Tributes to the Souls Who Drowned: A 2024 Remembrance

As the year approaches its end, it’s time to honor some of the individuals the swimming community has mourned in 2024.

The roster of prominent fatalities in swimming throughout the past year included several former Olympic medalists and highly respected coaches, notably Jon Urbanchek, the long-serving head coach of the University of Michigan who participated in various U.S. Olympic team staff roles.

Below is a compilation of all the significant losses reported by SwimSwam in 2024. Individuals are listed by the month of their passing, not based on when it was reported, where feasible.

JANUARY 2024

• Rich Thornton, a member of the U.S. Olympic team in 1980 and head coach at San Ramon Valley Aquatics in California, passed away at 65 while surfing.
• The long-serving swim coach Richard “Doc” Ludemann, who had stints at Yale, UCLA, and Sacred Heart, alongside a lengthy club and high school coaching career, passed away at 71 after a courageous fight against cancer.
• Lance Larson, a two-time U.S. Olympic medalist from 1960 and a three-time NCAA champion at USC, passed away at 83. Larson earned an Olympic gold in the men’s 4×100 medley relay and a silver in the 100 freestyle in Rome; he also set world records in the 200 IM and 100 butterfly during his career.
• U.S. Navy SEAL and ex-collegiate swimmer Chris Chambers was pronounced deceased at sea after an 11-day search and rescue mission was concluded. Chambers, who swam for the University of Massachusetts and the University of Maryland, jumped off a ship into the Arabian Sea attempting to rescue a fellow SEAL, Nathan Ingram, on January 11. Both were hindered by their gear and perished. Chambers was 37 and Ingram was 27.

FEBRUARY 2024

MARCH 2024

APRIL 2024

MAY 2024

• Renowned swim coach Jon Urbanchek passed away on May 9 at 87 after battling Parkinson’s disease. Urbanchek is perhaps most celebrated for guiding the University of Michigan men’s swim team to 10 consecutive Big Ten Championships from 1986-1996 during a 22-year tenure extending from 1982 to 2024. He also piloted the Wolverines to the 1995 NCAA title and was part of the U.S. Olympic team staff as an assistant coach for five consecutive Games from 1988 to 2004, before becoming a special assistant in 2008 and 2012.
• Scottish-born David Wilkie, an Olympic gold medalist in 1976 while representing Great Britain, died at 70 after contending with cancer. Wilkie became the first British male to earn Olympic swimming gold in 68 years at the 1976 Montreal Games, clinching the 200 breast and achieving a silver in the 100 breast. He also secured a silver medal in 1972 in the 100 breast and was a three-time world champion and two-time European champion in breaststroke.
• Head coach at Austin College, Dan Snow, passed away at the age of 68 on May 11. A former Marine, Snow coached the team for three seasons.
• Dedicated swimming volunteer Russell White, who had volunteered with USA Swimming for over 25 years, passed away on May 11 at 82.

JUNE 2024

• Jon Jolley, the long-serving head coach of the YMCA Seahorse Swim Team in Hickory, North Carolina, passed away at 55 on June 4. Jolley had been diagnosed with cancer earlier that year.
• Former CEO and President of the International Swimming Hall of Fame Brent Rutemiller, who also worked with Swimming World for more than 30 years, passed away on June 17 after a battle with cancer.
• Former Arizona high school state champion and All-Big 12 swimmer Devin Geordon Price died unexpectedly at 32 on June 30. Geordon Price competed for Palo Verde High School before swimming at the collegiate level at TCU from 2009 to 2013.
• Ex-Mission Viejo High School coach Mike Pelton passed away on June 18 from cardiac arrest. Between 1976 and 1999, Pelton guided the Diablos boys’ swimming team to 20 CIF-SS titles, including a 13-year win streak from 1976 to 1988.
• Steve Jackman, once dubbed the “Fastest Man In the World” during his collegiate era in the 1960s, passed away on June 14 at 83. Jackman previously held American records in the 50 and 100-yard freestyle, winning back-to-back NCAA championships in both events in 1962 and 1963 while representing the University of Minnesota.

JULY 2024

• David Flood, who acted as the Aquatics commissioner for the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles, passed away on July 4 at the age of 90. Flood was also a distinguished water polo player, clinching national titles with the Olympic Club of San Francisco in 1957 and 1959 before being inducted into the Water Polo Hall of Fame in 1986.
• Two-time Olympic medalist Carolyn Shuler Jones passed away on July 22 at 81. Schuler Jones earned two gold medals representing the United States at the 1960 Olympics in Rome, dominating the women’s 100 fly and 4×100 medley relay at age 17.
• The long-serving head coach of the New Trier High School girls’ swim team in Illinois, Bruce Woodbury, passed away on July 28 at the age of 78. Woodbury taught at New Trier for 40 years, serving as the girls’ head swim coach for 18 years, winning 11 state titles and being honored as the National Girls Coach of the Year in 2012.

