Dylan Bosch was born on 17 July 1983 in Johannesburg, where he attended Crawford College in Sandton. He won a scholarship to swim at the University of Michigan in 2012.

At the 20014 Commonwealth Games in Scotland Dyland won bronze in two relay events - 4x200 freestyle and 4x100 Medlay.

Dylan was one of 5 former Crawford College pupils swimming at the 2016 Rio Olympics - with Cameron van der Burgh, Jarred Crous, Michael Meyer and Michelle Weber.

27 July 2014 (L-R) Bronze medallists Dylan Bosch, Chad le Clos, Sebastien Rousseau and Myles Brown of South Africa pose during the medal ceremony for the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final at Tollcross International Swimming Centre during day four of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.,

Personal best times

Dylan Bosch Puts Scare Into NCAA, U.S. Open Record In 200 Fly During Big 10 Prelims

ANN ARBOR, Michigan, March 1. THE final prelim session at the Big 10 men’s swimming and diving championships set up exciting races in just about every event. For the first time at this meet, the Michigan Wolverines did not dominate in qualifying as the top seed in the events, posting only the fastest time in the 200 fly.

That top seed went to Dylan Bosch, who was the top swimmer in the collegiate standings in the 200 fly coming into the meet with a 1:41.01 from December’s USA Swimming nationals. Bosch swam a 1:40.37 in prelims to solidify his place at the top of the ranks. It’s also a meet record, surpassing his own 1:41.18 from last year. Tom Shields’ NCAA record of 1:39.65 could be put on notice in tonight’s finals. It should be noted that Shields also tied Michael Phelps’ U.S. Open record when winning the NCAA title last year, but with Bosch hailing from South Africa, the shared American record is not in jeopardy.

Bosch was under record pace at the 100-yard and 150-yard marks today, posting splits of 47.53 and 1:13.27 to Shields’ 48.04 and 1:13.79. Bosch likely took his foot off the gas in the final 50 yards, posting a 27.10 to fall 1.5 seconds off the 27.54 he split in the third 50 yards.

DYLAN BOSCH BREAKS U.S. OPEN RECORD IN 200 YARDS BUTTERFLY

April 03rd, 2014

After the 2014 Men’s NCAA Championship, there were lots of great candidates for HardCore Swim of the Week. Arizona’s Kevin Cordes was his usual unbelievable self in the breaststrokes (and had his 50.04 in the 100 breaststroke been .05 faster, he probably would have won this award).

But we chose Michigan’s Dylan Boschand his 200 fly U.S. Open Record, because of who’s record he broke.

When Bosch won the 200 fly in 1:39.33, he broke the record co-held by two swimmers that we know match up with the best in the world. The old record of 1:39.65 was co-owned by Tom Shields from 2013, and Michael Phelps from 2010.

Shields showed shortly after breaking that record that he was one of the best short course butterfliers in the world between the World Short Course Championships and the FINA World Cup circuit. Though his long course still wouldn’t put him in ‘legendary’ territory, his short course butterflying makes him one of the best in the world. Michael Phelps is, well, Michael Phelps – the best 200 butterflier in history, and it’s not even close.

At any rate, Bosch’s swim electrified swim fans even back in his native country of South Africa, where he was featured as front-page news. There weren’t many places even in the U.S. where a Phelps-record-breaking swim earned that kind of mainstream attention.

After the disaster that was 2013 for South African swimming, the community there seems to be re-energized and revitalized ahead of next week’s Commonwealth Games/Pan Pac Trials thanks in part to Bosch’s swim.

Wolverines’ Dylan Bosch Named Michigan Male College Athlete Of The Year by Detroit Athletic Club

May 04th, 2015

https://swimswam.com/wolverines-dylan-bosch-named-michigan-male-college-athlete-of-the-year-by-detroit-athletic-club/

University of Michigan junior Dylan Bosch has been named Michigan Male College Athlete of the Year by the Detroit Athletic Club (DAC).  This makes four years in a row that a Michigan Wolverine male student-athlete has taken home the honours, as Bosch follows wrestler Kellen Russell (2012) and graduated simmer Connor Jaeger (2013, 2014).  Former Michigan swimmer Davis Tarwater also was bestowed the honour back in 2006.

