Scott Jaffe

{{Infobox swimmer

| name = Scott Jaffe

| image =

| image_size =

| alt =

| caption =

| fullname = Scott Erik Jaffe

| nicknames =

| national_team = {{USA}}

| strokes = Freestyle

| club = Gator Swim Club, Waltham, Mass
Fort Lauderdale Swim Team (FLST)

| collegeteam = Harvard University
U. of California, Berkeley

| coach = Joe Bernal (Harvard)
Nort Thornton (Berkeley)

| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1969|4|29|mf=y}}

| birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts

| death_date =

| death_place =

| height = {{convert|6|ft|4|in|m|abbr=on}}

| weight = {{convert|185|lb|kg|abbr=on}}

| medaltemplates =

}}

Scott Erik Jaffe (born April 29, 1969) is an American former competition swimmer for the University of California Berkeley and an Olympic medalist. Jaffe won a bronze medal representing the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay.

Born in Boston on April 20, 1969, Jaffe grew up in Lexington, Massachusetts. He started swimming with the Chelmsford Gators, in Massachusetts, coached by talented Coach Joe Bernal, who would later coach Jaffe at Harvard. {{cite web|url=https://swimswam.com/controversial-former-olympic-coach-joe-bernal-dies/|title=Olympic Coach Joe Bernal Dies|website=swimswam.com|

access-date=3 December 2024}} Swimming with the Gator club at the age of 10, Jaffe competed in the New England 10 and under tournament at Brown University. Jaffe later attended Lexington High School, graduating around 1987."Jaffey, Sweeney, Take Gold", The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 27 July 1986, pg. 65 At age 16, representing Lexington High at the February, 1985 Massachusetts State Swimming Championship, Jaffe took only a third place in the 100-breaststroke with a 1:01.44, and a fourth place in the 200-yard individual medley with a 2:01.34, but had considerable improvement through the following year."Massachusetts Boy's State Swimming Championships", The Morning Union, Springfield, Massachusetts, 24 February 1985, pg. 67

Jaffe continued to swim and train with Waltham, Massachusett's Gator Swim Club during his High School years, when he took a third place in the 400 IM with a time of 4:01.45, and won the 800-yard freestyle relay at the Junior Olympic Championships in Orlando, Florida in April, 1986. Jaffe helped carry the Gator Swim Club to the team championship."Swimming, Junior Olympic Championships", Fort Worth Star Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, pg. 84

Breaststroke record

In July 1986, while still at Lexington High, Jaffe set an Olympic Festival record in the 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2:20.74, finishing the race with a five meter lead."Power Finish", The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, North Carolina, 28 July 1986, pg. 30 The record had been set in 1982, and was the first festival record broken in three years. Jaffe had been somewhat hampered in his training after breaking his arm playing soccer the previous summer."Cyclist Grabs Olympic Festival Gold", The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kansas, 27 July 1986, pg. 83 Jaffe also won a gold medal at the Olympic Festival in the 400-meter Individual Medley with a time of 4:35.80.Vega, Michael, "Pooling a Pair of Golds", The Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 28 July 1986, pg. 31 Earlier in the 100-meter breaststroke Scott finished second with a time of 1:07.04 to rival Seth Van Neerden who finished a second earlier. Neerden had swum against Jaffe before in the Junior Olympics."Olympic Festival, Swimming", The Berkshire Eagle, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 30 July 1986, pg. 30

1988 Olympic trials

Jaffe attended the 1988 Olympic trials in August in Austin, swimming in a 400 meter freestyle relay, but failed to make the American team. Disappointed, he stopped swimming for eight months afterwards."Meagher Breezes to Victory", The Charlotte Observer, Charlotte, North Carolina, pg. 105, 26 June 1988{{Cite web |title=Scott Jaffee|url=https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/51416

|website=Olympedia.com|publisher=Olympedia|access-date=July 6, 2023}} In the preliminaries of the 200-meter individual medley, swimming for the Bernal's Gators Swim Club, Jaffe placed 51 with a time of 2:10.69, failing to qualify for the finals."Swimming, U.S. Trials, 200 IM", Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, 14 August 1988, pg. 55 He placed 19th in the 200 breaststroke with a time of 2:20.67, with only the top eight making the finals."Swimming Olympic Trials, 200 breaststroke", Fort Worth Star Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas, 12 August 1988, pg. 41

College swimming

=Harvard=

He started college at Harvard University around the 1987-88 school year, where he won All American honors swimming in 1987 as a Freshman. Jaffe set records for Harvard in the 200-yard breaststroke, Individual Medley and freestyle. Jaffe's Harvard Coach Joe Bernal brought advances to the dolphin kick used in butterfly as well as the turns made in butterfly and backstroke which benefitted Jaffe's technique.

