He coached Olympic swimmers Mark Spitz, Debbie Meyer, Mike Burton, Jeff Float, Susan Pedersen, John Ferris, Dave Fairbank, John Nelson and Ellie Daniel at Arden Hills Swimming and Tennis Club in Sacramento, California, which he founded in 1954 and coached through 1985.
[6] He was born near Hilo, Hawaii the son of a sugar cane worker, and his birth name was IIzikiel Correa.
After his honorable discharge he married and moved to Sacramento where he was a school teacher and part-time swim instructor at the YMCA in 1946.
When his swimmers saw a subsequent drop in their times and improvement in their technique, many programs adopted similar approaches as part of their training.
By 1967 swimmers Debbie Meyer, Sue Pedersen, Mike Burton and John Ferris were setting U.S. and world records.
His two Olympic swimming teams had dominated the world competition and helped establish the U.S. women’s program as the finest on earth.
His swimmers Mike Burton, Debbie Meyer, Susan Pederson, John Nelson, Ellie Daniel, and Mark Spitz won a combined 12 gold medals in the 1968 Olympics.
[14] Chavoor published a book co-authored with Bill Davidson titled The 50-Meter Jungle, which told part of his life story.
Chavoor sold Arden Hills in 1985 but continued training swimmers until his 1990 retirement from Sacramento's Rancho Arroyo Pool.