John Lohn is the Senior Writer for Swimming World Magazine, having covered the sport at the national and international levels since 2000. He covered the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, chronicling the record-breaking eight-gold medal performance of Michael Phelps.
Scarecrow Press has initiated a new series, Historical Dictionaries
of Sports. The first title in the series is Historical Dictionary
of Competitive Swimming (next up are basketball and golf). Author
Lohn comes with the necessary credentials: he is the senior writer
for Swimming World Magazine. Competitive swimming is examined
through an introductory essay, a chronology that begins in 1875
with Matthew Webb’s swim across the English Channel and ends with
the thirteenth world championships in 2009, and a chronology of the
career of Michael Phelps. The main part of the volume, the
dictionary, has 500 cross-referenced entries that cover
individuals, competitions, the competitive swimming strokes, and
various countries that have been competitive in the sport.
Twenty-one appendixes cover topics such as world-championship
winners and Olympic medalists. The resource ends with a 5-page
topical bibliography. Libraries with large sports collections or
where competitive swimming is important for their communities will
want to add this resource.
*Booklist*
This inaugural volume in Scarecrow Press' sports reference series
provides a glimpse of competitive swimming's rapid evolution. In
his opening chronology, Lohn (coauthor, Swimmers: Courage and
Triumph) locates his subject's genesis not in ancient Olympic
Games, but in the 1875 English Channel crossing....Alphabetically
organized, brief entries profile the people, organizations,
championships, and locations defining competitive swimming. A
series of appendixes detailing competitions, finalist names, and
medals rounds out the book. A handy who's who for aquatic sports
collections.
*Library Journal*
The dictionary...has its merits in bringing all the factual
information together in one place.
*s*
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