Kevin Berry (AUS)

Honor Swimmer (1980)

The information on this page was written the year of their induction.

FOR THE RECORD:  OLYMPIC GAMES: 1964 gold (200m butterfly), bronze 9medley relay); WORLD RECORDS: 12 (200m, 110yd, 220yd butterfly); NATIONAL AAU: 1 (relay); COMMONWEALTH GAMES: 1962 gold (200m, 200m butterfly; relay); AUSTRALIAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 6 (100m, 200m butterfly); AMERICAN RECORDS: 1 (100m butterfly).

Australian press photographer Kevin Berry likes to take action pictures of swimmers.  He has been at home (and abroad) on both sides of the camera but he still has a way to go before his medal count for winning photography reaches that he set as an Olympic gold medal and world record holding swimmer.  Berry was a specialist in the finest sense. His 12 World Records, 2 Olympic medals (one gold and one bronze in Tokyo), 3 Commonwealth gold medals (Perth), 6 Australian Championships, and one American record were all in the butterfly stroke (24).  He was finishing Indiana University the year before Mark Spitz started.  Berry’s longest world record, the 200 meter butterfly set against Carl Robie in winning the Olympic title at Tokyo (1964), lasted a remarkable three years until broken in 1967 by (you guessed it) Mark Spitz.  Berry’s coaches were Don Talbot and “Doc” Counsilman.