By Keith Dunlap on SwimSwam
Many in the sports media world are mourning Thursday’s passing of legendary writer John Feinstein, who authored many bestselling books and was a beloved TV commentator also.
But what much of the sports world might not know — including several in the swimming community — is that Feinstein spent many years as a competitive swimmer.
In fact, it was a swimming injury that ultimately planted the seed for his incredible writing career, according to the Washington Post.
Growing up in New York City, Feinstein helped his high school team win the New York City championship, and then embarked upon a collegiate career at Duke.
It was there where his future path was changed because of injury.
During his freshman year, Feinstein suffered a foot injury that ended up cutting his collegiate swimming career short.
When that happened, Feinstein turned to journalism.
He joined the school newspaper at Duke, eventually becoming sports editor and contributing articles to the Washington Post.
After doing an internship with the Post, he was hired initially as a police reporter in the news department, where he worked under editor Bob Woodward, one of the men who broke the famous Watergate scandal.
Feinstein eventually moved to the sports department, and his journey to sports writing fame took off from there.
However, even in his later years, Feinstein still was active in swimming.
According to his profile on U.S. Masters Swimming, Feinstein competed in short and long course events up until he was 56-year old.
His last competitive meet, according to the profile, came in 2011 when he swam the 100 freestyle, the 100 butterfly and 50 butterfly events in the 55 to 59 age group at the Patriot Masters Sprint Classic in Virginia.
Feinstein ended up finishing first in the 100 fly with a time of 1:08.57. He was second in the 100 free (1:04.09) and fourth in the 50 fly (29.97).
One of Feinstein’s best-selling novels was released in 2012 and based on swimming.
The fictional novel, “Rush for the Gold: Mystery at the Olympics,” focused on a teen swimming sensation named Susan Carol who has her best friend Stevie at the Olympics covering her as a teen reporter.
The story focuses on the lengths others such as agents and sponsors will go to make sure Carol wins gold.
Read the full story on SwimSwam: Remembering John Feinstein, A Standout Swimmer In Addition To Best-Selling Author