Phil Whitten
Phillip Whitten (died 15 August 2026 at the age of 82) was a veteran U.S. Masters Swimming athlete and prolific author in the sport of swimming from Phoenix, Arizona. He was prolific author of 20 books, a freelance writer and blogger from Phoenix, Arizona. He has sat on numerous committees including serving as the Executive Director of the CSCAA and USA Swimming. He has written several important ground-breaking articles on pool swimming and hundreds of cover stories and articles in Swimming World Magazine where he served as its Editor in Chief.
Contents
Honors
He was inducted in the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame (IMSHOF) in 2005 and received the 2012 U.S. Masters Swimming June Krauser Communications Award.
Writing Career Highlights
- He served as the Editor-in-Chief of Swimming World Magazine and its sister publications, Swimming Technique and SWIM (Masters).
- He covered several Olympic Games and the top issues in the sport of competitive swimming for decades.
- He helped transition Swimming World Magazine from a print magazine to a digital publication.
- He wrote or co-authored 20 books including 17 books on swimming including The Complete Book of Swimming (Random House, 1994) and The History of Olympic Swimming.
- In the 1990s, he was one of the leading journalists to expose the systematic doping program of East Germany whose women dominated the sport during the 1970s. Whitten led Swimming World Magazine to publish the Stasi (Secret Police) files related to the GDR’s calculated doping program.
- He wrote extensively about Chinese doping and Title IX.
- In 1991, he published a study – conducted over more than a decade – that showed Masters swimmers did not experience the typical physiological decline of non-swimmers.
Swimming Career
- He has achieved 183 individual Top Ten swims at U.S. Masters Swimming with 7 All American honors.
- He was inducted in the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame.
- In the pool, he set numerous records as a Masters swimmer while he was a Masters board member outside of the water.
SWIMMER magazine contributions and references
o May / June 2011 Issue: "Legal Doping"
o March / April 2011 Issue: "Early Masters Swimmers"
o November / December 2010 Issue: "Swimming Without Air"
o July / August 2010 Issue: "Every Breath You Take"
o May / June 2010 Issue: "Do Swimmers Live Longer?"
o September / October 2009 Issue: Featured in "Phil Whitten"
o July / August 2008 Issue: Featured in "Swimming And Longevity"
o November / December 2006 Issue: Featured in "How Much Is Too Much?"
o September / October 2011 Issue: "Flippin' Out"
o July / August 2011 Issue: "What About Pigs?"
o July / August 2011 Issue: Featured in "Inspiration"
o March / April 2011 Issue: "To Air is Human"
o September / October 2010 Issue: "Swimmers Live Longer to Ask Questions"
o May / June 2010 Issue: Featured in "Aging Gracefully with USMS"
o January / February 2009 Issue: Featured in "Whitten Receives Schoenfield Award"
o January / February 2007 Issue: Featured in "A Good Day at the Races"
o July / August 2005 Issue: Featured in "International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame Inducts New Members"
External links
- In Memory of Phil Whitten: Understated, Cool, and Brilliant
- U.S. Masters Swimming SWIMMER Magazine
- U.S. Masters Swimming Fan Page
- U.S. Masters Swimming
- When Early Olympic swimming Was In The Open Water
- If Not Copacabana Beach, Then Where?
- The Swimming Evolution – From Briefs To Jammers
- U.S. Masters Swimming bio
- The Swimming Evolution - From Briefs To Jammers
- Adolph Kiefer Nomination For Presidential Medal of Freedom
- Pure And Simple, A Silver Lining For Alexander Popov
