Bob Windle
Robert George Windle was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s. He won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal. Windle is the only male swimmer to represent Australia at the Olympics in all freestyle distances from 100 m to 1500 m. During his career, Windle set six world records and won six Commonwealth Games gold medals. He is the grandfather of Australian Olympic swimmer Adam Windle. He died in a car accident in 2009.
About Bob Windle in brief
Robert George Windle was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s. He won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal. Windle is the only male swimmer to represent Australia at the Olympics in all freestyle distances from 100 m to 1500 m. During his career, Windle set six world records and won six Commonwealth Games gold medals. He also won 19 Australian championships in all distances from 220 yd to 1650 yd. He was nicknamed Windle because of his thin and angular build, but fellow distance swimmer Murray Rose said he was the most thinly built elite swimmer that he had trained with. He retired after the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City and worked for Allis-Chalmers in the U.S. until his retirement in 2000. He is the grandfather of Australian Olympic swimmer Adam Windle. Windlle was born in Sydney on 7 November 1944, and grew up in the eastern Sydney suburb of Waverley. He trained at Enfield pool from the age of 12 and was selected for the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He dropped out of high school to attend a three-month training camp in Queensland with the Olympic swimming team. He switched tutelage to Don Talbot, who also coached John Konrads. Talbot motivated Windle’s frame and instilled a greater level of self-belief in him. He took between 45 and 47 strokes to complete a lap, while other swimmers needed only 35 to lap the lane. He competed in the 1966 British Empire and Commonwealth Games in Kingston, Jamaica, winning the 440 yd freestyle, 4 × 110 yd and 4 x220 ydFreestyle relays, all in world-record times.
He then moved to Indiana University, where he trained under Doc Counsilman. He later competed in his second Olympics in 1968, racing the 100 M and 200 m freestyle and the corresponding relays. In retirement, he worked in the United States, before being transferred to their Australian division. He died in a car accident in 2009. He has been described as a “tremendous swimmer” and “one of Australia’s most gifted and talented swimmers” by the Australian Swimming Association (ASA). He is also the father of Australian swimmer Michael Windle, who won a gold medal at the 2000 Sydney Olympics in the men’s 4×100 freestyle freestyle relay. He went on to win three individual titles in 1964 and proceeded to the Tokyo Olympics where he was eliminated in the heats of the 400 M freestyle after attempting to save energy for the final. In 1964, he won four individual national titles, adding the 880 yd event to the successful defence of his three titles. He made his international debut at the 1962 British Empire Commonwealth Games in Perth, winning gold in the 4 °220 ynd freestyle. In 1963, he competed in four individual national championships, winning silver and bronze in the 1650 and 440 yd freestyle respectively.
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This page is based on the article Bob Windle published in Wikipedia (as of Nov. 02, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
