It is easy to forget that Johnny Weissmuller, the most famous movie Tarzan of all, was also one of history’s greatest swimmers – an Olympic champion who set an incredible 28 world records.
It is easy to forget that Johnny Weissmuller, the most famous movie Tarzan of all, was also one of history’s greatest swimmers – an Olympic champion who set an incredible 28 world records.
Few people have lived the American Dream quite like him. His story, from child immigrant to champion athlete turned-movie-star, is itself like a Hollywood script.
Weissmuller’s Romanian parents emigrated to America shortly after his birth in 1904, settling in Pennsylvania and then Chicago.
At 16 Weissmuller joined the Illinois Athletic Club and established himself as a top-class swimmer. He was unorthodox – chest and head jutting out of the water and breathing at every stroke – but unusually powerful.
He was nicknamed “the human hydroplane” and the “Chicago whirlwind”.
In 1922 Weissmuller swam the 100m freestyle in 58.6 seconds, the first person to break the minute barrier.
A year later he won five titles at the national amateur swimming championships.
At the 1924 Paris Olympics, 20-year-old Weissmuller established himself as an all-time great, winning three golds in the 100m and 400m freestyle and 800m freestyle relay.
In 1927 he set a new record for the 100m freestyle that lasted 17 years and won two more Olympic golds in Amsterdam in 1928 before retiring in 1929.
A chance meeting with scriptwriter Cyril Hume at the Hollywood Athletic Club in 1931 led to a screen test for a film based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ best-selling book “Tarzan of the Apes”.
Metro-Goldwyn Mayer offered him a contract and in 1932 Weissmuller appeared in the first of 12 Tarzan movies. “Tarzan, the Ape Man” was an instant box office hit and Johnny and his echoing yodel passed into film legend.
His oft-quoted catchphrase “Me Tarzan, you Jane” was one he never actually uttered.
Weissmuller’s swimming feats were acknowledged by the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1965 and by the International Olympic Committee in 1983, the year before his death at a retirement home in Acapulco, Mexico.
Among those challenging him as history’s No1 swimmer is American Mark Spitz who won seven golds at the Munich Olympics in 1972.
He won a total of nine during his career and set 33 world records. During the same era, Shane Gould held every women’s freestyle world record from 100m to 1500m.
American Matt Biondi came close to emulating Spitz when he won five golds – setting four world records in the process – at Seoul in 1988.
The 18-year-old Australian Ian Thorpe then won five golds at Sydney in 2000. Aided by size 17 feet, he also won 11 world titles and broke 22 world records before retiring in 2006.