The South African Bosch was a key factor in the University of Michigan men’s swimming program’s success this past season, which included the squad winning its fifth consecutive Big Ten title as well as a third-place finish at the NCAA Men’s Championships.

Individually, Bosch earned five-time Big Ten champion honors, as well five-time NCAA All-American status.  For his efforts, Bosch was named 2015’s Big Ten Swimmer of the Year and Big Ten Swimmer of the Championships.   Over his career, Bosch has earned one national title (200y butterfly in 2014) and is an 11-time NCAA All-American.

Dylan Bosch's biography at the University of Michigan

He is from Johannesburg, South Africa. Born July 17, 1993 to parents, Leon and Annelie Bosch, he attended Crawford College, Sandton before joining the Michigan squad under Head Coach Mike Bottom. He is enrolled in the School of Kinesiology, studying as an open major. Bosch is the defending 2014 NCAA DI champion in the 200 butterfly, a race in which he shattered the NCAA, NCAA Championship, U.S. Open, and University of Michigan records. The NCAA and U.S. Open records were previously held by Michael Phelps and Tom Shields. Bosch was the no. seven recruit in the class of 2012 — he initially verbally committed to LSU, but he re-committed to Michigan just a few days later. He came into Michigan primarily known for his butterfly swimming, but his strength in the IM events has proven true — he’s consecutively finished in the top eight at the NCAA Championships. He was recently awarded the 2015 Big Ten Swimmer of the Year.

University of Michigan
2012-2013
In his first year at Michigan Bosch came out charging and finished the season as a three-time NCAA All-American. He finished third in the 200 butterfly, sixth in the 200 IM and seventh in the 400 IM. He was also named Big Ten Freshman of the Year after earning the Big Ten Freshman of the Week Award six times.

2013-2014
Bosch’s sophomore season was dominant, which included a national title and multiple record-breaking performance in the 200 butterfly, and a sixth and seventh place in the 200 IM and 400 IM. After the 2014 Men’s NCAA DI Swimming Championships, Bosch walked away as a six-time NCAA All-American.

2014-2015
In December 2015 SwimmingWorld declared Bosch one of five men to watch at the 2014 USA Swimming Nationals, where won the 200 butterfly and finished in the top three in both IM events. At the NCAA Championships Bosch finished sixth in the 400 IM, fifth in the 400 IM and placed third in the 200 butterfly in a heat stacked by Texas. He was a member of the 800 freestyle relay that finished fourth.

International Competition
Representing South Africa, Dylan Bosch has competed on the international scene. In summary, Bosch is an 11-time South African Junior National Medalist. In 2010 he swam at the Youth Olympic Games, and in 2011 he won a bronze medal in the 200m butterfly at the South African Senior National Championships. In the same year, he competed at the FINA World Junior Championships, finishing sixth in both butterfly distances.

At the 2012 South African Olympic Trials, Bosch touched the wall in second place in the 100m butterfly. Recently he won bronze medals in relay events at the 2014 Commonwealth Games and won the 200m butterfly at the 2014 South African National Championships.

Bronze medallists (L-R) Sebastien Rousseau, Dylan Bosch, Chad le Clos and Devon Brown of South Africa pose after the medal ceremony for the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final at Tollcross International Swimming Centre during day four of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games on July 27, 2014, in Glasgow, Scotland.

Myles William Brown was born on 21 May 1992 in Kloof, and he attended the Highbury Preparatory School and Kearsney College in Hillcrest. He swam under coach Graham Hill at Seagulls SC in Westville.

