It’s like deja vous all over again. I found Anthony Nesty, the first swimmer of African descent to win an Olympic gold medal back when I started this blog. I got his last name wrong at the time, but I had the right swimmer. Originally from Suriname, Nesty trained in the US, at the University of Florida. There must be something about those Dutch South American nations! First Enith Brigitha, and now Anthony Nesty. He won gold in the 1988 Seoul Olympics in the 100 fly. Nesty was also the first black swimmer to win an individual world championship.

He actually competed in three Olympic games: 1984, where he placed 21st in the 100 fly, 1988, where he won gold, and in 1992, where he won a bronze medal in the 100 fly. Nesty’s World Championship gold medal was in 1991, along with a gold from the Goodwill games. Nesty coaches at University of Florida.

We’re halfway there! Tonight I present Sybil Smith, the first black female swimmer to score in an NCAA final.

Sybil Smith swam for Boston University in 1988 when she placed 6th in backstroke in the NCAA finals. From the Boston University hall of fame:

‘She placed sixth in the 100-yard backstroke with a school-record time of 56:02. By finishing among the top eight in the event, Stephens (Smith’s married name) was recognized as a First Team Division I All-American. She was the first black woman in the nation to accomplish that feat, and she remains Boston University’s only All-American in women’s swimming.’

Sybil is recognized as the finest swimmer in Boston University history. She was the first Junior recipient of the University’s Mildred Barnes award, for being an outstanding female athlete. She won it again during her senior year, the first person to win the award twice.

Smith qualified for the Olympic trials in 3 events, later becoming assistant swim coach at Harvard. She is married to John Stephens, of the NFL Green Bay Packers.

I am surprised this is the first I’ve written about this great swimmer. I have seen that picture before, and I’ve googled her name before. Now we know some of her story. May many more follow.

Tonight’s first is a swimmer I’ve featured before: Charles (Tuna) Chapman, the first black swimmer to swim the English channel. He swam it in 1981, more than 100 years after the first person to swim the English channel. Matthew Webb, the first ever to swim the channel had done it in 1875. Here’s a video I posted before, but can’t seem to get it to come up on my site any more.

Charles Chapman was recently featured on The Morning Swim Show. It’s at the end of the clip; bear with the long interview before the clip of Charles the Tuna.

He is a good example of never giving up. We could all learn a thing or two from The Tuna.

Today’s subject is Chris Silva, the first Black swimmer to make a US National team. Silva was a member of the World University Games in Edmonton, Canada, in 1982. The charismatic Silva was elected team captain. He was also the first Black swimmer to compete in the US Olympic trials–in 1984 and 1988. He was recently featured in the morning Swim show. Here’s the clip:

This is one I’ve discussed before on imswimming. The first black swimmer to win an Olympic medal. Notice I didn’t say American swimmer. That would be Enith Brigitha. The International Swimming Hall of Fame is talking about her bronze medal in 100 free. It mentions that Brigitha finished behind two East Germans that have since disclosed that they were doped at the time. I don’t know whether that has any bearing on Brigitha’s medal.

For my other post on this great swimmer, I found that Brigitha had won a bronze medal in the 1972 Olympics for relay, and another bronze in 1976 for 200 M free. The Curacao native could really swim.