Olympic Media Guide 5/8/04 - sportcentric

MEN’S OLYMPIC FACTS●●●●●●●●●●The only male backstroker to win a medal was Herbert Haresnape with a bronze in the 100m in 1908.The only two men to make it to a Backstroke final since 1956 both came in 1980 when Douglas Campbellfinished 7th in the 200m and Gary Abraham finished 8th in the 100m event.Sydney broke a run of seven successive Olympic Games where Britain produced a breaststroking finalist.Britain has produced only three Individual Medley finalists and all those came in 1984 – Neil Cochran takingbronze, Robin Brew finishing 4th in the 200m, with Stephen Poulter finishing 7th in the longer event.The Medley Relay has produced just one medal – a bronze in 1980.Since 1980 when Philip Hubble (silver), Peter Morris (4th) and Stephen Poulter (8th) all reached the final ofthe 200m Butterfly only three other men’s finals have seen GB have two representatives – the 100m Breaststrokein 1992 when Nick Gillingham finished 7th and Adrian Moorhouse 8th; and the 200m Freestyle in Sydney whenPaul Palmer and Jamie Salter finished 5th and 6th respectively.Britain’s oldest swimming medallist was Nick Gillingham when he claimed a bronze in the 200m breaststrokeat the 1992 games in Barcelona aged 25.Adrian Moorhouse is Britain’s oldest-ever swimming gold medallist when he won the 100m breaststroke titlein Seoul at the age of 24.The oldest British swimmer to reach an Olympic final was Ronald Roberts who was almost 34 in 1956 whenhe was part of Britain’s 4x200m Freestyle Relay team that finished 6th.The most gold medals won by a British swimmer is four by Henry Taylor in the mile Freestyle (1906), 400mFreestyle, 1500m Freestyle and 800m Freestyle Relay (1908). Taylor also holds the record with eight total medals,adding a silver in the 400m Freestyle in 1906, and three bronzes in the 800m Freestyle Relay in 1906, 1912and 1920.12