AUGUST 2024

• Class of 2024 inductee into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Sam Greentham passed away at 80 in August. Greentham formerly held the position of Chair of the LEN (now European Aquatics) Technical Open Water Swimming Committee and served on the FINA (now World Aquatics) Technical Open Water Swimming Committee. He was involved in various capacities at significant international competitions, including serving as Chief Referee for the open water events at the 2012 London Olympics.
• Bob Platt, head of operations and National Group Assistant at the Scottsdale Aquatic Club in Arizona, passed away at 58 on August 24. Platt joined the Scottsdale Aquatic Club in 2012 and served as the assistant manager for the U.S. team at the 2019 World Junior Swimming Championships.
• Former U.S. Olympian and Air Force head coach Casey Converse died at 66 in August following a prolonged battle with cancer. While competing for the University of Alabama, Converse became the first man to record a time under 15 minutes in the 1650 freestyle, finishing in 14:57.30 at the 1977 NCAA Championships. He competed at the 1976 Olympics and went on to enjoy a lengthy coaching career with the Air Force from 1988 to 2017. In 2021, he was identified as one of the top 100 collegiate coaches for the CSCAA’s centennial anniversary.
• Serbian CrossFit athlete Lazar Ðukić tragically drowned during the aquathlon competition on the inaugural day of the 2024 CrossFit Games in Fort Worth, Texas. He was 28. The aquathlon consisted of a 3.5-mile run followed by an 800-meter swim. In November, CrossFit reasserted its decision to indefinitely suspend open water swimming events from its competitions.
• Robertas Zulpa, a Lithuanian athlete who represented the Soviet Union on an international level, passed away on August 30 at the age of 64. Zulpas clinched gold in the men’s 200 breaststroke at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, and he also secured silver in the same event at the 1982 World Championships, in addition to being a three-time European champion.
• A veteran swim coach Bob Pease passed away at his residence in Sequim, Washington in August at the age of 82. Pease had an extensive career in swimming that encompassed a period coaching at NCAA Division II University of Missouri-Rolla, the Los Alamos High School swim team, and the Evergreen State College club team.

SEPTEMBER 2024

• Vladimir Bure, a four-time Olympic medalist from the Soviet Union, died at 73 on September 3 due to complications from a heart attack. Bure earned an Olympic bronze in the men’s 4×200 free relay during the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and later achieved three medals at the 1972 Games in Munich, including an individual bronze in the 100 free. He subsequently worked as a swimming coach for the Armed Forces Society from 1979 to 1985, and is more widely recognized as the father of NHL players Valeri and Pavel Bure. Notably, Vladimir served as a fitness consultant for the Vancouver Canucks (during Pavel’s tenure) and afterward with the New Jersey Devils, where he celebrated two Stanley Cup victories.
• Former LSU head coach Jeff Cavana passed away at 67 in early September. Cavana led the Tigers for four seasons, taking the helm in August 2000 after a decade in an assistant role.
• Olympic silver medalist Steve Gregg died at the age of 68 on September 10. Gregg achieved silver for the United States at the 1976 Games in Montreal in the men’s 200 fly. He also won silver medals in this event at the 1973 and 1978 World Championships and the 1975 Pan Am Games. Moreover, Gregg was a notable collegiate swimmer at NC State from 1973 to 1977.
• Former Texas A&M swimmer Jessica Sloan passed away at the young age of 28 on September 23 after a three-year struggle with brain cancer. Hailing from Magnolia, Texas, Sloan competed for the Aggies from 2014 until 2018 and was serving as a lead flight instructor at the time of her diagnosis in 2021.
• Brad Flood, a seasoned swim coach with experience as an assistant at Iowa, Clemson, and Texas A&M, passed away in September at the age of 69. Before embarking on a coaching career, Flood swam collegiately at NCAA Division II Rock State College, and he began his first coaching position at the University of Iowa, where he guided Polish Olympian Artur Wojdat, who won Olympic bronze in 1988 and secured nine NCAA titles.
• Greg Harden, a long-serving mental coach for athletic programs at the University of Michigan, passed away at the age of 75 in September. He dedicated 34 years to the Wolverines, assisting thousands of athletes, including Michael Phelps, who trained in Ann Arbor from 2005 to 2008.

OCTOBER 2024

• International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame inductee Elaine Gray passed away in October at the age of 79. Between 1962 and 1965, Gray achieved 15 successive championships titles from the British Long Distance Swimming Association and five Amateur Swimming Association Championship swims. In July 1967, she swam across the English Channel, setting a new women’s world record of 10 hours and 24 minutes.

NOVEMBER 2024

• Mona Nyheim-Canales, the former head age group coach of Pitchfork Aquatics in Arizona, passed away in November at the age of 59 after battling brain cancer. Besides her extensive club experience, Nyheim-Canales also had tenures with various collegiate programs, including the University of Houston, the University of Illinois, the University of North Texas, Colgate University, and the University of Michigan.
• Two-time U.S. Olympian Sue Pitt Anderson died on November 22 at the age of 76. Anderson represented the U.S. at the Olympics in 1964 and 1968, participating in the preliminaries of the American women’s 4×100 medley relay in 1964, which ultimately secured gold (although medals were not awarded to prelim swimmers at the time). At just 15, Pitt Anderson shattered the world record in the women’s 200 fly in 1963 (2:29.1), a record that stood for nearly a year.
• One of the all-time greatest diving coaches, Ron O’Brien, passed away in November at the age of 86. O’Brien coached legendary American diver Greg Louganis to four Olympic gold medals and five world titles from 1978 to 1988. O’Brien was a collegiate competitor at Ohio State, where he won the NCAA title in the men’s 1-meter event in 1959.

DECEMBER 2024

• Renowned Florida high school coach Bill Shaffer passed away on December 15 from a heart attack at the age of 58. Shaffer coached for 29 years at the all-boys Jesuit High School in Tampa and for 17 years at the all-girls Academy of the Holy Names, securing a total of six high school state championships.