Olympic swim star loses cancer battle
OLYMPIC swimmer Clive Rushton, one of Rochdale’s most successful sportsmen, has died aged 69 after battling cancer.
Tributes have flooded in from across the swimming world for Clive, who competed for Great Britain in the 100 metre backstroke in the 1972 Munich Games.
As captain of the swim team he reached the semifinals in Munich, but retired just months later aged 25 and went on to become a highly respected coach.
Among the first to pay tribute to Clive was Brian McGuiness, head of the British Swimming Coaches Association, who tweeted: “A little bit of Rochdale & a massive part of the swimming world died overnight. RIP Clive Rushton.”
Former World and Euro- pean champion and Olympic bronze medalist swimmer Andy Jameson tweeted: “Enormously sad news from the British Swimming world, coach Clive Rushton finally loses his battle with cancer. RIP Clive.”
Clive grew up in Rochdale in the 1950 and 60s attending the old Rochdale Grammar School.
He took up the sport at Rochdale Swimming Club, one of the oldest in the world, and would later establish Rochdale Aquabears junior swimming club, which is where Olympic stars John Davey, Richard Maden and Keri-Anne Payne began their careers.
The Rochdale Observer paid tribute to Clive’s achievements as part of the paper’s 150th anniversary celebrations in 1996.
Then Observer sports reporter Les Barlow wrote: “He finished equal fifth in the ASA Championships in Blackpool. A year later Rushton made history by winning all the men’s events in the Rochdale SC championships. By the end of the decade Rushton was the English 220-yard and 110-yard backstroke titles holder, and he was also chosen to swim for GB. He was Rochdale’s first national swimming champion.
“The 1970s saw the continued rise of Clive Rushton. Rushton, a Lancashire champion, finished fifth in the 200m backstroke of the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. In 1972 he broke an English record in the Northern Counties Short-Course Championships, and he smashed another English record in the GB championships held in Grimsby.
“Two weeks later he again broke the English 100m backstroke record during a five-nations event in Rome, and this qualified him for the GB team for the Munich Olympics. Rushton reached the semi-finals in Munich where he was captain of the GB swimming team. Only months later he announced his retirement from competitive swimming, at the age of 25, after 10 years at the top.”
Clive, who at the time of his death lived in Bali in Indonesia, served as national coach to Greece in the 1990s and was twice awarded the Greek sports medal of coaching distinction, in 1996 and in 1997.
The bronze medal won by Dimitris Maganas in the 1996 European Shortcourse Championships, was Greece’s first ever medal at major international championships.
He also coached in New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia and in recent years, as technical director of the Glenmark Aquatic Foundation, has worked to improve swimming standards in India.
Clive’s son Tom Rushton, a swimming coach based in Canada, told the Observer: “The response from the community has been nothing short of overwhelming.
“He was clearly a mentor to many. His coaching career lead him from the UK to Canada, Greece, New Zealand, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and finally India. He had a great positive effect on many coaches and swimmers around the world.
“To him, swimming was life, one day last week as he was feeling stronger we went over videos from some of my athlete’s training sessions the week before and that was a big highlight for him.
“I’d also like to say thanks to the Glenmark Aquatic Foundation for their support for him during his battle with cancer.”