My Olympic Hero
With the 2024 Summer Olympics starting this Friday, the question arises-"Who will be the breakout stars or heroes this time around?” Will the phenomenal performances and gold medal wins come in gymnastics, diving, swimming, track and field, equestrian, weightlifting, or one of the many other sports the athletes from around
the world will compete in? The one to beat is Michael Phelps, with 28 gold medals in swimming (23 individual and five in relays), making him the most decorated Olympian ever. However, even though I have watched and cheered for Phelps through - out his Olympic career starting in 2000, he is not my favorite Olympian!
My hero is considered to be the first swimming super - star -Johnny Weissmuller. And even though I never ac - tually saw him swim in the Olympics since the first one he competed in was 100 years ago in 1924 in Paris, he set the standard high. In 1924, he won gold in the 100 m freestyle, the 400 m freestyle, the 4x200 m relay, and a bronze medal in the water polo competition. Then, in 1928, he won the gold in the 100 m freestyle and the 4x200 m freestyle, capturing five gold medals in his two Olympic appearances. He also set the world record in the 100 m freestyle in 1924 with a time of 58.6 seconds, breaking the minute barrier at the Games. Plus, in 1927, he broke his record with a time of 51.0 seconds that stood for 17 years. During his career, Weissmuller set 67 world records, much of his success due to his revolutionary high-riding strokes, flutter kick, and head-turning breathing. It is said his times would have been even faster since he swam before the flip turn was introduced in 1934. Even though Weissmuller has won fewer gold medals than more recent swimming icons, some experts still regard him as the greatest swimmer of all time. Plus, have you ever seen him wrestle a crocodile?
After his swimming career, Weissmuller became a movie star cast as "Tarzan, the Ape Man," in which he starred in twelve films between 1932 and 1948. Since I wasn't even born until the late 1950s, I learned about him in the 1960s when his black and white movies would be shown every Saturday morning. I was glued to the TV back then and I am glued to them now whenever one of his films are on TV.
In an earlier editorial, I stated when I was young that I had a few ideas about Johnny and Dad since the two looked a lot alike. I really thought Dad was Tarzan since Dad worked on Saturdays when the movies were shown. It made perfect sense to me! In school when we had to say what our parents did for a living, I even told my class - mates that Dad was Tarzan. He was either Tarzan or a secret agent, like James Bond, because Dad also did kind of looked like actor Sean Connery in his James Bond role in my young eyes!