At the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Devon anchored the 2x200m freestyle relay with the fastest split of 1:47,61, to help South Africa win a bronze medal. This, and breaking Ryk Neethling's South African 400 and 1500m freestyle records count as his most memorable moments in swimming 

He competed at the 2014 World Short Course Swimming Championships, the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, and the 20016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

At the 2016 Summer Olympics, he competed in the 200 m freestyle and 400 m freestyle events. In the 200 m freestyle event, he finished 13th in the heats with a time of 1:46.78 and qualified for the semifinals where he finished 12th with a time of 1:46.57 and did not advance to the final.

In the 400 m freestyle event, he finished 12th in the heats with a time of 3:45.92 and did not qualify for the final.

The 4×200 m freestyle relay team which finished 10th in the heats and the 4×100m medley relay team finished 13th in the heats and did not qualify for the final.

(L-R) Bronze medallists Dylan Bosch, Chad le Clos, Sebastien Rousseau and Devon Brown of South Africa pose during the medal ceremony for the Men's 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay Final at Tollcross International Swimming Centre during day four of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games on July 27, 2014, in Glasgow, Scotland.

2012 KZN Awards evening - with Seagulls SC head coach Graham Hill

2016

Myles Brown trained really hard last year. He was eyeing individual medals in the swimming pool at both the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Fina short-course world championships (a 25m event) that took place in Doha, Qatar, in December.

When neither materialised, he was really disappointed – so much so that he decided to take a break from swimming. “The pressure and expectations [from within myself] got the better of me,” he tells me at a coffee shop in Westville, Durban. “I didn’t achieve what I wanted to do and it was quite a big disappointment for me. Straight after Doha, I took one and a half months off swimming.”

Brown spent that month surfing, playing golf and doing a lot of thinking. “A break is obviously not advisable for a swimmer, but for me it was necessary – to figure out why I was doing what I was doing and to regain my love and passion for the sport.”

The break seems to have paid off for the 22-year-old, if his performances at April’s South African National Aquatic Championships in Durban are anything to go by.

Brown dominated the freestyle events at the King’s Park swimming pool, speeding to gold in the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m freestyle races. On the first day of the championships, he set a new South African 400m freestyle mark of 3:46.08, breaking a record set by Ryk Neethling in 1999. Four days later, Brown broke the South African 800m freestyle record set by Troyden Prinsloo in 2009.

Beating Chad le Clos

In between he caused an upset, beating Olympic gold medallist Chad le Clos in the 200m freestyle final. How did that make him feel? “He’s a great racer; he’s one of the best swimmers in the world. It’s kind of special to have someone like that in the swimming pool that you can race and train with,” said Brown. He and Le Clos are coached by Graham Hill.

“To beat him was great; it’s a step in the right direction. Racing can go anywhere – you never know what’s going to happen on the day. Fortunately this time I got the better of him, but who knows? On the day it can go either way.”

Brown’s times in the 200m, 400m and 800m saw him qualifying for the Fina world long-course championships – which will be held in Kazan, Russia, later this year – in all three events.

When I point out that although he doesn’t have a Wikipedia page dedicated to him (yet), his name frequently featured on newspaper street posters around Durban during the championships, he grins broadly. “It’s been a nice response after the SA champs,” he says. “I’m still fairly new to the international scene. I only started making the senior teams in 2012.

“I wouldn’t say I’m one of the big names in SA swimming, but hopefully in the new year I can be one of them, along with Chad le Clos and Cameron van der Burgh.”

Brown seems to be a modest person. Although he says he wasn’t an especially good swimmer at primary school level, he was offered a swimming scholarship at Westville Boys’ High School – widely believed to be Durban’s premier training ground for schoolboy swimmers.

However, his parents wanted him to give equal attention to his academic performance, so he chose to accept a scholarship at Kearsney College, a private school situated midway between Durban and Pietermaritzburg.

Gap year

“I would get up at 4:30am and go for training, then go to school till 2:30pm, then head off to afternoon training,” he recalls. “By the time you came home it would be 6pm – but from a young age, my parents instilled in me some core values like determination and always putting in 100%.”

