David Berkoff
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Full name | David Charles Berkoff | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname | "Dave" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National team | ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Abington, Pennsylvania | November 30, 1966||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 154 lb (70 kg) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Backstroke | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Bernal's Gator Swim Club | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
College team | Harvard University | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
|
David Charles Berkoff (born November 30, 1966) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events. Berkoff was a backstroke specialist who won a total of four Olympic medals during his career at two different Olympic Games. He is best known for his powerful underwater start, the eponymous "Berkoff Blastoff".
At the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, he won a gold medal by swimming the backstroke leg for the winning U.S. men's team in the men's 4×100-meter medley relay in the event final. Individually, he also won a silver medal by placing second in the men's 100-meter backstroke event.
Four years later at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, Berkoff earned another gold medal by swimming for the winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the men's 4×100-meter medley relay. He also won a bronze medal by placing third in the 100-meter backstroke.
Berkoff was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 2005.[1]
See also
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
- World record progression 100 metres backstroke
- World record progression 4 × 100 metres medley relay
References
- ^ International Swimming Hall of Fame, Honorees, David Berkoff (USA). Retrieved October 29, 2012.
External links
- David Berkoff – Olympic athlete profile at Sports-Reference.com
- David Berkoff (USA) – Honor Swimmer profile at International Swimming Hall of Fame
- 1966 births
- Living people
- American male backstroke swimmers
- Former world record holders in swimming
- Harvard Crimson swimmers
- International Swimming Hall of Fame inductees
- Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic swimmers of the United States
- Sportspeople from Missoula, Montana
- Sportspeople from Philadelphia
- Swimmers at the 1987 Pan American Games
- Swimmers at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- William Penn Charter School alumni
- Medalists at the 1992 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1988 Summer Olympics
- Pan American Games silver medalists