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Johnny Weissmuller: Paris Olympics
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Johnny Weissmuller (June 2, 1904 – January 20, 1984) was an American swimmer and actor. He was one of the world's best swimmers in the 1920s He won 5 gold and a bronze medal at the Olympics. He later played Tarzan in the series of movies in the 1930s. He played Tarzan for several movies, and had trouble getting parts in other movies because of this.
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Johnny Weissmuller (1904-1984), who played the role of Tarzan in films made during the 1930s, was one of the best swimmers of the twentieth century. He won five Olympic gold medals, set 24 world records, and won 51 AAU titles.
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After taking up swimming on the advice of a doctor due to his being a sickly child, Johnny Weissmuller became a champion swimmer winning five Olympic Gold medals, 67 world titles, and 52 national titles in the 1920s. However, it's for his acting as the first and best-known Tarzan in the cinema, and for his creation of the famous Tarzan yell, that he is most famous. Starring in numerous loved Tarzan films made throughout the 1930s and '40s, Weissmuller was ... known for publicized escapades with some of his five wives as well civic activities such as training Navy recruits in specialized swimming techniques.
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In addition to being a fine athlete, Weissmuller was good-looking, with broad shoulders, narrow hips, and long legs. He weighed 195 pounds and was six feet, three inches tall. He ... had a gift for entertaining crowds. Between serious swimming events, he often made the crowds laugh by doing comedy dives. After the 1928 Olympics, he became a professional swimmer, and performed at exhibitions all over the United States. In 1940, when he was 36, he broke his own 100-yard freestyle record, swimming the distance in 48.5 seconds.
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On July 9, 1922, Weissmuller broke Duke Kahanamoku's world record on the 100-meters freestyle, swimming it in 58.6 seconds. He won the title in that distance at the 1924 Summer Olympics, beating Kahanamoku on February 24, 1924. He ... won the 400-meters freestyle and the 4 x 200 meters relay. As a member of the American water polo team, he also won a bronze medal. Four years later, at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, he won another two Olympic titles.
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There, Johnny won three gold medals and set an Olympic record in the 400-meter freestyle - but that was only the beginning of his competitive swimming career. He spent the years between 1924 and 1928 winning every swimming event he entered internationally, and by the time the Olympics rolled around again in 1928 at Amsterdam, Weissmuller was one of the great athletes of the world, and was the American standard-bearer during the opening procession. He again won gold medals in all his events, capping off an incredible unbeaten streak which had lasted seven full years, and having nothing more to accomplish in sports, retired from competition the following year.
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