The perseverance paid off and he matriculated with six distinctions before registering for a BCom degree in 2011. At the end of the year, he and his parents decided it was time for him to take a gap year so that he could focus on getting to London for the 2012 Olympics.

But it was not to be – Brown didn’t qualify for London; something he considers a blessing in disguise. “I don’t think I was mentally ready. I was very new to swimming on an international stage. I didn’t focus on the negatives. I stayed at home and watched the Olympics, and we had a very good swimming team.

“That was one of the turning points in my swimming career. After that, I really picked up my effort and ended up qualifying for my first world short-course event in Turkey.”

In 2008, as a 16-year-old, Brown had watched his hero Michael Phelps reign supreme in the pool at the Beijing Olympics. “It was truly inspirational to watch him,” he says. “I’ve always wanted to go to the Olympics and compete. I think it’s a great honour, and the pinnacle of a sportsman’s career.”

Could Rio 2016 be the realisation of a long-held dream? He smiles. “It’s been a goal. I won’t say I get up every day and think of it, but I just want to try to have a really good year this year, and carry that momentum on to the Olympics next year.”

Dennis Ford was a South African freestyle swimmer. He competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 1956 Summer Olympics. He was born on 3 February 1931, in East London and died 1st January 2009. In 1994 he married 1956 Olympic medallist Moira Abernethy.

At the 1952 South African Swimming Championships held in Cape Town, Dennis won medals in all four of the freestyle events, including three silver. In 1953 he won three gold medals and one silver. At Port Elizabeth in 1954 he won the 220 yards and placed second in the 100, with a third place in the 440. In Pretoria the following year he placed second in the 220 and 440. 1956 saw Dennis winning third place in the 200m freestyle, and placing 4th place in the 400. He missed the 1957 nationals in Bulawayo (then already an elderly 26-year-old in full-time employment), while in East London in 1958 he was once again amongst the medals, finishing second in the 100m freestyle, behind 1960 Olympian Aubrey Bürer. He also finished 4th in the 200.

Dennis Ford took up swimming at the age of three, competed in his first race three years later, and joined the Transvaal team in 1950. Between 1951 and 1953 he won numerous Transvaal freestyle titles and broke many records. In 1952 he competed at four events at the Summer Olympics, three individual races (the 100, 400, and 1,500 freestyle) where he was eliminated prior to the finals, and the 4x200 m freestyle relay (alongside Graham Johnston, Peter Duncan and John Durr), where the team placed seventh. The following year he was South African champion in the 100, 400, and 1,500 m freestyle events. This led him to be selected for the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, where he took home a bronze medal in the 4x220 yard relay (with Johnston, Duncan, and Billy Steuart) and was eliminated in the heats of the 110 y freestyle.

Ford returned to the Olympics in 1956, this time participating in two events. He was eliminated in round one of the 100 m freestyle and was eighth in the 4x200 m freestyle relay with Duncan, Steuart, and Tony Briscoe. Ford retired from active competition in 1960, but continued swimming until shortly before his death from cancer on New Year’s Day 2009. He was also a proficient water polo player at the Transvaal provincial level and was involved in numerous other sports. His second marriage, in 1994, was to Moira Abernethy, a bronze medalist in the 4x100 m relay in Melbourne. Outside of athletics he was employed as an insurance company clerk and was active as a conservationist.

Dennis was a graduate of the King Edward VII school in Johannesburg and a long-time member of the Old Edwardian club where he swam and also played water polo. 

Dennis Ford had been elected President of the Old Edwardian Society in January 1990. Perhaps best known as a swimmer, Dennis also played rugby for Old Jeds and hockey for the Society. But it was at swimming that his name will forever be etched in the annals of Old Edwardians. He was a member of the Transvaal team from 1951 to 1959 and between 1951 and 1957. He went to the Helsinki and Melbourne Olympic Games as well as representing South Africa in the Commonwealth Games in 1954. Some record.

