Johnny Weissmuller

Swimmer

• Born: June 2, 1904
• Birthplace: Freidorf, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Timişoara, Romania)
• Died: January 20, 1984
• Place of death: Acapulco, Mexico

Sport: Swimming

Early Life

Johnny Weissmuller was born János Weissmüller on June 2, 1904, in Freidorf, Austro-Hungarian Empire (now Timişoara, Romania). He grew up in Windber, a small coal-mining town in Pennsylvania. His father, a coal miner, developed tuberculosis and was unable to support his family. Johnny’s mother, an excellent cook, maintained the family through sales of her pies, cakes, and other bakery products. The father, unable to cope with his situation, took to drink and died when Johnny was sixteen.

Johnny began to swim at the age of eight. His mother hoped that swimming would be a good corrective for a mild physical weakness from which the boy suffered. The cure proved a spectacular success, and Johnny immediately demonstrated his inborn talent for swimming and love of the water.

The Road to Excellence

By age twelve, Johnny had taken up swimming seriously. He joined the local Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), along with his friends “Hooks” and “Hank” Miller, who later became noted competition swimmers. Johnny practiced for several hours a day and won local competitions. By age sixteen, he was ready to make swimming his first priority. To do so, he required the assistance of a first-rate coach.

Johnny found the person he was looking for at the Illinois Athletic Club. William Bachrach was the trainer of the U.S. Olympic team and coach of more national champions than anyone else. When Bachrach saw Johnny swim, he sensed a future world champion. A serious obstacle, however, stood in the way of Johnny’s immediate rise to the top. Johnny was almost entirely self-taught and had a poor technique. He needed to remake his strokes from the beginning, and the blunt Bachrach did not conceal from the young swimmer the immense difficulty involved.

In addition to talent, Johnny always possessed the determination necessary for a true champion. Under Bachrach’s guidance, he embarked on an arduous training program. Bachrach reduced swimming almost to an exact science and instructed Johnny in the proper manner of making each movement. Until Johnny was able to meet Bachrach’s rigorous standards, the coach kept him out of competitive racing. Although Johnny was eager to compete, he showed another trait of a true champion—he followed the advice of his coach exactly.

The Emerging Champion

Finally, Bachrach allowed Johnny to compete in a junior 100-yard tryout race in 1921. Although Johnny finished second, he lost only because his swim cap fell in front of his face, temporarily blinding him. Even with this obstacle, he came within one second of the world’s record. Because the race was only a tryout, it was not counted in Johnny’s record. Thus, he was still able to claim, at the close of his career, that he won every competitive race he entered. After this tryout, Johnny’s rise to success proceeded smoothly. Bachrach recognized that every swimmer needed to specialize, and he trained Johnny as a sprinter rather than as a long-distance swimmer.

In order to increase the attention paid to Johnny, Bachrach devised an unusual training stunt. He invited local businesspeople to watch Johnny train on the terms that they had to buy the young man lunch or dinner if he broke a world’s record. The publicity and the meals were invaluable. Even more important, Johnny had to break a world’s record every day. That was a task of surpassing difficulty; if Johnny achieved it, nothing could stand against his march to excellence.

Only one American swimmer, Duke Kahanamoku, was an effective challenge to Johnny. Kahanamoku was busily preparing himself for a third Olympic triumph. In 1922, Johnny went on an exhibition tour to Hawaii, where a match was scheduled between him and Kahanamoku. The ever-cautious Bachrach skillfully maneuvered Kahanamoku into canceling the race by first arranging for him to watch Johnny swim. When Kahanamoku timed Johnny and saw that his young rival had broken his world’s record, he pulled out of the race.

Continuing the Story

Bachrach was not afraid of Kahanamoku; he simply preferred to wait. The two rivals eventually clashed at the 1924 Paris Olympics, and the result was a complete triumph for Johnny. He won three gold medals and defeated Kahanamoku in the 100-meter race. He also won a bronze medal as a member of the U.S. water polo team. After his triumph at the Olympics, Johnny went on a successful European tour and engaged in a number of exhibition races.

The stories of champions after their rise to the top often take disappointing turns. It is easy for someone who has defeated all comers to assume that he is invincible and can dispense with further training. Johnny did not make this mistake. He continued his training just as rigorously as when he was an unknown teenager.

Johnny’s unbending persistence once more paid off at the 1928 Olympics in the Netherlands, in which he won an individual gold medal and a relay team gold. In the 100-meter freestyle, he broke his own Olympic record. After this, Johnny had no more worlds to conquer. He made a number of exhibition tours, including one to Japan, in which he refused an offer to become coach of the Japanese Olympic team.

Johnny could have decided to remain a competitive swimmer until the 1932 Olympic Games, held in Los Angeles, but he elected not to do so. His swimming had all been done as an amateur, and Johnny needed to earn a living. After his retirement from athletics in 1930, he achieved fame once more, this time as a film actor, especially for his portrayal of Tarzan in a series of films. After a long and financially successful life, he died in 1984.

Summary

Johnny Weissmuller perfectly illustrated the recipe for athletic excellence. Blessed with outstanding talent, he showed his willingness to endure years of grueling effort in order to reach the heights of success. Under the instruction of Bachrach, he practiced every detail of the proper swimming stroke for years. His efforts made him the world’s foremost swimmer during the 1920’s.

Bibliography

Fury, David. Johnny Weissmuller: Twice the Hero. Minneapolis: Artist’s Press, 2000.

Platt, Jim, and James Buckley. Sports Immortals: Stories of Inspiration and Achievement. Chicago: Triumph Books, 2002.

Ryan, Bob, ed. The Best of Sport: Classic Writing from the Golden Era of Sports. Toronto: Sport Classic Books, 2003.

Weissmuller, Johnny, and Clarence A. Bush. Swimming the American Crawl. 1930. Rev. ed. London: Putnam, 1937.

Weissmuller, Johnny, William Reed, and W. Craig Reed. Tarzan, My Father. Toronto: ECW Press, 2002.