Jaffe left the Harvard team in 1988. Low on funds, he worked with a Cambridge bank,"Powers, John, Jaffe Ready to Make a Splash", Boston Globe, Boston, Massachusetts, 24 July 1992, pg. 61 and competed and trained with a Club team called the Boston Scrods, where he switched from a focus on the Individual Medley and breaststroke, to freestyle sprinting. The Scrods focused more on quality, technique, and stroke efficiency, rather than pure distance training. Composed largely of Harvard students and alumni, they practiced at Harvard's Blodgett Pool, and had no coach in 1989, but many outstanding swimmers, including Dirk Marshall, who co-founded and helped lead the team.{{cite web|url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1989/06/12/swimmers-get-hooked-on-scrod-style-training|title=Vader, J.E., Sports Illustrated, June, 1989, Swimmers Get Hooked on Scrod-Style Training|website=Sports Illustrated|access-date=}}{{cite web|url=https://olympics.com/en/athletes/scott-jaffe|title=Olympics.com, Scott Jaffee|website=olympics.com|access-date=3 December 2024}} In 2014, Marshall would receive the Kerry Brian Coaches Award from United States Masters Swimming for his work with Walnut Creek Masters in Walnut Creek, California in the San Francisco Bay area.{{cite web|url=https://www.openwaterswimming.com/coaches/dirk-marshall/|title=Open Water Swimming.com, Dirk Marshall|website=openwaterswimming.com|access-date=3 December 2024}} In the late 80's, Jaffe trained with Jack Nelson's Fort Lauderdale Swim Team (FLST), particularly when he was preparing for the Fort Lauderdale Open on June 24, 1989.

At the Fort Lauderdale Open, Jaffe placed third in the 200-meter breaststroke with a 2:27.78, and placed first place in the 400-meter freestyle with a 4:08.71, leading the FLST team to place second in the meet.Rodriguez, Ken, "These Guys are In the Swim", The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, 13 July 1989, pg. 432Robb, Sharon, "Nelson Toils at FLST comeback", South Florida Sun Sentinel, 25 June 1989, pg. 51

=U. Cal Berkeley=

Jaffe transferred to the University of California, Berkeley on scholarship in the fall of 1989, where he swam for the California Golden Bears swimming and diving team under Head Coach Nort Thornton. Thornton also acted as an Assistant Coach at the Barcelona Olympics when Jaffe attended in 1992."Nort Thornton, In Persuit of Olympic Gold", Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, 24 July 1992, pg. 68 At Berkeley, Jaffe became a frequent competitor, gaining endurance and speed by swimming all the freestyle distances from 50 to 1000 yards, and most of the relays. But he continued to excel in the 200 freestyle. In 1991, he was rated 17th in the 200 free-style globally, but was ranked 11th in the event in America. By the end of 1991, he had moved up to 5th in America in the 200 freestyle. By 1992 at the University of California Berkeley, he had won All-American honors three times."Scott Jaffee", The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, 23 July 1992, pg. 39

1992 Barcelona Summer Olympics

In the 1992 Olympic qualifiers, Scott finished fourth in the 200 meter freestyle with a time of 1:49.33 which was enough to make the Olympic relay team as the top six men qualify for the 4x200 freestyle relay. Earlier, he was fifth in the preliminaries of the event with a time of 1:49.65."Van Neerden Last", The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, pg. 167, 3 March 1992

Jaffe earned a bronze medal by swimming for the third-place U.S. team in the preliminary heat of the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay which qualified the United States Team for the finals. Jaffe swam in the first position in Heat 3 of the last qualifying round and received a time of 1:50.14 for his 200-meter swim.

In 1995, Jaffe worked as a financial consultant for Merrill Lynch in Burlington."Baker, Dick, Sport of Swimming Riding", The Republican, Springfield, Massachusetts, 16 July 1995, pg. 39

References

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20200417163902/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/ja/scott-jaffe-1.html Scott Jaffe] – Olympic athlete profile at Sports-Reference.com
[https://olympics.com/en/athletes/scott-jaffe Olympics.com, Scott Jaffee]
[https://swimswam.com/controversial-former-olympic-coach-joe-bernal-dies/ Olympic Coach Joe Bernal Dies]
[https://www.olympedia.org/athletes/51416 Olympedia Biography, Scott Jaffee]

Category:1969 births

Category:Living people

Category:American male freestyle swimmers

Category:Harvard Crimson men's swimmers

Category:California Golden Bears men's swimmers

Category:Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming

Category:Swimmers from Boston

Category:Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics

Category:Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics

Category:20th-century American sportsmen

Category:21st-century American sportsmen