Johnny Weissmuller

[Graham Williams]

Johnny (tarzan)Weissmuller was the greatest swimmer of all time and a true gentleman and hero. He was unbeaten for 7 years at ANY stroke over ANY distance that he swam. Once while training in a lake the day before a race a paddle ship turned over, johnny saved many lives by diving to the bottom and bringing them up, although exhausted he then went on to race and win the next day!!!
His autobiography is an excelent read (twice the hero) and his book although very dated is an interesting read (swimming the american crawl) and still has things in it that you can learn by. :king:

[geochuck]

Johnny Weissmuller.... was a friend of mine we met in Hamilton Ontario Canada in 1965. He was the official starter for the World Proffessional Marathon Swimming Federation for a couple of years and travelled the swim circuit with us. How come I know all the old time swimmers? I guess that's because I'm an almost old time swimmer.

George Park www.swimdownhill.com

[Graham Williams]

Wow, I would have liked to have met him and disscussed front crawl.

[NotVeryFast]

I read this article about Johnny a few weeks ago, and it certainly left me with the feeling that he could well be the finest swimmer ever:
http://www.ishof.org/65jweissmuller.html

Although he won Olympic golds with times that huge numbers of people can do today, he achieved what he did with none of today's knowledge of technique, training and nutrition. He would surely be an incredible swimmer today if he had been born at the right time.

[geochuck]

Johnny W

He used to give the Tarzan yell where ever he was a great swimmer for sure. He would pick up my baby daughter Linda and dance with her. He was fun at a party.

[GettingFaster]

That's what I like to hear, George, someone who's a complete legend AND knows how to party! :D But all that aside, he was totally awesome for his time.

[SearchforSpeed]

How come I know all the old time swimmers? I guess that's because I'm an almost old time swimmer.
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Did you ever meet Duke Kahanamoku? Any perspectives?
He was another swimmer ahead of his time, setting the standard for JW to beat, and I understand is a bit of a surfing legend. I liked his statue up at Freshwater beach in North Sydney.
PS Isn't it funny that we're now back in body suits like JW and DK? I bet DK used REAL sharkskin!

[typhoon]

Great article N.V.F,i would like to know what sort of training they used to do in those day's,even in today's money 48.5 for 100yrds equates to about 53 short course.

[geochuck]

Did you ever meet Duke Kahanamoku? Any perspectives?
He was another swimmer ahead of his time, setting the standard for JW to beat, and I understand is a bit of a surfing legend. I liked his statue up at Freshwater beach in North Sydney.
PS Isn't it funny that we're now back in body suits like JW and DK? I bet DK used REAL sharkskin! I met the Duke on the beach in front of the Royal Hawian hotel he was with a group of guys selling rides in outriggers, He was a good guy from the few minutes I was with him. He was still able to body surf and still swam as if he had never stopped training.

[attis765]

Both Weissmuller and Spitz are from Hungary!!!:wave:

[peterg]

Both Weissmuller and Spitz are from Hungary!!!:wave:

Are you sure? Charles Sprawson used them both as examples of the influence on swimming history of ethnic Germans.

[attis765]

Well,Mark Spitz's grandparents were hungarians,but they left Hungary after WWI.So he is just partly hungarian.

Johnny Weissmuller was born in Hungary.It's a little bit complicated since they-Trianon-tore Hungary apart after WWI-"Thank you"
His parents has a german heritage,but they were from Hungary too.
Just like Monica Seles,or Martina Hingis:They are both hungarians,but after WWI they-Trianon- erased the borders of Hungary-taken away 2/3 of the country and 5 million hungarian people became another countries citizens in a day...


Johnny Weissmuller (b. 6/2/1904, Szabadfalu (Freisdorf), Hungary, [awarded to Rumania after WWI], d. 1/20/1984, Acapulco, Mexico)
The one and only Tarzan and FIVE-time Gold Olympic swimming legend! "The greatest swimmer of all time"
Johnny was born Janos Weiszmueller in Szabadfulu (Freetown or in German, Freidorf), near Temesvar [now Timisoara after Rumanian annexation] in the Banat region of Hungary where many "Schwabians" / "Donauschwaben" / "Danube Swabians" or ethnic Germans had settled after the pullout of the Ottoman Turks in the 17th century. His parents were Peter Weiszmueller, a day worker from Varjas, and Erzsebet Kersch, of Szabadfalu (the name for Freidorf at the time). His Godparents were Janos Borstner and Katharina Erbesz. The Weissmuller family arrived in New York on the S.S. Rotterdam on Jan 26, 1905 when Johnny was three.

Johnny often claimed he was born in Windber, PA because of Olympic eligibility issues. Weissmuller was the winner of the 100m freestyle in 1924 and 1928 and a member of the winning 4x200m relay team in both years. He also won a bronze medal in the 1924 water polo competition at the Olympics. He broke three records at the 1924 Olympics in Paris. Weissmuller set 28 world records and such was his margin of superiority over his contemporaries that many authorities still rate him ahead of Mark Spitz as the greatest swimmer of all time. Because of the limited number of events available to Weissmuller, his Olympic record cannot be fairly compared with that of Spitz but the longevity of his records is a testament to his greatness. His 1927 world record for the 100 yard freestyle was unbeaten for 17 years, a remarkable length of time during a period of rapid development in the sport. From 1921-29 he won every free style race he entered. In addition to his Olympic Triumph, he won 18 Gold Medals at the USA National Championships (1921 - 1923,1925 -1928). Much of his success was due to his revolutionary high-riding stroke, flutter kick and head-turning breathing.

After modeling BVD's and successfully playing a fig-leafed Adonis, MGM took notice and invited for a screen test for the role of Tarzan. Weissmuller was chosen over 150 other applicants and went on to become the most famous screen Tarzan of all, playing the role in 12 movies between 1932 and 1948. After 1942 MGM had used up its options; it dropped Tarzan and Weissmuller who then moved to RKO and made six more Tarzans. After that he made sixteen programmed Jungle Jim (1948) movies for Columbia, finally retiring from movies to private businesses in Fort Lauderdale FL. Weissmuller died in Acapulco, Mexico after a series of strokes

[SwimmerMC]

Weissmuller was born in Timisoara, which was part of Austria-Hungary at the time and now is in Romania.

My Grandfather swam the final leg of a relay against an American team, he went in first and finished a country mile behind the american - who turned out to be Johnny Weissmuller. It was my favourite story from my Grandfather.

[cougar]

As a kid he was one of my heroes, also one of the reasons i became a swimmer, running around in my shorts yelling and jumping in and out of the local canal (cut). This sort of ties in to the Spitz v Phelps what if you threw Johnny into the mix?

[Juicy Lucy]

Johnny Weissmuller.... was a friend of mine we met in Hamilton Ontario Canada in 1965. He was the official starter for the World Proffessional Marathon Swimming Federation for a couple of years and travelled the swim circuit with us. How come I know all the old time swimmers? I guess that's because I'm an almost old time swimmer.

George Park www.swimdownhill.com


Not only an old timer. You were a pretty good swimmer yourself, George. You were in the same Olympic team as my old coach, Ken Williams. He always spoke highly of you.