February 10

The Swimming Highs & Politcal Lows Of Ragnhild Hveger, the most prolific world-record setter never to win Olympic gold

The Heights Of Hveger Never Seen - & Other Careers Lost To War

Ragnhild Hveger: Denmark’s “Golden Torpedo”:a a pioneer of pace whose links with the Nazis stymied her hopes of postwar Olympic honours

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

Profiles of Fraser and Tanaka will appear later this month as other anniversaries come round.

February 9

Sybil Bauer - The First Baroness of Backstroke

On this day, February 9, in 1924, 18-year-old American Sybil Bauer set the second of her two 200m backstroke World records - the first two official standards in the event:

Sybil Bauer - The First Baroness of Backstroke

The American winner of the first Olympic backstroke title for women, at Paris 1924, set 23 World records between 1921 and 1924. A day had been set for her marriage to Ed Sullivan in June 1926 but she fell ill, and cancer was the cause of her passing in 1927

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

February 8

Cartonnet & Wickham Set The Pace

On this day... in:

• 1933, Frenchman Jacques Cartonnet, who would become a highly controversial figure (see profile below) set a World record in the 200m breaststroke
• 1978, Australian distance ace Tracey Wickham set her first of two World records in the 1500m freestyle, the start of her reign as global standard bearer over 400, 800 and 1500m for a combined 20 years.

Wickham The Game-Changing Wizard Of Aussie Distance Divas

Tracey Wickham is one of the greatest distance freestyle swimmers in history. On the day she set the first of her five generation-busting World records back in 1978, we pay tribute to her career and revisit some of the headlines of a challenging life in which tenacity has been her towering strength

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord

The Controversial Cartonnet

Cartonnet was the first Frenchman to hold the record. The second would follow in 1941, courtesy of Alfred Nakache, who would become known as the "Swimmer of Auschwitz", while Cartonnet's relationship to Nakache's story is summed up by French newspaper Libération when it posed this question and made the assertion that followed it:

“Was Jacques Cartonnet responsible for the deportation of his rival Alfred Nakache, nicknamed the "Auschwitz swimmer"? The question has never been definitively answered. What is certain is that the former, challenged and defeated by the latter in 1938, made no secret of his anti-Semitism and wallowed in the most vile collaboration during the war.”

That story:

Cartonnet & A Torrid Tale Of Collaboration With A Link To His Rival Nakache, ‘The Swimmer Of Auschwitz’

The trouble with Jacques Cartonnet’s story of swimming ‘fame’ is that it holds hands with infamy. Among the facts is a question that hangs over him to this day, long after he was sentenced to death for collaborating with the Nazis before he escaped…

State Of Swimming +Craig Lord