David Wilkie (GBR)

Honor Swimmer (1982)

FOR THE RECORD:  OLYMPIC GAMES: 1972 silver (200m breaststroke); 1976 gold (200m breaststroke, silver 9100m breaststroke); WORLD RECORDS: 3 (200m breaststroke; 200m individual medley); AAU NATIONALS: 3 (100yd, 200yd breaststroke; 200yd individual medley); NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: 3 (100yd, 200yd breaststroke); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1974 gold (200m breaststroke; 200m individual medley), silver (relay); COMMONWEALTH GAMES: 1974 gold (200m breaststroke; 200m individual medley), silver (100m breaststroke); 1970 bronze (200m breaststroke); AMATEUR SWIMMING ASSOCIATION CHAMPIONSHIPS: 10 (100yd, 200yd breaststroke; 200yd individual medley); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1972 gold (200m breaststroke); 1973 bronze (200m individual medley); 1975 gold (100m, 200m breaststroke), bronze (relay); CANADIAN NATIONAL: 1 (200m breaststroke); SCOTTISH CHAMPIONSHIPS: 9 (400m freestyle; 100m backstroke; 110yd, 100m breaststroke; 220yd, 200m breaststroke; 200m, 400m individual medley); U.S. OPEN RECORD: 1 (200yd breaststroke).

Born in Ceylon and trained between his two Olympic Games at the University of Miami, David Wilkie is a Scotsman who likes warm weather.  He was Great Britain’s first swimming male Olympic gold medalist in 68 years (Hall of Famer Henry Taylor in 1907).  This versatile swimmer won Scot national titles in the 400 freestyle and 100 back; Commonwealth, European and American titles in the four strokes, 200 Individual Medley in which he also held the world record, but he was at his best with trademark bathing cap and goggles, bobbing through Scottish, British, U.S. AAU, NCAA, European, Commonwealth and Olympic breaststroke championships.  A silver for his second in the 1972 Olympic 200-meter breaststroke at Munich and a gold, silver and bronze at the 1976 Olympics in Montréal with every kind of a record achievement in between, labeled this flying Scot European Swimmer of the Year three times and British Sportsman of the Year.  Coached by David Haller in Britain and Bill Diaz in the USA, Wilkie retired after the ’76 Olympics to a successful new hobby in Masters Swimming, where he just naturally trained at his own pace and went right on winning.  He works in London with the Sports Aide Foundation, writes books, and works as British representative for Team Arena among other things.