Adolph Kiefer

Adolph Kiefer was an American competition swimmer and inventor, born in Chicago on 27 June 1918 to German immigrant parents and living until 5 May 2017. He learned to race in Chicago and trained under Stan Brauninger and later at the University of Texas under Tex Robertson, who helped refine his backstroke hand entry. At eighteen he represented the United States at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin and won the gold medal in the 100 metre backstroke in 1:05.9, an Olympic record that stood for over twenty years until David Theile broke it in 1956. He was the first person to swim the 100 yard backstroke in under a minute, set world records in many backstroke events, and founded the swimming equipment company Adolph Kiefer and Associates in 1947.