Sacramento-area swim coach instructed eight Olympic medalists. This new book tells his story

Sacramento Bee Article BY GRAHAM WOMACK SPECIAL TO THE BEE Published MAY 04, 2023 shares the story about the women’s Olympic swim team’s coach Sherm Chavoor, written by Bill George in his latest book “Victory in the Pool” available for sale, click the link for details.

Sherm Chavoor, coach of the U.S. Olympic women’s swim team in 1968 and 1972, coaches at the Arden Hills Swimming and Tennis Club, where he trained champion swimmers for 30 years, in 1985. KAREN COE Sacramento Bee file

One of greatest sports stories to come out of Sacramento emerged from a Carmichael swim club where Sherm Chavoor coached eight Olympic medalists. He got his start after World War II, initially coaching at the YMCA. Later at his business, the Arden Hills Swim and Tennis Club, Chavoor coached greats like Mark Spitz, Debbie Meyer and Mike Burton. Though Chavoor has been dead for 30 years, his story is now coming to light with the release of a new book titled “Victory in the Pool.” “Chavoor was brilliant,” said the book’s author Bill George, a Granite Bay resident and former KCRA editor and public relations professional. “He said many times he was the only millionaire swim coach.”

George’s 233-page book recounts the story of one of Sacramento’s greatest claims to sports fame and the improbable man behind it. CREDITING CHAVOOR Chavoor could be hard-driving, having his swimmers log 15,000 yards a day in an era when this was unheard of. “Sherm was my best friend,” said Burton, a three-time Olympic gold medalist between the 1968 and 1972 Summer Games who now lives in Montana. “And together we revolutionized distance swimming.” Debbie Meyer, who now goes by her married name of Debbie Meyer Weber and lives in Reno, swept the 200-meter, 400-meter, and 800-meter freestyle events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City as a precocious 16-year-old.

Asked how much of her success was due to Chavoor, Meyer Weber said that some was due to Burton “because I always wanted to beat him” and that her parents also deserved some credit. But, she added, “Sherm is probably 90% of it.”

Debbie visited Bill, with her 3 gold medals, at his recent book signing event at Bill’s Donuts in Carmichael. Read More about that event here.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article273507465.html#storylink=cpy