Mike Burton (swimmer)
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Michael Jay Burton | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname(s) | "Iron Mike" | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National team | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Des Moines, Iowa |
July 3, 1947 ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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
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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.
When he was an eighth grader he was hit by a furniture truck while riding a bicycle with a friend. The accident caused injuries that made him have to quit contact sports. He loved to play football and basketball, but the accident made him want to be the best swimmer in the world.[citation needed]
Burton graduated from El Camino High School. 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.[1]
Burton won two gold medals in individual events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City: the men's 400-meter freestyle and men's 1,500-meter freestyle. 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. 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, qualifying seventh for the final and then finishing third to make the team (at the time, a country could enter up to three athletes per event in swimming).
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 the Seahawks in Billings, Montana, at the local YMCA until 2007 . 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.[citation needed]
He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1977.[2]
See also
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
- List of University of California, Los Angeles people
- World record progression 800 metres freestyle
- World record progression 1500 metres freestyle
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ International Swimming Hall of Fame, Honorees, Mike Burton (USA). Retrieved March 14, 2015.
External links
- Mike Burton – Olympic athlete profile at Sports-Reference.com
- Mike Burton (USA) – Honor Swimmer profile at International Swimming Hall of Fame
Records | ||
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Preceded by | Men's 1,500-meter freestyle world record-holder August 21, 1966 – July 7, 1968 September 3, 1968 – August 23, 1970 September 4, 1972 – August 5, 1973 |
Succeeded by Guillermo Echevarria John Kinsella Stephen Holland |
- Pages using Infobox sportsperson with module2 parameter
- No local image but image on Wikidata
- Pages using infobox swimmer with national team parameter
- Articles with unsourced statements from June 2015
- Pages with broken file links
- 1947 births
- Living people
- American male butterfly swimmers
- American male freestyle swimmers
- Former world record holders in swimming
- International Swimming Hall of Fame inductees
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic medalists in swimming
- Olympic swimmers of the United States
- People from Billings, Montana
- Sportspeople from Des Moines, Iowa
- Swimmers at the 1967 Pan American Games
- Swimmers at the 1968 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- UCLA Bruins men's swimmers
- Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics