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Fred Schmidt

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Fred Schmidt
Personal information
Full nameFrederick Weber Schmidt
Nickname"Fred"
National teamUnited States
Born (1943-10-23) October 23, 1943 (age 80)
Evanston, Illinois
Height6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight185 lb (84 kg)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesButterfly
College teamIndiana University
Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing the United States
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1964 Tokyo 4x100 m medley
Bronze medal – third place 1964 Tokyo 200 m butterfly
Pan American Games
Silver medal – second place 1963 São Paulo 200 m butterfly

Frederick Weber Schmidt (born October 23, 1943) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder.

He began swimming competitively at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois. He was part of one of the greatest high school swim teams ever, in 1961. The team won the Illinois high school championship, and various team members held every high school national record at the time. The New Trier High School team placed third in the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) championships that year behind the Yale and Indiana University teams. He then joined coach Doc Counsilman's Indiana Hoosiers swimming and diving team at Indiana University.

At the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, he received a gold medal by swimming the butterfly leg for the winning U.S. team in the men's 4×100-meter medley relay, setting a new world record of 3:58.4 with teammates Thompson Mann (backstroke), Bill Craig (breaststroke), and Steve Clark (freestyle).[1] He also received a bronze medal for his third-place finish in the men's 200-meter butterfly, clocking a time of 2:09.3.

He held the world record in 100-meter butterfly (58.6 seconds) from August 20, 1961 to April 24, 1962.

He later entered the U.S. Navy, became a SEAL, and participated in the recovery of several capsules in NASA's manned space flight program.

See also

References

  1. ^ "1964 Summer Olympics – Tokyo, Japan – Swimming"databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on April 29, 2008)
  • Fred Schmidt – Olympic athlete profile at Sports-Reference.com
Records
Preceded by Men's 100-meter butterfly
world record-holder (long course)

August 20, 1961 – April 24, 1962
Succeeded by