John "Jonty" Alexander Skinner (born 15 February 1954) is a former Hall of Fame South African competition swimmer and world record-holder, who for over forty years served as an American club and college swimming coach primarily at his alma mater, the University of Alabama before retiring as a coach in 2020. He coached the US national team in the mid-1990s, remaining as a Director of Team Performance through 2008.

Swimming career

Skinner was born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, South Africa, and graduated from

Selborne College Selborne College is a semi-private English medium male-only school situated in the suburb of Selborne and Belgravia (the suburb was named after the school) of East London in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa; it is one of the few colle ...

in East London, South Africa. At the 1973 South African National Swimming Championships he won the 100-metre freestyle event and backed that up by winning the event again at the 1974 National Championships. He was awarded the title of South Africa Athlete of the Year and was also awarded South African National Colours in Swimming and Life Saving.

University of Alabama

Skinner moved to the United States in 1974,Kanner, Burt, ''Don Gambril: A Coach With a Heart'', Biography, (2022), Published by Swimming World, U.S. Swimming Hall of Fame, pgs. 100-101 (moved to U.S. in '74 and Gambril coached Montgomery at Olympics) largely to attend the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

, where he was a member of the accomplished

Alabama Crimson Tide The Alabama Crimson Tide refers to the college athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic varsity teams that represent the University of Alabama, located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Tuscaloosa. The Crimson Tide teams compete in the Na ...

swimming and diving team, and competed as part of the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

and the

Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose member institutions are located primarily in the South Central United States, South Central and Southeastern United States. Its 16 members in ...

. At Alabama, he swam under Hall of Fame coach

Don Gambril Donald Lee Gambril (born January 2, 1934) is an American former Hall of Fame swimming (sport), swimming coach (sport), coach who is best known for coaching the University of Alabama from 1973 to 1990. His Alabama teams had top ten NCAA finishes ...

who would serve as a U.S. Swim team coach at five Olympics from 1968-1984 and would likely have been assigned to Skinner had he been eligible for the 1976 Olympics. As only a Freshman swimming for Alabama, Skinner won the 100-yard freestyle in a time of 43.92, at the late March 1975 NCAA Division I Swimming and Diving Championships in Cleveland."Swim Marks Don't Bother USC", ''Tampa Bay Times'', Tampa Bay, Florida, 30 March 1975, pg. 8 He was elected Alabama's most valuable swimmer in 1975, 1976 and 1977, and was later voted as Alabama's Athlete of the Year. Skinner graduated Alabama in 1978 with a degree in Communications and public relations, and by 1976, in his Junior year was hoping to apply for U.S. Citizenship. For the upcoming 1976 Montreal Olympics, many sports analysts considered Skinner second in line for a gold medal in the 100-meter freestyle. Prior to the Olympics, in three meetings with future 1976 100-meter gold medalist Jim Montgomery, Skinner finished second to Montgomery by electronic margins as tiny as .03 seconds twice and .3 seconds once.Denman, Elliot, "Jonty's Own Olympics", ''Asbury Park Press'', Asbury Park, New Jersey, 14 June 1976, pg. 21 In addition to his 100-meter world record, he set three American records in the 100 yard freestyle.

1976 100-meter world record

In 1976, despite his excellent chances of winning the gold medal in the 100-metre freestyle at the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

in Montreal, Canada, at the time South Africa was still banned from the Olympics hence making Skinner ineligible to compete.

Breaking the 100-meter free world record

After the 1976 Olympics, at the August, 1976 United States Summer Swimming Championships in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, though barely qualifying in the finals, Skinner broke Jim Montgomery's 20-day-old world record in the 100-metre freestyle by 0.55 seconds beating home the recent Olympic Champion Montgomery and Joe Bottom who won silver in Montreal. His record stood until 3 April 1981 when

Rowdy Gaines Ambrose "Rowdy" Gaines IV (born February 17, 1959) is an American former competitive swimmer, U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame member, three-time Olympic gold medalist, and member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He is referred to as "The ...

swam the distance in 49.36 seconds in Texas. Skinner trained for a period before his record breaking swim with Coach Bill Palmer's Central Jersey Aquatic Club in Monmouth County, New Jersey."Pooling Their Talents", ''Asbury Park Press'', Asbury, New Jersey, 28 November 1999, pg. 131 In 1975, the year he set the American 100-yard record at the NCAA championships, Skinner was one of the first inductees into the University of Alabama Swimming and Diving Hall of Fame, which had been established by his mentor and Alabama college coach Don Gambril. Skinner's last competitive race was the 100-yard freestyle at the 1978 AAU Short Course Indoor Nationals in Austin, which he won in 43.29, retiring from competitive swimming afterwards, but was engaged in coaching the same year. In 1985, he was recognized by the swimming world when he was inducted into the

International Swimming Hall of Fame The International Swimming Hall of Fame and Museum (ISHOF) is a history museum and hall of fame, located at One Hall of Fame Drive, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States, operated by private interests and serving as the central point for the stu ...

as an Honor Swimmer.

Coaching career

Skinner began his coaching career in 1978 when he was appointed assistant coach of University of Alabama's swim team. He also coached at the University Aquatic Club in Tuscaloosa during this period. He swam with the Central Jersey Aquatic Club in Long Branch, New Jersey, beginning around 1976, and in the Summer of 1979, he coached youth there, working under Head Coach Bill Palmer.Denman, Elliott, "Jonty Skinner, He's Keeping in the Swing", ''Asbury Park Press'', Asbury Park, New Jersey, 17 June 1979, pg. 97 After three years he moved to California and became the head coach of the San Jose Aquatics Club where under his guidance the club won five junior national championship team titles and in 1986 took the national championship team title at Phillips 66 Long Course Senior Nationals. He served as head coach until 1988. He returned to the University of Alabama in 1988 as assistant head coach, and then took over the reins as the head swimming and diving coach of the men's and women's teams in 1990, serving until 1994.

USA Swimming

From 1994 to 2000 Skinner served as

USA Swimming USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. It is charged with selecting the United States Olympic Swimming team and any other teams that officially represent the United States, as well as the overa ...

's resident team coach, which involved coaching some of the nation's top swimmers at the elite national and international level. From 2000 to 2008 Skinner served as USA Swimming's Director of National Team Technical Support, which involves co-ordinating all of the testing, tracking and assessment of the national team athletes. In 2009, he operated Athletic Intelligence Consulting and was an UpMyGame coach.

Coaching at Alabama, Indiana

In May 2012 he rejoined the University of Alabama swimming and diving team as an assistant coach, and stayed with the team through 2018. For the 2019-2020, swimming season, though he had planned to retire as the Alabama Coach, he was recruited to coach for University of Indiana after the team lost several support coaches under Head Coach Ray Looze.

Retirement

He retired mid-season from Indiana in February 2020, permanently retiring as a swimming coach. Skinner resided in

Tuscaloosa, Alabama Tuscaloosa ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County in west-central Alabama, United States, on the Black Warrior River where the Gulf Coastal Plain, Gulf Coastal and Piedmont (United States), Piedm ...

while coaching at the University. He and his wife Carol Ann have two children, Cleone and Cydney.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Skinner, Jonty 1954 births Living people Swimmers from Cape Town Alabama Crimson Tide men's swimmers South African expatriate swimmers in the United States Alumni of Selborne College American swimming coaches College swimming coaches in the United States Alabama Crimson Tide swimming coaches World record setters in swimming South African emigrants to the United States South African male freestyle swimmers South African swimming coaches 20th-century South African sportsmen