Swimming World TV’s Brent Rutemiller sat down with John Mix of FINIS at the ASCA World Clinic in Anaheim, California about the Bob Gillett award that Mix received for an innovative product.

Mix talked about what it meant to him to win the award (0:40) and what it meant to win an award with Gillett’s name on it.

Gillett was a pioneer and leader in the application of underwater butterfly kicking in swim racing.  He was instrumental in the development of the mono-fin and making extended underwater breakouts a cornerstone of competitive racing. Gillett is probably most famous for leading Misty Hyman to her Gold medal-winning upset of “Madame Butterfly II” Susie O’Neill at the 2000 Olympics on O’Neill’s home turf in Sydney, Australia.

Gillett passed away in February 2017.

Mix talked about Gillett’s influence on the sport of swimming (1:49) as well as how he developed the mono-fin.

Mix won the award for the swim coach communicator (3:08), which is pretty self explanatory. Swimmers can use the product to hear their coach while they are in the water and it can help the athletes hear their coaches better while they are training.

Mix talked about what he was thinking when he first heard about the Bob Gillett award (6:39) and what was required of the award to be nominated.

John Mix also talked about the MP3 player that FINIS created (7:22) that helps swimmers listen to music, podcasts or audio books while they are in the water.

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