USA Swimming Honors Its Best

USA Swimming honored Bill Rose, head coach of the Mission Viejo Nadadores, with its 2008 Glenn S. Hummer Award.

The Glenn S. Hummer Award winner is given to the person who had made the greatest contribution to the sport of long distance swimming. Rose's contributions included not only his role as the head coach of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Open Water Team, but also his coaching over the years at local ocean races, national open water championships and international FINA World Cup races. Over the last 2 years alone, Rose has coached open water swimmers competing in races from Melbourne, Beijing and Dubai to Portugal, London and numerous states across America.

Chloe Sutton, one of Rose's elite swimmers at Mission Viejo, was also honored by USA Swimming as its 2008 Female Open Water Swimmer of the Year. Sutton was the sole U.S. representative in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim and demonstrated her pool speed by placing third in the 800-meter freestyle in the U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials.


Mark Warkentin, from the Santa Barbara Swim Club, was named the Male Open Water Swimmer of the Year for his outstanding open water performances over the past year, including an 8th-place finish in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Beijing and his silver-medal performance at the 2008 World Open Water Swimming Championships where he was just out-touched by the 6'-7" Maarten van der Weijden in the 25K race.

These awards are decided upon by the Open Water Committee of USA Swimming whose members include Dale Petranech, chairman of the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame, Sid Cassidy, chairman of the FINA Technical Open Water Swimming Committee, Mark Schubert, USA Swimming National Team head coach and General Manager, professional swimmer and former 5K world champion Erica Rose, Catherine Vogt, USC assistant coach, Paul Asmuth, John Dussliere and Steven Munatones.