing of Lake Tahoe
• Cornel Marculescu, a 1964 Olympic water polo player for Romania, enabled and guided FINA to add the 10 km marathon swim to the Olympics at the 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Olympics
• Owen Hughes, Ciaran Farrelly, Tadhg Murphy, Aindriu McGuigan, Ronan Flood, and George Dunne participated in an English Channel relay appropriately called the Irish Water Polo Players
• John Reagan from New York won a 19.8-mile stage of the 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim in New York and competed in the 2012 8 Bridges Hudson River Swim
• Vicko Šoljan has been involved in water polo since 1951 and was inducted in the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame after founding the Croatian Long Distance Swimming Federation and the Faros Maratón in 1976
• Eilís Burns is a highly acclaimed open water coach and swimmer after playing six years on the Irish National water polo team
• John Mix of the University of California Santa Barbara continues to participate in open water event after founding and running FINIS, one of the leading swimming equipment design houses and manufacturers
• Tim Fitzpatrick continues to compete in ocean, sea, bay events for the third consecutive decade
• Jay Peluso of the University of Massachusetts continues coaches and organizes triathlon and open water events
• Dave Holscher of the Night Train Swimmers organized and oversaw marathon swimming charity events
• Kerby Lewis, Matt Judge and Emre Erdogan from Iona College water polo completed a tandem swim across the Strait of Gibraltar
• Bill Leach, a 1976 Olympian who played on the USA national water polo team and for the University of California Irvine is a USA Triathlon-certified and open water swimming race director
• Kevin Joyce coaches open water swimmers and water polo players in Southern California
• Mark Bayliss became the first person to complete the Enduroman Arch to Arc from London to Paris by swimming across the English Channel without a wetsuit
• Ryan McDonald from Concordia University is a water polo player, lifeguard and biathlete who did The Mega Colossus
• Nick Sullivan of the University of California Irvine is a biathlete and lifeguard from Huntington Beach, California who has won the The Mega Colossus four times
• Melissa Karjala from the University of Michigan raised US$75,000 on a record 6-woman two-way English Channel relay of 18 hours 55 minutes
• Kathleen Le of the U.S. Air Force Academy competes in triathlons and open water swims in San Francisco Bay
• Nick Burton of the U.S. Air Force Academy competed in ocean swims
• Ryan Ballance of the University of California Santa Barbara does marathon swims in Florida and oceans swims in California
• Steven Munatones completed a number of unprecedented marathon swims and competed in professional marathon races and was a Harvard University teammate of Dr. Oz
• Vicky Miller has completed both an English Channel crossing and a North Channel crossing
• Finbarr Hedderman is an ice swimmer and a channel swimmer of the Catalina, English, and North Channels
• Dave Scott of University of California Davis was a 6-time Ironman Triathlon champion and 2-time Waikiki Roughwater Swim age-group champion
• Miquel Sunyer of Spain who is a marathon swimmer
• Éva Risztov of Hungary is the 2012 London Olympic 10 km marathon swim gold medalist
• Ricardo Ratto of Brazil is an Olympic 10K Marathon Swim official and a veteran FINA referee
• Louis Martin of France won 2 Olympic gold medals in swimming and an Olympic bronze medal in water polo at the 1900 Olympic Games
• John Arthur Jarvis of Great Britain won 2 Olympic gold medals in the 1000m and the 4000m freestyle events and in water polo at the 1900 Paris Olympics
• Ross Edgley is a British water polo player who completed the 510 km Yukon River Swim
• Shane Moraghan of Ireland achieved the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
• Aude Lemaire-Hamel of Canada run open water swimming camps in Costa Rica
• Greg ‘Buc’ Buchanan runs junior lifeguard programs in San Diego, California
• Joseph L. Bruno is an early pioneer of swims in San Francisco Bay, California
• Paul Georgescu of Romania won the 500m race at the 2019 Ice Swimming Arctic Cup
• Bob Duenkel was the long-time curator of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
• Stathis Avramidis, Ph.D. was the winner of the 2009 Paragon Award for Aquatic Safety
• Edward Temme was the first person to complete a crossing of the English Channel in both ways
• Pearl Simonelli is a Catalina Channel swimmer
• Jim Boucher and Greg Dodds were English Channel swimmers and former water polo players
• Mickey Helps completed a one-way solo English Channel crossing and swam for over 41 hours in the Channel before he was pulled within 1,200 yards of the English coast on his return leg
• Patrick Woepse completed crossing of the English and Catalina Channels before succumbing to cancer
• Steve Sutton completed the Triple Crown of Open Water Swimming
• Paul Reynolds swims up and down the California coast after a 4-year NCAA All-American career at UCLA
• Martha Wood is a channel swimmer and ice swimmer and co-captain of the first American women’s collegiate varsity team
• Chris Menjou is a triathlete, collegiate water polo player, and one of the original Team Stop The Clot® members
• Andrew Wallace is an ice swimmer, stage swimmer, channel swimmer, marathon swimmer, and former Fordham University player

There are thousands more dual water polo players who are open water swimmers around the world. Please send their names to headcoach@openwatersource.com to add them to this list.

© 2024 Daily News of Open Water Swimming

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