Olympic Swimmers

Olympic swimmers are special men and women. An Olympic swimmer is someone who is willing to giver their all for their sport and their country. The roster of famous Olympic swimmers includes many such greats. The earliest American heroes of the pool came with the 1920s Olympic swimmers. This is when the famous Olympic swimmer and actor, Johnny Weissmuller began to set records. Weissmuller won gold in both the 100m and 400m freestyle in 1924 at the Paris Olympic Games. He also won in the Amsterdam Olympic Games in 1928 in the 100m freestyle in Amsterdam 1928. While Weissmuller was a 1924 Olympic swimmer, George Kojak his teammate shared gold with Weissmuller at the 1928 Olympic Games. Mark Spitz of the United States won seven gold at the 1972 Olympic Games in 2004, while fellow American, Michael Phelps won eight medals at the Olympics in Athens. The pictures of Olympic swimmers of this caliber grace many a Wall of Fame. Another great American swimmer, also a diabetic Olympic swimmer is Gary Hall Jr. At the 2000 Sydney Summer Olympic Games, he won four medals.

In 2004, Olympic swimmers from the United States came home with an impressive 28 medals: 12 gold, nine silver, seven bronze. Team USA broke several records including the 17-year old East German woman’s record for the 4x300 meter freestyle relay. In the medal standing for swimming, Australia came second and Japan third.

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Women Olympic swimmers did not become a part of the Olympic Games until 1912. In the 1920s, the women’s Olympic swimmers included two 1924 Olympic champions, backstroker Sybil Bauer and freestyler Ethel Lackie. These female Olympic swimmers, both Americans, came to the fore. Dawn Fraser of Australia won the 100-meter freestyle event at Melbourne (1956), in Rome (1960) and in Tokyo (1964). Madame Butterfly, Mary T. Meagher, an American, picked up three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles and a bronze and a silver medal in 1988 at Seoul.

There have been few black swimmers in the Olympics, particularly from the United States. The first black male swimmer to win a gold medal was Anthony Nesty from Surinam. The first Black woman to win a medal was Edith Brigitha of Caracao of the Netherlands. In spite of changing times, black swimmers in the 1996 Summer Olympics or any Olympic event are rare. Swimming is a Caucasian-dominated sport, particularly in the United States. Black swimmers in the 2004 Summer Olympics, however, included one American - silver medalist, Maritza Correria. There are several more hopefuls training, taking the first steps to become an Olympic swimmer or trying to make the 2008 Olympics in China.