Mike Burton

Michael Jay Burton, born on 3 July 1947, was an American swimmer who competed for the University of California at Los Angeles, a three-time Olympic champion and a onetime world record holder in two freestyle distance events, and he later became a swimming coach. After a childhood accident in which he was hit by a furniture truck ended his contact sports, swimming became one of his few fitness options and he won ten AAU titles at El Camino High School. At UCLA he won five individual NCAA titles from 1967 to 1970 under the coach Bob Horn. At the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City he won two individual golds, the 400 metre freestyle in 4:09.0, despite being sick, and the 1,500 metre freestyle in 16:38.9. Four years later at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich he became the only American ever to repeat as 1,500 metre freestyle gold medalist and recaptured the world record.