This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0005556643 Reproduction Date:
Alexander Timothy McKee (born March 14, 1953) is an American former competition swimmer and three-time Olympic silver medalist. He was a successful medley and backstroke swimmer, and is often remembered for being a part of the closest Olympic swimming finish in history and the resulting rule changes regarding the timing of international swimming events. McKee is a Pennsylvania native who was raised in a family of swimmers, and had notable successes as a collegiate swimmer at the University of Florida.
McKee was born in Ardmore, Pennsylvania.[1] He was the fourth of nine children in his family; his father Alexander "Big Al" McKee was a former All-American for Ohio State University's Buckeye swimming and diving team in the late 1930s.[2][3] While McKee was a child, his parents moved the family to Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, so that he and his siblings could walk through a path in their backyard to the Suburban Swim Club to practice, where his father served as coach from 1962 to 1968.[2] Three of his brothers and two of sisters achieved some measure of national or international recognition as competition swimmers.[3] McKee graduated from Malvern Preparatory School in Malvern, Pennsylvania in 1971.[2]
After high school, McKee accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he swam for coach Bill Harlan's Florida Gators swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) and Southeastern Conference (SEC) competition from 1972 to 1974.[4] He followed his older brother Mark to Gainesville, where Mark McKee was an All-American swimmer for the Florida Gators from 1969 to 1971.[4] As a freshman in 1972, he finish fourth in the 200-yard backstroke, and fifth in the 400-yard individual medley, as the Florida Gators finished seventh overall at the NCAA men's swimming championships.[5] In his three years as a Gator swimmer, McKee was recognized as the SEC Swimmer of the Year in 1972, won six SEC individual titles, and received four All-American honors.[4]
After graduating from high school, McKee was chosen as a member of the U.S. national swim team for the 1971 Pan American Games in Cali, Colombia. He finished second in the men's 200-meter backstroke with a time of 2:07.9, earning his first silver medal in international competition.[2][6]
Following his freshman college season, McKee qualified for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team despite recovering from a bout of [12][14][15] It was the first and only Olympic swimming event ever decided on the basis of thousandths of a second.[16][17] Afterward, McKee attributed his second-place finish to a tactical mistake: he looked over his shoulder to see where Larsson was in the final leg of the race.[18]
At the 1972 Olympics, McKee garnered a second silver medal in the men's 200-meter individual medley (2:08.37), again finishing behind gold medalist Larsson, who set a new world record in the event (2:07.17).[19][20] He also placed fifth in the final of the men's 200-meter backstroke (2:07.29).[21]
After his junior year at the University of Florida, McKee left the Gators swim team to train full-time for the 1976 Olympics.[22] The 23-year-old McKee again qualified for the U.S. team in the 400-meter individual medley at the 1976 U.S. Olympic Trials.[22] At the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, he repeated his second-place performance in the men's 400-meter individual medley event, finishing behind gold medalist and fellow American Rod Strachan.[23] The times of both Strachan (4:23.68) and McKee (4:24.62) broke the prior world record in the event final, with Strachan setting the new mark.[23][24]
During the course of his career, McKee set six American records (short course 200- and 400-yard individual medley, 400-yard medley relay; long course 100- and 220-yard backstroke, 200-yard individual medley).[2]
McKee was inducted into the [12] McKee married his wife Courtney, a former competition swimmer, in 1998.[7]
University of Texas at Austin, State University System of Florida, Texas A&M University, Florida State University, Vanderbilt University
Aaron Peirsol, Roland Matthes, Krisztina Egerszegi, Natalie Coughlin, Missy Franklin
United States, Rome, Italy, China, Michael Phelps
Southeastern Conference, University of Florida, Florida, Gainesville, Florida, Summer Olympic Games
Montreal, Canada, 2010 Winter Olympics, Calgary, Elizabeth II
1972 Summer Olympics, Breaststroke, Medley swimming, Gunnar Larsson (swimmer), United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics
University of Florida, Breaststroke, Florida Gators swimming and diving, United States, Decatur, Illinois
1972 Summer Olympics, Olympic Games, United States, Swimming at the Summer Olympics, Pan American Games
Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics, United States, Swimming at the Summer Olympics, University of California, Berkeley, Ellie Daniel
United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics, 1972 Summer Olympics, Breaststroke, Sweden at the 1972 Summer Olympics, Swimming at the 1972 Summer Olympics