International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Announces Class of 2026

International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame Announces 11 in Class of 2026

The International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame introduced 11 honorees within the class of 2026 to be inducted in a spring ceremony.

The 2026 honor swimmers are Millie Gade Corson, Andy Donaldson, Maria Digna Ezcurra de Ortellado, Barbara Hernandez Huerto, Alex Meyer and Marwan Saleh. Honor contributors embrace Irving Davids, Cliff Golding, Jacqueline McClelland, John Graeme West and Captain Roger W. Wheeler.

Paul Asmuth is the recipient of the Poseidon Award. Julian Critchlow will obtain the Irving Davids/Captain Roger W. Wheeler Memorial Award. Carol Sing is the winner of the Dale Petranech Award for Services to IMSHOF.

The class might be inducted on the awards ceremony on May 16 in San Diego. Full bios for honorees are available here.

The honorees embrace two folks for whom one of many awards is known as, with Davids and Wheeler named on an award donated by the New England Marathon Swimming Association. It goes “to the organization or individual who has contributed the most to the administration of open water swimming” and has existed since 1971.

This 12 months, the Davis/Wheeler award goes to Critchlow for his contributions. The British administrator has labored since 2004 compiling the database of English Channel swims, working to confirm each present and historic swims from completely different sources. He is also an achieved swimmer who crossed the Channel 4 occasions and was inducted to IMSHOF in 2021.

Davids hailed from the Boston space and commenced teaching within the Twenties in Southern California, his pupils embrace International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame honorees Henry Sullivan and John Doty. Davis competed in skilled marathons and was a member of the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation. He served as a lifeguard, pilot, historian and archivist. Davids died within the Nineteen Sixties.

Wheeler helped discovered the World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation. He organized the primary John E. Fogarty Memorial Distance Swim in Rhode Island in 1968. He created the Rhode Island State Life-Saving system within the Nineteen Thirties, was named director of the Division of Lifesaving for the State Department of Public Health for Rhode Island in 1935 and designed a life jacket for the Army throughout World War II. His identify graces the previous Sand Hill Cove State Beach – now Robert W. Wheeler Beach – in 1970. Wheeler died in 1969.

Corson was an early pioneer of feminine marathon swimmers within the Twenties. The native of Denmark was the third swimmer and second lady to circle Manhattan and the primary to finish a singular swim of 187 kilometers from Albany to Manhattan. She swam the English Channel in 1926, three days after Gertrude Ederle made her trailblazing crossing. Corson died in 1982.

Donaldson is the primary swimmer to finish the Oceans Seven inside a 365-day interval, which the native of Scotland did from August 2022-July 2023. The 34-year-old has additionally accomplished the Triple Crown and set velocity information of the Manhattan circumnavigation, Cook Strait and Derwent River.

Ezcurra de Ortellado started as a pool swimmer. The Paraguayan pioneered a number of swims from 1954-57, together with 381 kilometers from Concepion to Ita Enramada Puerto Pilcomayo; 179 km from Asuncion to Formosa; 80 km from Asuncion to South of Puerto Sara; and 27 km from Villa Hayes to Asuncion.

Hernandez Huerta of Chile has accomplished the Oceans Seven and Triple Crown in a profession that started in 2017. It features a two-way English Channel swim in 2025. The 39-year-old has blazed new trails in ice swimming, incomes the nickname “Ice Mermaid.”

Meyer was an American Olympian in 2012, the place he completed tenth within the 10K. He’s gained a variety of FINA (now World Aquatics) marathons, together with the FINA Grand Prix Traversee du Lac St-Jean in 2016 for the ultimate race of his profession. He completed on the rostrum 9 occasions in 22 world class occasions.

Saleh hails from Syria. His greatest achievement was profitable the 1969 Capri-Naples race. He additionally gained Lac Simon in 1969 and completed each race in his 15-year profession on the po circuit. He set a males’s English Channel velocity report in 1976 at 9 hours, 27 minutes, his second of three crossings.

Golding has assisted on greater than 120 solo marathons over a 32-year profession. The British official labored on the Dover Beach crew in England aiding Channel swims. A founding member of the Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation, he served two phrases as a committee member and was a Master of Ceremonies for the group’s annual awards ceremony. Also an achieved swimmer, he crossed the Channel twice in eight makes an attempt.

McClelland is the co-founder and director of Infinity Channel Swimming and a member of the Irish Long Distance Swimming Association, serving to develop curiosity within the sport in her native nation. He has supported swims within the North Channel since 2013 and crewed swims around the globe. She has additionally innovated new strategies to extend marathon swimming accessibility to swimmers with disabilities.

West served on World Aquatics’ Technical Open Water Swimming Committee from 2009-25, the final 5 as honorary secretary. He was a delegate at 36 occasions and referee at greater than 20 World Aquatic marathons, led greater than 50 worldwide seminars and wrote technical official supplies from 2010-25. The native of New Zealand was the technical occasions supervisor of the Tokyo and Paris Olympics; the chief referee on the Rio Olympics and an assistant referee in London in 2012. He has been a referee at seven editions of the World Championships, together with because the technical occasion supervisor on the final three editions.

Asmuth, an American, will obtain the Poseidon Award for his achieved profession, which included 55 professional marathons from 1980-2004, with 18 main titles. He gained seven World Professional Marathon Swimming Federation Championships and swam the English Channel 3 times with a male velocity report in 1985. He suggested the U.S. open water nationwide group on the 2008 and 2012 Olympics. He was inducted to IMSHOF in 1982 and to the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 2010.

Sing is the winner of the Petranech Award, having spent 14 years working with the group. She served on the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation committee from 2002-22 and is an achieved swimmer who accomplished the Triple Crown.