1991 USA Swimming Award-winning coach Mike Hastings died last week, Olympian Summer Sanders posted on Facebook.
Hastings was Sanders’ longtime coach and founded California Capital Aquatics in 1983 before building into a national powerhouse. He coached her through participating in multiple sports and taking a brief hiatus from swimming.
“I worried a lot,” Hastings told them Chicago Tribune in 1992. ”At that age, when kids have a chance to excel, it starts taking more than physical talent.”
”Summer didn’t have the mental drive. She had the will to win, but not the will to prepare to win.”
In her Facebook tribute, Sanders said she “loved” his strict, at-times harsh coaching style.
“Mike passed on a few days ago. And I feel true pain and sadness in my heart. I do feel like a part of me passed on with him,” Sanders wrote. “I am so lucky to have met him and been coached by him. He coached me my entire swimming career! He helped me secure a scholarship to Stanford, he helped me almost make the Olympic team and he helped me make the Olympic team and win medals. He was in Barcelona with me….whistling with every breath.”
View her full post below:
Hastings was inducted in the American Swim Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2013 alongside Bob Groseth, Don Schwartz and Penny Taylor.
Rest well Mike, you will always be remembered by me as someone who helped and respected me in my transition from athlete to coach.
Unfortunately it is not always the case in our profession.
You were rare and someone I always enjoyed talking to. Thanks for being you.
God Speed.
He was a very good coach. And a very good person. He also coached John Nabor and Randal Bal