William Yorzyk

William Albert "Bill" Yorzyk Jr. was an American swimmer who won the first Olympic gold medal in the 200 metre butterfly, at the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne. He was born in Northampton, Massachusetts, and began as a weak swimmer who was rated a water risk when he entered Springfield College in 1950. Coach Charles Silvia trained him there, and together they developed the butterfly stroke, which was then just entering international competition. Yorzyk won the national outdoor 200 metre butterfly title four years running, from 1955 to 1958, and set eleven world records and twenty-three American records in his career. At the 1955 Pan American Games he took bronze in the 200 metre butterfly and gold in the 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay. After swimming he studied medicine at the University of Toronto and served as a physician in the United States Air Force Medical Corps.