Spanning over a century of multiple championships, legendary coaches, and Olympic swimming medalists, Yale University swimming and diving began in 1898 with the inception of the Yale Swimming Association.  The Association began actively competing in 1904 with the New York Athletic Club and continued to compete regularly against rival schools such as Harvard, Columbia and the University of Pennsylvania with the opening of the University’s Carnegie Pool in 1910.  The current Exhibition Pool, named after the University’s legendary swim coach Robert J.H. Kiphuth, opened in 1932 with the completion of the Payne Whitney Gymnasium.  Under Kiphuth’s direction, the Yale men’s swim team flourished with 528 wins and 12 losses during his forty-two year tenure.  Many notable Yale swimmers such as Stephen Clark, Michael Austin, and Donald Schollander represented the United States in the summer Olympics, winning seventeen gold, seven silver, and five bronze medals.  Overall, Yale men’s swim team has won four NCAA championships, thirty Eastern Intercollegiate Swim League (EISL) championships, and several Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships, and is recognized as one of the most winning teams in intercollegiate athletics. 

In 1974 the Yale women’s varsity swim team began competing under the direction of Coach Phil Moriarty winning five Women’s Ivy Championships in 1978, 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1997.  In the 2000 summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, Yale swimmer Emily de Riel won the silver medal in the Modern Pentathlon while Paralympic swimmer Deborah Gruen is a two-time bronze medal winner from the 2004 Athens, Greece Olympics and the 2008 Beijing, China Olympics.

Within the Manuscripts and Archives Digital Images Database (MADID) are roughly 380 photographs from the Yale Swim team collection depicting a myriad of moments in men's and women's swimming. The photographs span from 1901 to 2012 featuring freshman and varsity swim teams, individual and group swimmers, coaches, and award ceremonies. Special events are also represented such as photographs of the 1948 Olympic tryouts, the 1951 National Collegiate Swimming Championship, and members of the 1964 Olympic swim team.  The processing and digitization of swimming and diving materials was made possible through the generous support of Yale College alumni.

http://images.library.yale.edu/madid/

This collection contains individual athlete and team records consisting of correspondence, statistics, reports, scrapbooks, photographs, and publications documenting swimming at Yale.

http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ru.0941

This race featured Mike Austin ’64 captain (as a freshman) and Stephen Clark ’65 Captain (as a senior in High school), who won the national AAU championship in a record time of 46.8seconds.  Austin and Clark later teamed with Don Schollander ’68 Capt. (as a high schooler) on the Gold Medal Olympic relay which won in Tokyo in 1964.