Friends of the Natatorium Vice President Donna L. Ching is just back from a visit to Australia, where she says there are more than 30 ocean pools in the Sydney area alone. She swam in several Aussie “ocean baths,” and brought back photos for us. “They’re everywhere in Australia!” she says. “You’d think we could get it together and fix our one and only Natatorium!” Bondi Baths Perhaps the most famous of Sydney’s ocean pools are the Bondi Baths at the Bondi Icebergs Club at the south end of Bondi Beach. Bronte Beach pool Farther down the famous Coastal Walk
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Monthly Archives March 2013
Olympic champ/Natatorium friend Bill Smith has died
Sad news: Olympic gold medal swimmer and Hawai’i hero Bill Smith – a world record holder whose first competitive swimming experiences were in the waters of the Waikiki Natatorium – has died. Bill was 88 when he passed away Feb. 8, his family with him. Considered the world’s greatest swimmer for virtually all of the 1940s, William Melvin Smith was 15 when he started his competitive career at the Natatorium in 1939. Just a year later, he placed second in the mile swim at the AAU Nationals in California, where he met coaching legend Soichi Sakamoto. He later moved to
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