Adolph Kiefer, 1918-2017

Adolph Kiefer, who won a gold medal in the 1936 Olympics, has died at the age of 98. From the Los Angeles Times:

Addolph Kiefer, the 100-meter backstroke champion at the 1936 Berlin Games who was America’s oldest living Olympic gold medalist in any sport, has died. He was 98.

He died Friday at his home in Wadsworth, Illi., about 50 miles north of Chicago, according to the International Swimming Hall of Fame. It said Kiefer had been hospitalized with pneumonia in recent months.

He had neuropathy that kept him confined to a wheelchair later in life, but he continued swimming because he could still stand in the water, according to the Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Kiefer became an Olympic champion as a 17-year-old in an Olympic-record time that stood for 20 years. He was also the first man to break 1 minute in the 100 backstroke, doing so as a high school swimmer in Illinois. He later competed for the University of Texas.

His accomplishments didn’t end there. After joining the U. S. Navy in 1942 at the age of 23 he redesigned the Navy’s swim training program. The Navy had been losing more men to drowning than to bullets and his “victory” backstroke was credited with saving many lives.

He went on to found a successful swimwear company. His company was the first to market a nylon swimsuit, he invented the kickboard, and his company introduced the world’s first turbulence-resistant swim lane. His company biography is here and his company’s obituary of him is here. They make interesting reading.

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