Jane Katz (born 1943) is an educator, author, and world-class former Olympic competitive and long-distance swimmer. She has been awarded the Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur Certificate of Merit (2000) and the Lifetime Achievement Award from the US President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition (2014), and inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame (2011) and the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (2014).

Early life, personal life, and education

Katz was born in

Sharon, Pennsylvania Sharon is a city in western Mercer County, Pennsylvania, United States. The city, located along the banks of the Shenango River on the state border with Ohio, is about northeast of Youngstown, about southeast of Cleveland and about northwe ...

, and raised on the

Lower East Side The Lower East Side, sometimes abbreviated as LES, is a historic neighborhood in the southeastern part of Manhattan in New York City. It is located roughly between the Bowery and the East River from Canal to Houston streets. Traditionally an im ...

Manhattan, New York Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

, and is Jewish."A Final Father's Day Card to Dad From Dr. Jane Katz,"
''Swimming World Magazine''."Septuagenarian Jewish swimmer makes big waves,"
''The Times of Israel''."Dr. Jane Katz" » CUNY TV » City University Television
/ref> Her parents were Leon and Dorothea Katz."American swimmer makes a splash with 60 years of Maccabiah Games competitions,"
''The Times of Israel''. Her father coached the Lower East Side Neighborhood Association swim and track team, was a professor of electrical engineering technology, and with her mother wrote the electrical engineering book ''Transients in Electric Circuits''. Her father's parents were professional musicians Israel Katz and Ida Elkan Katz. She went to Seward Park High School on the Lower East Side, and then attended

City College of New York The City College of the City University of New York (also known as the City College of New York, or simply City College or CCNY) is a public university within the City University of New York (CUNY) system in New York City. Founded in 1847, Cit ...

in Manhattan, studying physical education and receiving a bachelor's degree in 1963."Jane Katz Extols the Benefits of Swimming for Fitness"
/ref> Katz earned a master's degree in Education Administration from

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

in 1966, and a master's in Therapeutic Recreation for Aging in 1972 and a Doctor of Education degree in

Gerontology Gerontology ( ) is the study of the social, cultural, psychological, cognitive, and biological aspects of aging. The word was coined by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov in 1903, from the Greek , ''geron'', "old man" and , ''-logia'', "study of". The fi ...

in 1978 from

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

. Since 1964, Katz has taught Aquatic Fitness and Safety at the

City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the public university system of New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven senior colleges, seven community colleges and seven pro ...

. She is a professor at

John Jay College of Criminal Justice The John Jay College of Criminal Justice (John Jay) is a public college focused on criminal justice and located in New York City. It is a senior college of the City University of New York (CUNY). John Jay was founded as the only liberal art ...

of the

, in the Department of Physical Education and Athletics, teaching fitness and swimming to New York City police officers and

firefighters A firefighter is a first responder and rescuer extensively trained in firefighting, primarily to extinguish hazardous fires that threaten life, property, and the environment as well as to rescue people and in some cases or jurisdictions also ...

since 1989. Katz resides in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. In April 1996 she married Herbert L. Erlanger, an attending

anesthesiologist Anesthesiology, anaesthesiology, or anaesthesia is the medical specialty concerned with the total perioperative care of patients before, during and after surgery. It encompasses anesthesia, intensive care medicine, critical emergency medicin ...

at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center, whom Katz had dated since the 1960s, at

Tavern on the Green Tavern on the Green is an American cuisine restaurant in Central Park in Manhattan, New York City, near the intersection of Central Park West and West 66th Street on the Upper West Side. The restaurant, housed in a former sheepfold, has been o ...

in Manhattan. Erlanger died in 2007.

Swimming career

Katz's father taught her how to swim at age two, and she competed in her first swim meet at age seven. She competed in the

1957 Maccabiah Games Twenty-one countries sent 980 athletes to compete in the 1957 5th Maccabiah Games, an international Jewish athletics competition similar to the Olympics. The opening ceremony on September 15, 1957, was held in Ramat Gan Stadium, with athletes para ...

at the age of 14, winning the 100m butterfly, winning a silver medal in the medley relay, and winning a bronze medal in the 400 m."Jane Katz Competing in Maccabiah Games 60 Years After Her First,"
''Swimming World Magazine''. She lamented the fact that she believed she had been a better swimmer two years earlier, at 12 years of age. At the

1961 Maccabiah Games The 6th Maccabiah Games were held in Tel Aviv, Israel in 1961, with 1,100 athletes from 27 countries competing in 18 sports. The Games were officially opened in an Opening Ceremony on August 29, 1961, in Ramat Gan Stadium by Israeli President Yitz ...

