Schollander, Donald A.
Swimming
b. April 30, 1946, Charlotte, NC
Schollander was the first swimmer to win four gold medals at one Olympics, but his career almost ended before it really began. He grew up in Lake Oswego, OR, where he was the top swimmer in his age group for two years before spending a month in bed with pneumonia when he was eleven.
When he began swimming again, he could no longer win races because of the layoff and because he had moved into a higher age group. Discouraged, he wanted to give up. But his father told him, "You can quit swimming if you want to, but it will be when you're at the top of your age group, not the bottom."
In 1962, Schollander tied the world record of 2:00.4 in winning the AAU national outdoor 200-meter freestyle. He also won that event in 1963, 1964, 1966, and 1967. Schollander was the outdoor 100-meter champion in 1964, 1966, and 1967, and he won the 400-meter freestyle in 1966. He was the indoor 200-yard champion five years in a row, 1963 through 1967, and the 500-yard champion in 1964.
Shortly after graduating from high school, Schollander won individual gold medals in the 100-meter and 400-meter freestyles at the 1964 Olympics, setting a world record of 4:12.2 in the 400-meter. He was also the anchor swimmer on the gold medal 4 by 100- and 4 by 200-meter freestyle relay teams. He might have won more medals, but he was unaccountably left off the 4 by 100-meter medley relay team and his best event, the 200-meter freestyle, was not on the Olympic program that year.
Schollander won the 1964 Sullivan Award as the nation's outstanding athlete and was named male athlete of the year by the Associated Press. He enrolled at Yale University after the Olympics, but won only one NCAA championship, the 1968 200-yard freestyle.
After winning a gold medal in the 4 by 200-meter freestyle relay and a silver in the 200-meter freestyle at the 1968 Olympics, Schollander announced his retirement, saying, "I'm finished with water--in fact, I may not take a bath or a shower for another two years." During his career, he had set eight world records in the 400-meter freestyle and nine in the 200-meter event.