Courtesy of Gary Hall Sr., 10-time World Record Holder, 3-time Olympian, 1976 Olympic Games US Flagbearer and The Race Club co-founder.
Blurred Vision
Prior to the late 1960’s almost no swimmer wore goggles in either practice or competition. Those that did use them wore the large, triangular-shaped rubber goggles that we can often see in old photos of swimmers crossing the English Channel. The challenges with those big rubber goggles were that they made swimmers see double, so the swimmer would have to close one eye to avoid confusion. They were also bulky, often leaked and caused more drag for the swimmer.
Swimmers from that era will recall the painful tears being shed after goggle-less practices from the toxicity of chlorine to the corneas. For some of us, that was also a great excuse for not doing homework. Without using goggles, we also struggled to judge the turns correctly from the blurred vision.
In the summer of 1965, a swimmer in Anaheim, California at the Sammy Lee Swim School by the name of Peter Frawley (brother of NCAA 50 free champion from USC, Dan Frawley), saw a small add in the back of a skin diving magazine from the Melbourne Sports Depot in Australia selling small plastic goggles. They were being marketed to pearl divers.
Peter ordered a box of a dozen goggles for 40 cents apiece and when they arrived in Anaheim weeks later, he sold some of them to his teammates at Sammy Lee for 80 cents. I was one of first to purchase a pair.
Beta Testing
The goggles were very similar to the Swedish goggles that are still available today. They were made of hard plastic eyepieces that had rough edges from the mold that needed to be sanded or filed down for comfort. There was no rubberized material nor silicone around the edges to help with sealing or comfort. The lenses were made of thin glass, not plastic. The head straps were made of simple rubber bands that looped twice around the head and the eyepieces were connected by a green string channeled through a small piece of plastic tubing. Separation of the two eyepieces for the variable nose widths was achieved simply by guessing at the amount of string needed to tie them together.
We began wearing those goggles immediately in practices and never stopped. Other teammates at the Sammy Lee Swim School began to join us. The following summer of 1966, I began training with the famous coach, Don Gambril, at the Rosemead Aquatic Center. When I showed up with the goggles, Don and other swimmers there were also intrigued.
Eventually, Don purchased a pair and sent them to his friend, Ron Gilchrist, in Canada. Ron was working for Speedo at the time and had an entrepreneurial spirit. When Ron saw the goggles, he realized the potential and began manufacturing them and selling them under the Speedo brand. I believe that Speedo was the first company to manufacture and market the goggles to swimmers.
Mainstream
Later, in the early 70’s, a company called Malmsten AB in Sweden began producing the goggles of the same style, using plastic lenses instead of glass. They were of higher quality and so they popularized this style of goggles globally. The style ultimately became known as the Swedish Goggle. Many swimmers still prefer to use this style today.
I am not certain who was the first swimmer to use swimming goggles in competition, but the first person I saw use them was David Wilkie, from Scotland, at the Division I NCAA men’s swimming championships in 1973, in the 200 breaststroke. David often wore them in competition and went on to use them in the finals of the 200 breaststroke at the Montreal Olympic Games of 1976 swimming for the UK. He was the only non-American to win a men’s swimming event in those Olympic Games.
If someone wore goggles in competition before David, I am not aware of who did. Perhaps the readers of SwimSwam will be able to help me out here.
I belong to a Swimmer’s Forum online; some 125 international swimmers from back in the day, most of whom still swim pretty fast. Once, David McIntyre, our fearless leader, did a poll of these members as to what has been the single most profound change that has positively impacted our sport. Many of the members thought the use of swimming goggles was it. They might be right.
Either way, I am proud to have been one of the early adopters. With respect to use of competitive swimming goggles, you now know more about the rest of the story.
Yours in swimming,
Gary Sr.
Gary Hall, Sr., Technical Director and Head Coach of The Race Club (courtesy of TRC)
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What a great article! Thank you.
Great article. And I agree, being one of those who started swimming in the mid-late 60s, goggles made it possible to train longer and more effectively and so we saw more improvement. I remember when we were around 11 or 12, so the early 70s, a friend and I went in on 36 pairs of goggles for $1.50 each from one of the early goggle companies and sold them for $6.00 to our teammates. We would have done it more but our parents caught on and felt we were gouging so they wouldn’t let us conintue our new business.
Here is a little goggle history for you! My dad, Steve Green, designed and manufactured the Speedo and Arena goggles in Burnaby, British Columbia. His company was called Highland Manufacturing Company. I am trying to remember the exact year we starting to try out all the Speedo goggle prototypes at our swim practices at Hollyburn Country Club. It was probably in the 60’s. My brothers’ and I had a great time experimenting with all the goggles at practices and meets and passing on our feedback to my dad to improve the goggle designs over the years. I remember him bringing home the goggle pieces and we would glue the gaskets onto the lenses. I still have one of the original… Read more »
Very cool Patti thanks for sharing. I had WAY too many post-practice “chlorine tears” from that era.
We take a lot for granted in the modern world, and most people have probably not thought about swim goggles in that light. I for one, would probably not have done much if any long term recreational / fitness swimming without goggles. Now I credit swimming with still being able to move around without much trouble. Don’t ask – how old?
Great job Gary.
And you’d be the best source to write about this from my view as you were the first competitive swimmer I ever saw wearing them. They seem so “standard” now, but back in the late 60’s the first time I ever saw anyone wear any was you in warm-ups at a late ’60s or possibly 1970 LA Invitational. And as significant as manufacture and distribution of the goggles were, there was still a nearly 5 year gap between their usage in training and Wilkie pioneering their use off the blocks … and several years after that before usage off the blocks was standard. It is so commonplace now that it is amazing the consider that several… Read more »
In the 1960s we would put drops of olive oil in our eyes before practice. I don’t remember it working well as a barrier but it did give us blurry vision on the deck.
I know a few swimmers having developed cartilage in the eye sockets blaming Swedish style goggles. Anyone else recognizing this.
I have known and seen many swimmers that have worn the hard-plastic edged ‘Swedish’ goggles and have developed a growth of tissue under the orbit above the eye after years of use. My guess is that the growth is connective tissue and likely will shrink over time, if the offending cause (goggles) is discontinued. To my knowledge, these growths do not occur with goggles that have soft material around the edges.
The Head sports equipment company used to produce a Swedish goggle with a silicon gasket around the edge that contacts the eye socket and with interchangeable fixed-length nose bridges. These goggles were amazing. I believe Head probably discontinued them because the ends of the nose bridges were threaded and required being connected to each goggle by screwing them in with a quarter turn. Turn them the wrong way or force them in by pushing and you stripped the threads, making the goggles unwearable. I never developed any eye socket problems from them.
Great article. Our coach in the mid 70s let us train but not race with goggles. We missed a lot of turns. Does any world class swimmer not race with goggles? I wonder who the last hold out was?
Agreed. Fantastic article. As for the last holdout, the gold medalist in 200 breast at ’92 Olympics wasn’t wearing goggles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6efDPF8XB6M I have a vague memory of an Olympic medalist who was later busted for steroids going without goggles, maybe as recent as Athens, but can’t find.
Some article that Amanda Beard did that in her early career. In masters swimming I prefer the old way of not using the googles in competition. I have no problem without googles in competition, but wear them in practice.