In honor of the Summer Olympics, we’re kicking off a theme week on Surprising Olympians! This week, we’ll be talking about some people you may not have known competed at the Olympic games, starting with Tarzan himself, Johnny Weismuller. Not only was he the most famous and longest-lasting screen Tarzan, but he was also an Olympic gold medalist in swimming!
Weissmuller contracted polio when he was 9 years old, and his doctor suggested swimming to help him recover from the disease. After taking swimming lessons, he excelled at the sport immediately. He began his competitive swimming career in 1921 and competed at the 1924 Summer Olympic Games in Paris. Weissmuller won 3 gold medals in swimming and a bronze in water polo there. Four years later, at the 1928 Summer Olympics in Amsterdam, he won 2 more golds. In all, he won 5 gold medals at the Olympics, 52 U.S. national championships, and set 67 world records. He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle in under a minute and the 440-yard freestyle in under 5 minutes. He ended his career having never lost a race. In 1950, the Associated Press named him the greatest swimmer of the first half of the 20th century.
Weissmuller became quite famous thanks to his swimming career. Following his retirement from the sport, he was cast in “Tarzan the Ape Man” in 1932. He starred in a total of 12 Tarzan films through 1948. He also originated the famous Tarzan yell, which was created with the help of recordist Douglas Shearer. He recorded Weissmuller’s yell, then manipulated it and played it in reverse. Weissmuller retired from the series after 1948’s “Tarzan and the Mermaids” but went on to appear in a long series of similar adventures as Jungle Jim. He starred as Jungle Jim in 16 movies over 8 years before retiring from acting in 1957.
Weissmuller died on January 20, 1984 at the age of 79. As his casket was lowered into the ground at his funeral, a recording of his Tarzan yell was played 3 times at his request.
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