Johnny Weissmuller set 67 swimming world records in distances from 50 yards to 880 yards (the half-mile) – the track equivalent of a 100-yard dash to a two-mile run. He won 52 National Championships in all, and his record of 38 individual US National Championships stood for nearly six decades. He was the first swimmer ever to break the minute mark for the 100-meter freestyle and the first to break 5 minutes for the 440-yard freestyle; both of these were huge milestones. A few of his records in the most swum events in the world lasted for unprecedented and as yet unmatched numbers of years. And all of his performances were accomplished in the 1920’s, without a flip turn, modern lane markers or starting blocks.

His winning streak of more than eight years is legendary; in his entire amateur swimming career he never lost a freestyle competition, at any distance. To this day, few if any athletes have ever achieved this degree of total domination of their sport for such an extended period of time.

“Weissmuller won far fewer gold medals than more recent swimming icons such as Mark Spitz and Michael Phelps. But this was due to the limited number of events available to him. Given the margin of superiority he had over his rivals, some experts still regard him as the greatest swimmer of all time.” (from the official International Olympic Committee website)

He also won national championships in the now-defunct pentathlon event (5 swimming and diving events), won and set records in miles-long open water marathon races and even won an Olympic Bronze medal and a couple of National Championships in water polo. And on occasion he would compete in and break records for the backstroke events he didn’t even train for – “just for fun”, he would say.

A well-loved and humble celebrity, Weissmuller did more to promote and expand his sport’s reach than any other swimmer in the twentieth century. He personally taught thousands of people how to swim.

Johnny was also an extremely skilled diver, capable of executing classic high dives like the swan dive, jackknife, one and a half somersaults and the full gainer. Remarkably, the highest dive he ever did was at age 45 for a Jungle Jim film – 76 feet off a cliff into a river.

Weissmuller was a very good golfer who competed for nearly thirty years in every major Pro-Am Tournament on the planet. He was inducted into the Bodybuilders Hall of Fame, and he was also a great surfer and sailor!