Hans Fassnacht – da:imago-images.de
Article by Giovanni Manenti
As we have already had occasion to mention, Swimming enters the modern era, at an international level, on the occasion of the Mexico City Gameswhen the relevant Olympic Program is expanded to 29 races (15 in the men’s field and 14 in the women’s field…) compared to the 18 of the previous edition of Tokyo 1964…
Furthermore, the incidence of the over 2000 meters of altitude at which the Mexican capital is located does not facilitate the creation of world records – while as far as Olympic records are concerned, many of them reflect, although obviously, events never held before – given that only two individual ones are established and the same number in relay between both sectors.
But the aforementioned Five Circle Review does nothing but pave the way for a subsequent “explosion” of extraordinary results which find their peak in the following one Munich Olympics 1972, followed by the first edition of the World Championships in Belgrade 1973in which, respectively, 23 and 13 absolute records improved.
And it is in the four-year period between the two mentioned editions of the Games that the figure of the protagonist of our history today emergescapable of establishing itself in a country like West Germany which, at the time, boasted a poor swimming tradition given that after the Second World War it had been able to win an Olympic gold medal threshold with Ursula Happe in the 200m breaststroke nel 1956 a Melbourne …
Moreover, starting from Mexico City Games 1968 East Germany participates as an autonomous state startingat the moment with only the champion of the backstroke style Roland Matthes, the one who will later become an absolute dominion in the following twenty yearsespecially in the female sector, a growth – problems of illicit substances aside – not found in the Western field.
Therefore, the fact that a swimmer from West Germany manages to set world records, so much so as to be voted “German Athlete of the Year” per a consecutive three-year period (1969-’71).when at the time champions in football such as Franz Beckenbauer, Gerd Muller and Wolfgang Overath were all the rage…
NATO on November 28, 1950 in Wollenberg, in Baden-Wurttemberg, Hans Fassnacht he began practicing swimming in the Mannheim Club, making his mark when, not yet 16, he reached the Final of the m.1500sl at the European Championships in Utrecht 1966finishing fifth in 17’28”6 in the race won by the Soviet Semyon Belits with a time of 16’58”5.
This Continental Review is the “alarm bell” which announces the sporting birth of an excellent liberal style capable of perform well on the three distances of 200m, 400m and 1500m freestyle, races which in fact he won the following year at the national championships which take place in Essen, consequently making Fassnacht a hope in view of the 1968 Mexico City Games…
Registered for the distances of 400m and 1500m freestyle, the 18-year-old West German reaches the Final only over the shortest distance, finishing seventh in 4’18”1 in the race won by American Mike Burton with a time of 4’09”0, with the latter confirming himself also on the 1500m freestyle preceding his compatriot John Kinsella 16’38”9 to 16’57”3), while Fassnacht fails to reach the Final having achieved the tenth fastest time in qualifying.
Olympic debut for the swimmer from Baden-Wurttenberg also lined up in the two Finals of the 4×100 and 4x200sl relays with the same outcome, namely finishing in sixth position at a safe distance from the quartets of the United States…
A partial disappointment compensated by the decision of move to California to be coached by the famous American coach Don Gambrila successful combination enough to lead Fassnacht to win the 400m freestyle title at the 1969 AAU Championships in Louisville, matching it with the world record of 4’04”0 improving the one set the previous year by Canadian Ralph Hutton with a time of 4’06”5 during the same event.
And record destined to fall 12 months later and again on the occasion of the AAU Championships when the aforementioned Kinsella took it in 4’02”8three weeks before the start of the 1970 European Championships scheduled in Barcelona and which marked the pinnacle of the German swimmer’s career…
In the Catalan capital, Fassnacht is called upon to compete with his college classmate in Long Beach, namely the Swede Gunnar Larssonas well as keeping compatriot Werner Lampe at bay who, in his absence, had made a killing of national titles by imposing himself on the distances of 200, 400 and 1500 m freestyle in both 1969 and 1970.
The challenge with Larsson begins on m.200sl, included for the first time in the program of the Continental Review, and the German wins in the sprint (1’55”2 to 1’55”7) with times not far from the absolute record of “legendary” Mark Spitz, set in 1’54”3 in July 1969 to equal the time achieved by his compatriot Don Schollander at the 1968 Olympic Trials in Long Beach …
World record which, on the other hand, falls during the 400m freestyle final, but the Swede takes it and reaches it in 4’02”6 with Fassnacht silver and not far (4’03”0) from the previous limit established by Kinsella just over two weeks earlier.
Larsson who, for his part, is essentially a mixed specialist, where he hits the mark on both the 200 and 400 meter distances, while Fassnacht – who makes his the 1500m freestyle title with a wide margin (16’19”9 to 16’25”6) over Lampe – he also exceptionally tries his hand at the test of 400m medley, coming to undermine (4’36”2 to 4’36”9) the Swede’s affirmation who on the shortest distance had improved the world record of the American Gary Hall Sr. to 2’09”3.
Protagonist of the event with 3 individual golds and one silver, Larsson cannot count, unlike Fassnacht, on the support of a relay team with which to get on the podium, which is whyexchange of favors” from West Germany and the Soviet Union in the 4x100m and 4x200m freestyle quartets sees the latter triumph in the first edition the West German quartet prevailed in the second, with Lampe lined up in the first half and Fassnacht to closeso as to be the most medalist of the Championships with six overall laurels (3 Gold and the same number of Silver…).
It is therefore logical “think big” by the German Swimming Federation in view of the Olympic event that their country is called to organize in 1972, with the swimming pool competitions scheduled from August 28th to September 4theven more so when you consider that Fassnacht also makes a foray into butterfly style with excellent results, given that on 31 August 1971 in Landskrona, Sweden, he allowed himself the luxury of improving the world record held by Spitz over 200 metres, swimming the distance in 2’03”3 …
This feat allows Fassnacht to be awarded for the third consecutive year as “German Athlete of the Year”, but it does nothing but increase the related expectations for the Munich Games, where he is registered on the distances of 400m and 1500m – while Lampe is on the 200m and 400m freestyle – as well as on the 200m butterflyeven though the “cannibal” Spitz had regained possession of the record at the Olympic Trials, swimming on the same day first in 2’01″87 and then in 2’01″53.
And it is precisely the butterfly that is Fassnacht’s debut race in the “Swimming pool” of the Bavarian capital, with batteries in the morning and Final on the afternoon of 28 August 1972, for which the now almost 22-year-old German qualified with the fifth time of 2’05″39, the same placing as the final act although he improved to 2’04″69 while Spitz broke his own world record by touching the “barrier of 2′ clear” …
At the conclusion of the afternoon races, Fassnacht is called to swim the last leg of the 4×100 relay which does not go beyond sixth placeand then return to the water on August 31st for heats and Final of the 4x200sl relay which sees the second West German quartet qualify with the fifth timeto then line up the owners Klaus Steinbach, Lampe, Hans-Gunther Vosseler and Fassnacht which goes on stage at 6.20 pm…
Con Lampe galvanized by the bronze he won two days earlier in the 200m freestyle, the second leg he swam in 1’53”49 causes the Germans to take the lead halfway through the race with an advantage (3’48”11 to 3’48”81) of 0”70 cents over the US quartetbut the hopes of a sensational undertaking vanish immediately due to the unthinkable pairing between Steve Genter and Vosseler (the weak link in the German chain…), so that for Spitz it’s child’s play to finish with an overall time of 7’35″78 to disintegrate the previous limit of the same USA of 7’43”3 dating back to a year earlier.
Having finally won an Olympic Medal has also a negative effect on Fassnacht who misses access to the Final of both the 400m and 1500m freestyle, which is why, at the end of the Games, he retired from competitive activity to finish his university studies at the “California State College” in Long Beach, and then find work as a Marketing Manager at swimsuit manufacturing companies…
There remains legitimate suspicion of him a career with something unfinished due to the flop at the Munich Games where he was expected as one of the protagonists, but what he did in the previous seasons is more than enough to see him assigned the “Silver bay leaf” (“Silver Laurel Leaf”), the highest sporting honour, as well as being included in 1983 in the “International Swimming Hall of Fame” …
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2023-12-02 19:17:03
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