, she won the gold medal in the 100 m butterfly, and a gold medal in the 400 m relay. Katz was awarded the Ballinger Award as the outstanding senior woman swimmer in the Metropolitan Amateur Athletic Union in 1959, 1960, and 1961."Jane Katz Gains Swimming Niche,"
''The New York Times''. As a member of the

1964 Olympics 1964 Olympics refers to both: *The 1964 Winter Olympics, which were held in Innsbruck, Austria *The 1964 Summer Olympics The , officially the and commonly known as Tokyo 1964 ( ja, 東京1964), were an international multi-sport event held fro ...

United States

Synchronized Swimming Synchronized swimming (in British English, synchronised swimming) or artistic swimming is a sport where swimmers perform a synchronized choreographed routine, accompanied by music. The sport is governed internationally by FINA (the ''Fédérati ...

Performance Team in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.46 ...

, Katz helped pioneer the acceptance of synchronized swimming as an Olympic event. From 1974–87, she was the U.S. Masters Synchronized Swimming National Solo Champion. In 1989, Katz won gold medals in the Second World Masters Games in Denmark in the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500-m freestyle."The Power 25: Jane Katz"
/ref> In 1994, she won the 400-m freestyle in the 50 to 54 age group at the Fifth World Masters Championship in Montreal. By 2011, she had won 34 All-American U.S. Masters Swimming titles. At the 2013 Maccabiah Games in the Masters category Katz won 11 individual medals and two relay medals in the Masters category. At the 2017 Maccabiah Games, at the age of 74 her 15th Maccabiah, she won gold medals in both the 200m free and 100m back, as well as silver medals in the 50m free and 200m breast, as in total she medaled in eight Masters individual and relay events. She is still swimming competitively with the US Masters as of July 2021.

Honors and Halls of Fame

In 1976, Katz became the first woman to be admitted to the City College of New York Sports Hall of Fame. At the XXVII Olympiad in

Sydney, Australia Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and List of cities in Oceania by population, Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metro ...

, in 2000, Katz was awarded the Federation Internationale de Natation Amateur Certificate of Merit to honor her lifetime of "dedication and contribution to the development" of the sport of swimming. On March 27, 2011, Katz was inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in

Commack, New York Commack ( ) is a hamlet and census designated place (CDP) that roughly corresponds to the hamlet by the same name in the towns of Huntington and Smithtown in Suffolk County, on Long Island, in New York. The CDP's population was 36,124 at the 201 ...

for her pioneering athletic contributions to the field of aquatics. She was also inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame in 2014. In September 2014, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the US President's Council on Fitness, Sports, and Nutrition.

Books and DVDs

After being injured in a 1979 car accident when she was rammed by a drunk driver, Katz devised her own aquatic program to speed her rehabilitation.">"Learn More About Dr. Jane Katz And The Transformative Effects of Water,"
''Swimming World News''. From this experience she began creating a series of instructional books and videos. Among them is the DVD, "Swim Basics – Aquatics for Lifetime Fitness" (2005), and the books, ''Your Water Workout: No-Impact Aerobics and Strength Training From Yoga, Pilates, Tai Chi and More'' (Broadway Books, 2003) and ''Swimming For Total Fitness'', co-authored by Nancy P. Bruning (Broadway Books, 1993). She is the author of 14 books on swimming, fitness, and exercising in the water.

References

External links

Global Aquatics

United States Masters Swimming citation

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/31/sweat-making-the-water-a-comfort-zone/?scp=2&sq=jane%20katz&st=cse Sweat , Making the Water a Comfort Zone, New York Times July 31, 2010] {{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Jane 1943 births Living people Jewish American sportspeople Jewish swimmers 20th-century American educators 21st-century American educators American exercise instructors American women writers Writers from Manhattan Jewish women writers John Jay College of Criminal Justice faculty City University of New York faculty Teachers College, Columbia University alumni City College of New York alumni New York University alumni American female swimmers Swimmers at the 1964 Summer Olympics Olympic swimmers of the United States Sportspeople from Manhattan People from the Lower East Side People from Sharon, Pennsylvania Maccabiah Games medalists in swimming Maccabiah Games gold medalists for the United States Maccabiah Games silver medalists for the United States Maccabiah Games bronze medalists for the United States Competitors at the 1957 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 1961 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2013 Maccabiah Games Competitors at the 2017 Maccabiah Games Seward Park High School alumni 20th-century American women educators 21st-century American women educators American women academics 21st-century American Jews