By Terin Frodyma on SwimSwam
In the world of domestic athletics, there has been no shortage of stellar athletes who have come from every one of the 50 states that make up the United States of America. In honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States, Sports Illustrated released a list of 250 athletes, the top five from each of the 50 states, honoring the best of the best of each state. Within those 250 names are several athletes who have made a major impact in the pool.
Sports Illustrated selected athletes based on the following criteria (as listed by Sports Illustrated):
Where an athlete attended high school (for a majority of years or for the final/graduating year) Primary residence as a child, if an athlete did not attend high school (homeschool or similar) Based on the 1999 list’s spirit of placing athletes “not necessarily to where they were born, but to where they first showed flashes of the greatness to come.”The list is ordered alphabetically, with Alaska as the 2nd state; readers did not have to look far to see the first swimmer. Lydia Jacoby, whose rise from Alaska swimming to the top of the Olympic Podium in 2021 in the 100 breast helped earn her spot on this list. Jacoby, who famously took down fellow Olympic teammate Lilly King to secure the Olympic gold in Tokyo, ranks 5th among Alaskan athletes in the report, behind a pair of Duke basketball legends in Trajan Langdon and Carlos Boozer (1st and 3rd, respectively), Olympic cross-country skier Kikkan Randall, and dog musher George Attla.
Lydia Jacoby (photo: Jack Spitser)
Though not a swimmer, Michele Mitchell, a nine-time national champion diver at the University of Arizona and a two-time Olympic Silver medalist in 1984 and 1988 on the 10-meter platform, was the next aquatics athlete mentioned as the #4-ranked athlete out of Arizona. Mitchell is also currently the Director of Operations at the University of Kentucky.
The next swimmer mentioned would come out of the state of Colorado: Amy Van Dyken, the six-time Olympic gold medalist, including a four-gold haul at the 1996 games in Atlanta, which included a pair of sprint freestyle wins in the 50 and 100 freestyles. Van Dyken was listed as the #3 athlete from Colorado, behind Boxing legend Jack Dempsey and former college football standout and eventual US Supreme Court justice Byron “Whizzer” White.
Moving west to the island state of Hawai’i, the state’s top athlete is Duke Kahanamoku, who is considered the ‘father of modern-day surfing’. However, he also made waves as a competitive swimmer, including three Olympic Gold Medals in freestyle in 1912, 1920, and 1924. Also out of Hawai’i was Clarence “Buster” Crabbe, who won gold in the 400 freestyle at the 1932 Olympics. Crabbe ranked #4 out of Hawai’i.
A few states later, moving to Kentucky, we find Mary T. Meagher, a three-time Olympic Champion at the 1984 Olympic Games and two-time world champion, who has since been found competing at the highest levels of Masters swimming. Meager held both the 100 and 200 butterfly world records for nearly two decades. Meagher only trails ‘The Great One’ Muhammad Ali as the top athlete ever from Kentucky.
Katie Ledecky (photo: Jack Spitser)
When it comes to the sport of swimming and the greatest swimmers ever to do it, one state sits above all the others: the Old Line State of Maryland, which features arguably the two greatest swimmers ever to put on a cap and goggles, Michael Phelps and Katie Ledecky. There is not much to say that has not already been said before about these two, between Phelps and Ledecky, a combined 42 Olympic Medals, among those, 32 of them of the gold variety. Both are the most decorated Olympians in the country (Phelps with 28 total, Ledecky with 14). Phelps, who is regarded as one of the greatest athletes of all time, is not ranked as the state’s top athlete; that honor is given to Babe Ruth, who is regarded as one of, if not the, greatest baseball players in history. Phelps sits at #2 while Ledecky is just behind at #3.
For New Hampshire, one of the women that Ledecky surpassed as the most decorated female Olympic swimmer ever, Jenny Thompson, whose 12 career Olympic Golds rightfully earned her spot on this list, coming in at #12 for the state of New Hampshire. She trails only baseball legend Carlton Fisk, who spent 24 years as a player in the MLB.
For Oregon, Don Schollander, the seven-time Olympic Gold Medalist, made his way to the top of the state’s all-time athlete list. Schollander secured four golds at the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo, which at the time was the most from any American at a single Olympics since Jesse Owens in 1936.
Elizabeth Beisel (courtesy of Mike Lewis)
Moving cross-country to Rhode Island, three-time Olympian Elizabeth Beisel comes in at #5 for the state. Beisel’s Olympic medal haul includes a silver in the 400 IM and bronze in the 100 back from London. She is also a three-time World Championship medalist, including a gold in 2011 in the 400 IM.
The final swimmer listed came from Tennessee, as Tracy Caulkins, the 63-time American record-breaker and three-time Olympic Champion, ranks as the #4-ranked athlete from the Rocky Mountain state. After having to wait another four years to make her Olympic debut after the American team boycotted the 1980 games in Moscow, Caulkins managed to make up for the wait in 1984, winning the 400 IM, 200 IM, and another as the breaststroker on the 400 medley relay.
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