 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Michael Jay Burton | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Iron Mike" | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | July 3, 1947 Des Moines, Iowa, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 154 lb (70 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Arden Hills Swim Club | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | University of California, Los Angeles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Michael Jay Burton (born July 3, 1947) is an American swimmer, three-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two freestyle distance events. [1]
When he was an eighth grader he was hit by a furniture truck while riding a bicycle with a friend. Earlier he loved to play football and basketball, but the injuries due to this accident made him abandon contact sports, and left swimming as one of the few fitness options. [2]
Burton graduated from El Camino High School. He won 10 AAU titles, and while at UCLA Burton was a NCCAA champion five times. [3] These included the 500 Free (1970), 1650 Free (1967, 1968, 1970), and 200 Fly (1970), which also became an All-American for these events. Burton was also a four-time Pac-10 champion, and helped lead the Bruins to the Pac-10 Championship Team Title in 1970. He entered the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame as a Charter Member. [4] At the 1967 University Games in Tokyo, Japan, he won a gold medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle, ahead of Russian Semyon Belits-Geiman. [5]
Burton won two gold medals in individual events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City: the 400-meter freestyle and 1,500-meter freestyle. [4]
Four years later at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, he became the only American ever to repeat as the 1,500-meter freestyle gold medalist, and he also recaptured the world record in the process. [4] Burton's repeat proved a stunning win: in the spring of 1972, Burton had been diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, and at the U.S. Olympic Trials had barely made the Olympic Team. The Olympic Trials were held in Chicago, Burton failed to make the Olympic team in the 400 freestyle event and the 200 butterflies. On the next to the last day of the Trials, he snuck into the finals of the 1500 when he finished eighth. Burton managed to be able to finish in third to make the team (at the time, a country could enter up to three athletes per event in swimming). [6]
At the Munich Games, Burton loved to start out fast and was the early leader even over Australian star Graham Windeatt. Yet, Windeatt fought back and regained the lead. Burton overtook Windeatt on the closing lengths, broke Rick DeMont's world record and won the gold medal for himself and the United States. [6]
The celebration in Munich of his historic repeat, however, was overshadowed by Mark Spitz's performance at those Games and by the terrorist attack on the Olympic Village, which occurred the day after his race.
Burton coached at The Evergreen Swim Team in Olympia, WA until 1997, and then at the Seahawks in Billings, Montana, at the local YMCA until 2007. [2]
His daughter Loni embarked on her own successful swimming career. She is one of two swimmers in NCAA history to win twelve individual titles. She performed the feat in three years as Division II swimmers are eligible to participate in four individual events versus three in Division I and III. [2]
He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1977. [2]
Vladimir Valeryevich Salnikov is a Russian former freestyle swimmer who set 12 world records in the 400, 800 and 1,500 metre events. Nicknamed the "Tsar of the Pool", "Monster of the Waves" and "Leningrad Express", he was the first person to swim under fifteen minutes in the 1500 m freestyle and also the first person to swim under eight minutes in the 800 m freestyle. He was named the Male World Swimmer of the Year in 1979 and 1982 by Swimming World.
Thomas Fitzgerald Dolan is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder.
Graham Claude Windeatt is an Australian former long-distance freestyle swimmer of the 1970s, who won a silver medal in the 1500-metre freestyle at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich.
John Pitann Kinsella is an American former competition swimmer for Indiana University, a 1968 Olympic silver, and 1972 Olympic gold medalist, and a former world record-holder in multiple events.
Bradford Paul Cooper is an Australian former freestyle and backstroke swimmer of the 1970s, who won a gold medal in the 400 m freestyle at the 1972 Summer Olympics. In that race he originally finished second by the smallest margin ever to decide an Olympic swimming final, but was later awarded the gold medal after the victor, American Rick DeMont, an asthmatic, was disqualified after his post-race urinalysis tested positive for traces of the banned substance ephedrine contained in his prescription asthma medication, Marax.
Thomas Michael Jager is an American former competition swimmer. He is five-time Olympic gold medalist in relay events, a two-time World Championship individual gold medalist for the 50-meter freestyle, and a former world record-holder in two events. Jager set the 50-meter freestyle world record on six occasions during his career. He held this record for over ten years from August 1989 to June 2000.
Ford Hiroshi Konno is a Japanese–American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in three events.
George Thomas Breen was an American Hall of Fame competition swimmer, four-time Olympic medalist in freestyle events, and world record-holder in three events. After retiring as a swimmer, he became a swim coach at the University of Pennsylvania and later the Jersey Wahoos Swim Club.
James Price McLane Jr. was an American competition swimmer, three-time Olympic champion, and a world record-holder.
Austin Rhone Clapp was an American competition swimmer and water polo player who represented the United States at the 1928 Summer Olympics and 1932 Summer Olympics.
Lawrence Bruce Hayes is an American former competition swimmer best known for anchoring the U.S. men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
John Maurer Nelson is an American former competition swimmer for Yale University, a 1964 Olympic medalist, a 1968 Olympic champion, and a former world record-holder.
Jerome Alan Heidenreich was an American competition swimmer for Southern Methodist University, a 1972 Munich Olympic champion, and a former world record-holder. He set six world records during his swimming career, all as a relay team member.
David Holmes "Dave" Edgar is an American former swimmer, 1972 Olympic champion, and former world record-holder. In a period of seven years, he lost only one 50-yard race, due to a faulty starting block. Excelling in the efficiency of his flip turn technique under the mentorship of Coach Ray Bussard at the University of Tennessee, many consider Edgar one of the greatest short course 50 and 100-yard sprinters of the 1970s.
Brian Stuart Goodell is an American politician, former competitive swimmer, two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events. He is a city councilman and former mayor of Mission Viejo, California.
Sean Thomas Killion is an American former competition swimmer for the University of California at Berkeley, and a 1991 Havana Pan American Games gold medalist, who represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics in the 400 and 1500-meter freestyle. While a student at U.C. Berkeley on July 27, 1987, Killion set a 15 year standing American record in the 800-meter freestyle with a time of 7:52.49. After his swimming career, he moved to the San Francisco Bay area in the 90's, where he worked in sales for Federal Express and Indeed Inc., later coaching swimming.
Susanne Jean Atwood is an American former competition swimmer, two-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in two events.
Lisa Rae Jacob is an American former competition swimmer who won two gold medals at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.
Semyon Viktorovich Belits-Geiman is a former Soviet freestyle swimmer. He set a world record in the 800 m freestyle, and won two Olympic medals.
Andrew Edward Strenk is an American former competition swimmer and Pan American Games medalist.
| Men's Team |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Women's Team | ||
| Staff |
| |
| Men's team |
| |
|---|---|---|
| Women's team |
| |
| Coaches |
| |
| 440 yards | |
|---|---|
| 400 metres |
|
| 1 mile |
|
|---|---|
| Intercalated Games |
|
| 1500 metres |
|
|
