George Harrison (swimmer)
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | George Prifold Harrison | |||||||||||||||||
National team | United States | |||||||||||||||||
Born |
April 9, 1939 Berkeley, California |
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Died | 3 October 2011 (aged 72) | |||||||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | |||||||||||||||||
Weight | 179 lb (81 kg) | |||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle | |||||||||||||||||
Club | Santa Clara Swim Club | |||||||||||||||||
College team | Stanford University | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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George Prifold Harrison (April 9, 1939 – October 3, 2011) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in three events. He competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where he received a gold medal as the lead-off swimmer of the winning U.S. team in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. Harrison, together with his American relay teammates Dick Blick, Mike Troy and Jeff Farrell, set a new world record of 8:10.2 in the event final.
Individually Harrison won a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the 1959 Pan American Games. He also held the world record in 200-meter individual medley (long course) from August 24, 1956, to July 19, 1958, and the world record in the 400-meter individual medley (long course) from June 24 to July 22, 1960.
Harrison studied at Acalanes High School, and in 1965 graduated from Stanford University, where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and was later inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame. He spent most of his career with Lee & Associates at Pleasanton, California, working in investment and industrial brokerage. At the time of his death, from complications during surgery, he lived in Moraga, California.