Doug Russell, who won the gold medal at the 1968 Olympics in the 100 fly (upsetting Mark Spitz), has launched a new swim club in the Austin, Texas area. It is called Trinity Aquatics.
The former World and American record-holder was the head coach of Longhorn Aquatics’ Pflugerville site until this year, when he left to begin Trinity.
The new club gets its name from the union of Mind, Body and Water, according to a press release. “Coach Russell believes that the sport of swimming is an all-encompassing adventure,” the release says, “and that he is coaching the mentality as much as the physicality of swimmers.”
Russell has a long coaching history – he was with well-known Texas club Nitro Swimming before his stint with Longhorn. Prior to that, he coached several high school programs, was the head coach of the University of Texas – Arlington program in the 70s, and started Challenger Aquatics, a club for swimmers with disabilities in Las Vegas.
He is an amazing coach this post is in 2016 and I hope he will be able to coach me to victory
Hi! I would love to give Doug a hello and a big hug! Also, I would love to tell him that I appreciate the values he instilled in me! I’m 56 and trained under him at UTA when I was 12. We swam under the name Burford Swim Club in the beginning. Before My family was about to move to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, he and the team gave me a little going away party up in the weight room when I was 14. He taught me some lifelong lessons that I’ve tried to pass on to my own children and will continue to pass on to my grandchildren.
Thank you, Doug Russell, and I’m thrilled to see that you are… Read more »
Doug Russell coached me when I was a young age-group swimmer in San Diego. I am now 47 years old. When I am not practicing law, I coach a high school team and a summer swim league team. I hear Doug Russell’s voice come out of my mouth as I coach. I try to pass the values I learned from him onto my swimmers.
We were driving to practice this afternoon and my son asked me about my coach. That prompted me to write this post. Glad to see he’s still coaching.
I am pasting from a swimming forum: “Russell lost nine straight times to Spitz in 100 fly in elite competition – always at the end because he was a sprinter and Spitz had better endurance. Russell trained a bit differently after Olympic Trials, and swam finals differently from prelims. He held back, against his own instincts, and outswam Spitz on the back half of the race to win.”
MEN’S 100 FLY FINAL 1968 MEXICO OLYMPIC GAMES
It starts at 1 minute in the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVwfqxH_um0
Thank you for posting that race. I noted at the end of the race that there was not any sort of acknowledgement from either Doug Russell to Mark Spitz nor vica-versa on a job well done. Doug got out, put his head down on the block for a moment and walked off. There must be some history between the two?
At that time, Spitz was very immature (he was only 18) and was the older swimmers could not stand his cockiness and arrogance (some would call this extreme confidence). Coach Russell knew that he could beat Spitz but that he had to get inside his head to do it. So, he reversed the tables and swam his Olympic races (semis and finals) the way Spitz would throwing Spitz off balance. Coach Russell, after his super-fast semi-final, scared Spitz which caused Mark to try a different tactic which backfired big time. Spitz went out uncharacteristically fast in the final while Russell was out smooth and easy. By the 80 meter point, Doug went right by Spitz because Mark had spent all… Read more »
It’s been incredible to watch the number of parents/kids who move to whatever team Coach Doug leads. He inspires his athletes to achieve results that they didn’t think they could ever achieve. A no nonsense guy, yet his kids will walk through walls for him.
Wow, never expected this. he is close to 70, it takes a lot of energy to run a club. Doug is a great guy and fun to have around pool. A large group of swimmers left Nitro and followed him to Longhorns. Our son and I talked about Doug just last week and about his race in Mexico. Our son took a picture with him at a Nitro meet in Dallas in December 2002 when he won a butterfly event. Coach Doug was very gracious and very approachable coach.
The “relationship” Coach Russell had with Spitz was one of the greatest psyche-outs in Olympic history. I guarantee Spitz will never ever forget what happened in Mexico (1968). I hope that Trinity is a huge success.