John Naber, the five-time Olympic medalist, TV sports broadcaster and announcer for the RCP Tiburon Mile, shared a great open water swimming story about another great Olympic swimmer Don Schollander from Yale University.

After Don won his four gold medals in the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, he traveled to France to do an open water swim. His taxi dropped him off only minutes before the race start where his chief competitor was at the end of a pier.

But there were 150 other competitors between him and his rival standing shoulder-to-shoulder. With his rival at the far end of the pier, Don was at a disadvantage. So when the gun goes off, everyone dives into the water…but Don.

Don runs the length of the pier, dives in behind his competitor and eventually runs him down.

Copyright © 2010 by Steven Munatones