Fred Schmidt
 Schmidt at the 1964 Olympics | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Frederick Weber Schmidt |
| Nickname(s) | "Fred" |
| National team | United States |
| Born | October 23, 1943 Evanston, Illinois, U.S.[1] |
| Height | 6 ft 2 in (188 cm) |
| Weight | 185 lb (84 kg) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Butterfly |
| College team | Indiana University |
show
Medal record | |
Frederick Weber Schmidt (born October 23, 1943) is an American former competition swimmer. He was Olympic champion in 4×100 m medley in 1964, and bronze medallist in 200 m butterfly. He is a former world record-holder in men's 100-meter butterfly, holding the record from 1961 to 1962.
Swimming career[]
Schmidt began swimming competitively at New Trier High School in Winnetka, Illinois, and was part of one of the greatest high school swim teams, 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 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).[2] He also received a bronze medal for his third-place finish in the 200-meter butterfly, clocking a time of 2:09.3.
Schmidt held the world record in 100-meter butterfly (58.6 seconds) from August 20, 1961 to April 24, 1962.
Life outside competitive swimming[]
Schmidt later entered the U.S. Navy, became a SEAL, and participated in the recovery of several capsules in NASA's manned space flight program. In 1971, when Apollo 15 returned from the moon, Schmidt welcomed mission commander David Scott, also a former competitive swimmer, back to earth.[3]
Schmidt later moved to Guam, where he currently resides.
See also[]
- List of Indiana University (Bloomington) people
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
- World record progression 100 metres butterfly
- World record progression 4 × 100 metres medley relay
References[]
- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Fred Schmidt". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2012-11-13.
- ^ "1964 Summer Olympics – Tokyo, Japan – Swimming" Archived 2007-09-04 at the Wayback Machine – databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on April 29, 2008)
- ^ Collections Retrieved From The Vault. constantcontact.com
External links[]
Media related to Fred Schmidt at Wikimedia Commons- Fred Schmidt at Olympedia
- Fred Schmidt at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
show Olympic champions in men's 4 × 100 m medley relay |
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- 1943 births
- Living people
- American male butterfly swimmers
- World record setters in swimming
- Indiana Hoosiers men's swimmers
- Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- Sportspeople from Evanston, Illinois
- Swimmers at the 1963 Pan American Games
- Swimmers at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Medalists at the 1964 Summer Olympics
- Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States
- Pan American Games medalists in swimming
- Medalists at the 1963 Pan American Games