On This Day ... When Henry Taylor Set The First-Ever Official World Record In Swimming
TIMELINE - January - April- The SOS Daily Trawl of official World long-course records (plus all pre 1954 standards, all pools and metrics) set this day throughout history.
- Henry Taylor: 17 March 1885 - 28 February 1951
Today marks the 118th anniversary of Henry Taylor's 5:36.8 World-record win in the 400m freestyle at the British swimmers' home London 1908 Olympic Games. The time on the clock got the record-book started: it was the first official World record in any swimming event.
FINA was officially founded three days later, on July 19, 1908 at a meeting that was held - aptly - with Taylor's birthplace in mind - at the Manchester Hotel in East London. At that meeting the winning times at the Games were adopted as the first World records in a sport about to set off towards its organised, standardised and regulated future.
Here's Henry's record and others set this day throughout history:
Henry Taylor was raised by his older brother Bill and their two sisters after the siblings were orphaned by the death of their parents James and Elizabeth Taylor. Mum and dad would have been proud: their youngest son would teach himself to swim, and, coached by Bill, go on to claim three gold medals at the 1908 Olympics in London, part of a collection of eight Games medals between 1906 and 1920.
Henry's single-Games feat would not be repeated by a British athlete in any sport for another 100 years: the tie unfolded at Beijing 2008, when cyclist Chris Hoy celebrated three of his victories in a run of six golds and a silver at the four Games between Sydney 2000 and London 2012.
Taylor also competed at four Games and, like Hoy almost a century later, made the podium at all of them, the 1906 Intercalated Games, then London 1908 Stockholm 1912 and, after serving in the Royal Navy during the Great War (WWI), Antwerp 1920:
The Intercalated Games do not count in the official scores of the IOC, but here we count the medals from 1906 to provide an overview of Henry Taylor's pioneering role in swimming history
Here's a memory of the record-breaking pool in which Henry raced in 1908, the White City stadium venue that not even Los Angeles 2028 will top when it comes to pool dimension (100m long) and crowd capacity:
Craig Lord
A full profile of Henry will be added to our SOS Hall of Fame next week on the 118th anniversary of his victory over 1500m ... by which time, I hope to have tracked down.the names of Henry's two sisters...
On the way to that full and fascinating story of the lives of the Taylors, here's a glimpse at Henry's training routine of building swimming stamina through raw determination and local resources.
- The Lunchtime Canal Sprint: While working long, exhausting hours as a teenager in a local cotton mill, Henry used his brief midday lunch breaks to train. He would run down to the Hollinwood Branch Canal and spend his lunch hour swimming laps in the murky, industrial waterway.
- Any Water Body Available: He treated the entire North West England landscape as his training ground. His brother Bill would have him practice in virtually any body of water they could find—including local becks (streams), rivers, canals, and the boating lake at Alexandra Park. He would also swim in the local pool - but would try to do so only on "Dirty Water Days"...
- The Pool On "Dirty Water Days": they were so named as the days when the local Oldham and Chadderton Baths significantly reduced their public entry fees right before draining and cleaning the pools. Because Henry grew up in deep poverty and worked long hours as a mill hand, he could not afford standard admission to practice. He relied on these specific cheap-entry days to get actual pool training, swimming through murky, heavily used water alongside his brother Bill's coaching. The harsh environment was said to have given young Henry a big competitive advantage, like this:
- Athens 1906: only the brave and hardy prospered the choppy, open ocean water at Phalerum Bay during the Intercalated Games...
- Minimalist Gear: Henry trained and raced in a hand-woven silk swimming costume that weighed a mere one ounce.
- The Trudgen Stroke: His training focused heavily on mastering the Trudgen stroke, a precursor to the modern front crawl named after John Trudgen. It involved an overarm stroke paired with a scissor-kick, which required immense upper-body strength and core endurance, both of which Henry developed swimming against canal currents.
Much more on all that next week...
On this day... July 15
When Charlton Beat Borg By Biggest Margin Inside 1500 WR Ever Seen
Today marks the 102nd anniversary of Australian Andrew "Boy" Charlton's epic triumph over 1500m freestyle at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris. The time, 20:06.06 broke the world record by what remains the biggest ever leap in 30-length standards on the clock: 1min 04.8sec inside Arne Borg's 21:11 set in January that same year. Our SOS Hall of Fame entry and his and the other global marks set this day throughout history:
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July 14
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July 13
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On this day... July 12
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On this day, July 11
Laufer Lights Up A U.S. Tour Of Europe + Larson Goes Medley Pioneering
Americans Walter Laufer and Lance Larson set World records this day in history.
Two years before he claimed gold in the 4x200m free alongside Johnny Weissmuller, George Kojac and Austin Clapp, and silver behind another U.S.teammate, George Kojac, in the 100m back at the Amsterdam 1928 Olympics, Walter Laufer celebrated a bull run of backstroke standards on tour in Germany in just 24 days: one over 100m, the other three over 200m.
Lance Larson, better known as the first man to break the minute in the 100m butterfly, and for the controversy of the 1960 Olympic 100m freestyle that granted him silver not the gold some clocks suggested he merited, held the world best in the 200m medley during his career. His 2:24.7 was clocked on July 11, 1959, in Santa Clara. World records in the event only counted from 1954 onwards, when a minimum time of 2:13.0 was set. The first official global long-course standard was the 2:12.4 swum in Lincoln, USA, by Greg Buckingham on August 21, 1966.
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On this day, July 10
When Matthes Broke the 7th Of His 9 200 Back Marks
Today is the day in history when Roland Matthes broke the seventh of his nine World records over 200m backstroke. When he swam a 2:02.82 just under two months later in Munich to retain the Olympic title, the electronic delivery of a 0.82 ending meant that his swim was considered a match of there World record timed at a manual .8 in Leipzig at GDR trials.
Here's the list of other World records set this day throughout history, including the second of Leisel Jones' four 200m breaststroke records, one that lasted just two days, Amanda Beard breaking the standard at U.S. Olympic trials a year before Jones struck back with the first sub-2:22, and then the first sub-2:21 in history.
SOS Hall of Fame profiles related to the standards set on July 10:
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(subscribers have access to the full Timeline content in our daily trawl of pioneering moments in swimming history - and the accompanying profiles in our SOS Hall of Fame as we build the library).