O

obituary from the International Swimming Hall of Fame

Dennis George Ford, Passes Away

Dennis George Ford, South African Olympic and Empire Games swimmer, was born on 3rd February 1931 in East London, Cape Province, South Africa, and passed away in Johannesburg on 1st January 2009 after a two-month battle with cancer.

Dennis Ford was Captain of the Transvaal Team that won the Ellis Brown South African Championship Team Trophy every year from 1953 to 1960. Ford, who competed in both the South African National Swimming and Water Polo Championships for many years, eventually became known as Dennis"Old Man River" Ford.

His swimmer-coach partnership with his one and only Coach, Cecil Colwin, started in 1950 and lasted a record eleven years. Dennis Ford was a member of the South African swimming Team at the: 1952 Olympic Games, Helsinki, the 1954 Empire Games, Vancouver, and the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne. Ford was a Member of the South African men's 4 x 200 metres freestyle relay team that finished in the final at both the 1952 Helsinki Olympics and the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Ford was South African Champion in 200 metres freestyle (1953), 400 metres freestyle (1953) and 1500 metres freestyle(1953)

Ford's coach, Cecil Colwin, who had seven of the eight swimmers selected for the 1956 South African Olympic team, was nominated by the Transvaal Province as Coach for the Melbourne Games but his nomination was refused by the South African Olympic Council on the grounds that Colwin was a professional coach and therefore ineligible.

Ford started his international swimming career in 1950 at the late age of 20 under the coaching of Cecil Colwin, who was then only in his second year as a professional coach. Colwin saw promise in the 6 ft 3 in youngster who had an easy 'run' to his crawl stroke, and encouraged him to train for the 1952 Helsinki Olympics, in which Ford was to compete two years later.

Ford's proudest swimming moment was winning a bronze medal at the 1954 Empire Games in Canada. Two years later, Ford swam in the Melbourne Olympics. Seven out of the eight swimmers in the Melbourne Olympic team were coached by Cecil Colwin, his four female swimmers coming third to the Australian and American teams in the 4 X 100 metres freestyle relay. One of the swimmers in that relay was Moira "Little Mo" Abernethy whom Ford was destined to marry in later years.

Dennis Ford also captained the Transvaal swimming team and held every provincial freestyle record during the 1950s. "He also played provincial water polo", said Moira, his wife of fourteen years. The two fell in love and married in 1994 after both their first marriages ended. Ford also played hockey, baseball, rugby, golf and bowls during various periods in his life, and continued swimming right up until he fell ill. His five children from his first marriage, two of them twins, have inherited Ford's affinity for water and are all keen swimmers and water polo players. Ford loved wildlife and spent as much time as possible in the wilds, working for the Endangered Wildlife Trust. Together with Clive Walker, Ford was one of the first people to collar elephants in the Kruger National Park.

Ford's lifelong friend Pat Cotter, whom he met in Grade One, described Ford as a strong, serious man with an underlying whimsical sense of humour. "Dennis was a man of integrity, and a popular all-round sportsman who was always willing to assist others," said Cotter.

Tributes to Dennis Ford:- From Billy Steuart, 1956 South African Freestyle Champion from 100 to 1500:- "I remember way back in 1951 when Cecil Colwin was training Dennis for the 1952 Olympics, Dennis did a workout at the King Edward School pool, in Johannesburg As a keen young swimmer then attending King Edwards School, I watched Dennis go through a gruelling session with Coach Colwin, and I came to realize how hard one had to work to be a good swimmer. I owe a great deal to Dennis who inspired me to be the same. Dennis was a great example for younger swimmers, because of his hard work, ethic and mature attitude. " (Note: Steuart joined Colwin's squad and became a direct successor to Dennis Ford when he won every South African freestyle title from the 100 to the 1500 in Durban at the South African 1956 Olympic Trials. Steuart later went on to swim for Michigan State University, where he won three NCAA freestyle titles.)

https://ishof.org/dennis-george-ford.html