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Gordon Downie (swimmer)

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Gordon Downie
Downie in 2013
Personal information
Full nameGordon Hunter Downie
National teamUnited Kingdom Great Britain
Scotland Scotland
Born (1955-03-03) 3 March 1955 (age 69)
Wisconsin, United States
Height1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Weight91 kg (201 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle
ClubWarrender Baths Club
College teamUniversity of Michigan
Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing Great Britain
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1976 Montreal 4x200 m freestyle
World Swimming Championships
Silver medal – second place 1975 Cali 4x200 m freestyle
Bronze medal – third place 1975 Cali 4x100 m medley

Gordon Hunter Downie (born 3 March 1955) is a British former competitive swimmer who swam in the 1976 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal as a member of the British 4x200-metre freestyle relay team.[1]

Biography

Swimming career

Although Downie was born in the U.S. state of Wisconsin, his father was Scottish[2] and he swam for Great Britain, Scotland, and the Warrender Baths Club in Edinburgh.[3][4] While attending the University of Michigan on an athletics scholarship, he swam for the Michigan Wolverines swimming and diving team in collegiate competition.[5][6]

Downie represented Great Britain at the 1973 World Aquatics Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia where he broke the Scottish record for the 200-metre freestyle.[3] The next year he represented Scotland at the 1974 British Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand. In 1975 he swam for Scotland at the 8-nations tournament in Prague, Czechoslovakia.[3] and won a silver medal at the 1975 World Championships in Cali, Colombia as part of the British 4x200-metre freestyle relay with Alan McClatchey, Gary Jameson, and Brian Brinkley. At the same championships he won a bronze medal as part of the British 4x100-metre medley relay with David Wilkie, James Carter and Brian Brinkley.[7] Apart from winning his bronze medal, he was sixth in the 200-metre freestyle at the 1976 Montreal Olympics when he set a British record that stood for six years.[8] He swam in the 1977 European Aquatics Championships in Jönköping, Sweden, and represented Scotland in the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.[2][3][6] Downie held both the Scottish 200-metre and 400-metre freestyle records for 10 years from 1972 to 1982.[8]

He won the 1975 ASA National Championship 100 metres freestyle title, the 1979 200 metres freestyle and the 400 metres freestyle in 1977.[9][10]

Downie was inducted into the Scottish Swimming Hall of Fame in 2014.[8]

Personal life

Downie graduated with a medical degree from Northwestern University in 1986.[11] In 2004 Downie was a doctor (pulmonologist) at The Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University[2] and in 2014 he was practicing in Mount Pleasant, Texas at the Titus Regional Medical Center.[11] He specialises in lung cancer clinical and research work.[8]

See also

References

  1. ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Gordon Downie". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 30 January 2012. Retrieved 5 May 2012.
  2. ^ a b c Hutson, Jeannine (27 August 2004) Physician, Bronze Medallist Reflects on Past Olympics Pieces of Eight, University of East Carolina faculty and Staff Newspaper, Page 8, Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d Gilmour, Jamie (1990). One Hundred years of Warrender baths Club. Macdonald Lindsay Pindar. ISBN 0951678701.
  4. ^ Staff (15 January 2013) Permanent wall exhibition to chart 125 year history of Warrender Swimming Club The Scotsman, Retrieved 24 january 2013.
  5. ^ Michigan the Olympics 1976 - Montreal
  6. ^ a b Lange, Ed (23 January 1975) Downie Swims for Blue... and Britain The Michigan Daily, Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  7. ^ Medallists at the FINA World Swimming Championships Archived 6 September 2015 at the Wayback Machine HistoFINA, Volume IV, Tome IV, Before Rome 2009, Retrieved 22 April 2013.
  8. ^ a b c d Gordon Downie Scottish Swimming, Retrieved 21 November 2014.
  9. ^ "Fox, Norman. "Swimming." Times, 26 May 1975, p. 9". Times Digital Archive.
  10. ^ ""Swimming." Times, 23 July 1977, p. 5". Times Digital Archive.
  11. ^ a b (2014) Dr. Gordon H Downie MD, Pulmonologist US News and World Report, Retrieved 21 November 2014.
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