Don Schollander

Don Schollander

Personal information
Full name	Donald Arthur Schollander
Nickname(s)	"Don"
Nationality	United States
Born	April 30, 1946 (1946-04-30) (age 65) Charlotte, North Carolina
Height	1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight	79 kilograms (170 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Stroke(s)	Freestyle
Club	Santa Clara Swim Club
Medal record Men's swimming Competitor for the  United States Olympic Games Gold 1964 Tokyo 100 m freestyle Gold 1964 Tokyo 400 m freestyle Gold 1964 Tokyo 4×100 m freestyle Gold 1964 Tokyo 4×200 m freestyle Gold 1968 Mexico City 4×200 m freestyle Silver 1968 Mexico City 200 m freestyle Pan American Games Gold 1967 Winnipeg 200 m freestyle Gold 1967 Winnipeg 4×100 m freestyle Gold 1967 Winnipeg 4×200 m freestyle

Donald ("Don") Arthur Schollander (born April 30, 1946) is a former Olympic swimmer for the United States. He won total of five gold medals and a silver medals at the Summer Olympics. With four gold medals, he was the most successful athlete at the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Early career

Schollander was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and learned competitive swimming from his uncle, Newt Perry, who ran a swim school in Florida.^[1] As a boy, Schollander moved with his family to Lake Oswego, Oregon.^[2] Though his first sporting passion was football, he was too small to compete in high school football.^[3] Instead, he joined Lake Oswego High School's swim team, and in 1960, helped lead the team to an Oregon state swimming championship as a freshman.^[3][4]

Olympics

As a teenager in 1962, Schollander moved to Santa Clara, California to train under swim coach George Haines of the budding Santa Clara Swim Club.^[3] Two years later at the age of 18, he won three freestyle events at the AAU national championships.^[3] He made the U.S. Olympic team in two individual events and two relays. Months later, he won four gold medals and set three world records at the 1964 Summer Olympics, at the time the most medals won by an American since Jesse Owens in 1936.^[3] His success helped earn him the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States, and the AP Athlete of the Year, defeating runner-up Johnny Unitas by a wide margin.^[3] He was also named ABC's Wide World of Sports Athlete of the Year.

As an interesting aside, Schollander appeared on an episode of "To Tell the Truth", directly after winning his 4 gold medals.

College and Olympic swimming

Schollander attended Yale University and is a member of the Skull and Bones secret society and the Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) fraternity along with the future President George W. Bush.^[5] He was the captain of Yale's swim team, winning three individual NCAA championships.^[3] Schollander returned to the Olympics in 1968, winning the gold medal in the 4×200 meter freestyle relay, but finishing second in the 200 meter freestyle, the event that Schollander had considered to be his best.^[3] This was the first Olympics in which 200 meter swimming events were part of the competition.

Following the 1968 Olympics, Don Schollander retired from competitive swimming and moved on to other activities.

After swimming

Schollander was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965, at the age of 19.^[6] In 1983, he was one of the first group of inductees into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. He is also a member of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.^[7]

In 1971, he published his first book, Deep Water (ISBN 0720705428, with Duke Savage) chronicling his swimming, his teammates and coaches, and the behind-the-scenes politics of international swimming, especially the Olympic Games. He followed this book in 1974 with Inside Swimming (ISBN 0809289059, with Joel H. Cohen).

Schollander resides with his wife Cheryl in Lake Oswego, where he runs Schollander Development, a real estate development company. His gold medals are on display to the public at a Bank of America branch location in downtown Lake Oswego.^[2] Schollander has three children, Jeb, Kyle and Katie.^[8]

See also

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists

References

• sports-reference

1. ^ Smiley-Height, Susan (2006-07-05). "The Perry legacy lives on". Ocala.com. http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060705/OCALALIFE/60628007/1300/OCALALIFE. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
2. ^ ^{a b} "Notable Oregonians: Don Schollander". Oregon Blue Book. http://bluebook.state.or.us/notable/notschollander.htm. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
3. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h} Eggers, Kerry (2004-06-02). "Medal fatigue". Portland Tribune. http://www.portlandtribune.com/sports/story.php?story_id=25066. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
4. ^ "Fourteenth Annual Oregon Interscholastic Swimming and Diving Championships" (PDF). Oregon School Activities Association. http://www.osaa.org/swimming/records/1960.pdf. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
5. ^ Ferrey, Tom (2006-11-01). "A sporting blueblood". ESPN.com. http://static.espn.go.com/mlb/bush/family.html. Retrieved 2009-03-04. 
6. ^ "Don Schollander". International Swimming Hall of Fame. http://www.ishof.org/honorees/65/65dschollander.html. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 
7. ^ "Hall of Fame Roll of Honor Members". Oregon Sports Hall of Fame. http://www.oregonsportshall.org/inductee-members.html. Retrieved February 1, 2011. 
8. ^ Mason, Emily (November 2005). "Still Kicking". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 2007-10-19. http://web.archive.org/web/20071019001625/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4270/is_200511/ai_n15744099. Retrieved 2007-10-08. 

External links

• Wheaties Sports Federation video featuring Don Schollander

Preceded by R. Malcolm Graham Robert A. Griese Floyd Little James R. Lynch Alan C. Page Ricardo M. Urbina

Silver Anniversary Awards (NCAA) Class of 1993 Dick Anderson Bob Johnson Donna A. Lopiano Donald A. Schollander Stan Smith Wyomia Tyus

Succeeded by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Lee Evans Calvin Hill William C. Hurd Leroy Keyes Jim Ryun

Persondata
Name	Schollander, Don
Alternative names
Short description	American swimmer
Date of birth	April 30, 1946
Place of birth	Charlotte, North Carolina
Date of death
Place of death