Henri Salaun (squash player)

Henri Raoul Marie Salaun (born 1926, in Brest, France) is a French-born American hardball squash player (his paternal grandfather was the French admiral Henri Salaun). He is "widely considered one of the world’s most influential squash players."^[1]

He played high school squash at Deerfield Academy before playing college squash at Wesleyan University. He won the United States Squash Racquets Association (USSRA) national championships four times (1955, 1957, 1958 and 1961), and finished runner-up on five further occasions. He also won the inaugural US Open in 1954, beating the legendary player Hashim Khan in the final. Salauan also won "a record six Canadian Nationals (four in a row from 1956-59), a record seven Harry Cowles Invitationals, two Gold Racquets titles and a combined 26 USSRA age-group championships, a total which, like his 39 individual victories in the annual Tri-City (New York, Boston and Philadelphia) Lockett Cup competition, dwarfs that of everybody else."^[2] He adorned the cover of Sports Illustrated in 1958.

Salaun made his final appearance at the US national championships in 1966 when, just months shy of his 40th birthday, he reached the semi-finals. Since retiring from the top-level game, he has continued to play in veteran's events, winning numerous veterans titles.

Salaun was inducted into the USSRA Hall of Fame in 2000. He was inducted into Wesleyan University's Hall of Fame in the spring of 2008. Salaun graduated from Wesleyan in 1949. "At Wesleyan, Salaun earned All-American honors in soccer and competed nationally in tennis and squash. He studied languages, and joined the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity on campus."^[3]

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