Making Waves

Shirley Babashoff is an American Olympic champion swimmer. In her extraordinary career, she set eleven world records and thirty-nine American records and earned a total of eight individual Olympic medals. She won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay in both the 1972 and 1976 Olympics, and four silver medals in the 4 x 100 meter medley relay and the 200-meter, 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle. She also won the 1975 world championship in both the 200-meter and 400-meter freestyle. Prior to the 1990s, she was the most successful U.S. female Olympian and, in her prime, was widely considered to be the greatest female swimmer on the planet. Babashoff is perhaps best remembered for swimming the anchor leg on the gold-medal winning 4×100-meter freestyle relay team in its victory over the steroid-plagued 1976 East German women, in what is widely acknowledged to be the single greatest race in the history of women's swimming. She was inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Swimmer in 1982. Babashoff lives in Fountain Valley, California, where she has been a letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service for nearly thirty years.Chris Epting is the author of 25 travel/history books, including James Dean Died Here, Roadside Baseball, and Led Zeppelin Crashed Here. He is also an award-winning travel writer and has contributed articles for such publications as the Los Angeles Times, Westways, and Travel + Lesiure magazine, and writes a weekly newspaper column for the Huntington Beach Independent. Originally from New York, Chris now lives in Huntington Beach, California with his wife and their two children.Donna de Varona is an American Olympic swimmer who set eighteen world records and won multiple gold medals during her career. In 1964, the Associated Press and United Press International voted de Varona the Most Outstanding Woman Athlete in the World.” After retiring from swimming, de Varona became a sports broadcaster. At the age of 17, she appeared on ABC's Wide World of Sports, becoming the youngest and one of the first women sportscasters for a national network. Her groundbreaking career has earned her an Emmy, two Gracies, and the opportunity to cover seventeen winter and summer Olympic games. She was inducted to the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Swimmer in 1969.Mark Spitz is an American swimmer who set thirty-three world records and won a total of nine Olympic gold medals (seven in the 1972 Olympics alone) plus a silver and a bronze. Voted Athlete of the Century in water sports and one of the six greatest Olympians ever by Sports Illustrated in 2000, he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an Honor Swimmer” in 1977.