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Jack Medica

Jack Medica, Noboru Terada and Shunpei Uto at 1936 Olympics
Personal information
Full name	Jack Chapman Medica
National team	United States
Born	(1914-10-15)October 15, 1914 Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Died	April 15, 1985(1985-04-15) (aged 70) Carson City, Nevada, U.S.
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Washington Athletic Club
College team	University of Washington
Medal record Men's swimming Representing the United States Olympic Games 1936 Berlin 400 m freestyle 1936 Berlin 1500 m freestyle 1936 Berlin 4×200 m freestyle

Jack Chapman Medica (October 5, 1914 – April 15, 1985) was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events.

At the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, Medica won a gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle and set a new Olympic record at 4:44.5, joining Adolph Kiefer as the only American swimmers to win a gold medal at the Berlin Olympics. He received a silver medal for his second-place performance in the 1,500-meter freestyle, recording a final time of 19:34.0. Medica also received a second silver medal as a member of the runner-up U.S. team in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay, together with American teammates Ralph Flanagan, John Macionis and Paul Wolf. The American relay team finished with a time of 9:03.0, behind the winning Japanese team.

After his retirement from competition swimming, brought on by World War II, Medica taught water survival for the U.S. Navy after his impaired vision kept him from enlisting. He went on to teach at the University of Pennsylvania, where he also coached the Penn Quakers swimming and diving team. He also taught incoming freshmen to swim, notoriously belaying their fears by saying "any damn fool can swim."

During his elite career, Medica won 10 Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) individual national titles and set 11 world records in distances ranging from 200 meters to one mile. His 200-meter freestyle record set in 1935 stood for nine years, and his 400-meter freestyle record of 1934 stood for seven years. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1966.

See also

• List of members of the International Swimming Hall of Fame
• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
• List of University of Pennsylvania people
• List of University of Washington people
• World record progression 200 metres freestyle
• World record progression 400 metres freestyle

References

1. ^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes, Jack Medica Archived 2012-11-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
2. Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games, Men's 400 metres Freestyle Final Archived 2012-11-11 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
3. Jim Daves; Tom Porter; W. Thomas Porter (November 17, 2000). The Glory of Washington: The People and Events That Shaped the Husky Athletic Tradition. Sports Publishing LLC. p. 107. ISBN 978-1-58261-221-8.
4. Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games, Men's 1500 metres Freestyle Final Archived 2012-11-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
5. Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, United States Swimming at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games Archived 2012-11-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
6. Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Swimming at the 1936 Berlin Summer Games, Men's 4 × 200 metres Freestyle Relay Final Archived 2012-11-10 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
7. ^ "Jack Medica (USA)". ISHOF.org. International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on February 16, 2015. Retrieved January 29, 2013.

v t e 1936 USA Olympic swimming team
Men's team	Jim Cristy Taylor Drysdale Peter Fick Ralph Flanagan Ralph Gilman John Higgins Arthur Highland Charles Hutter Jack Kasley Ray Kaye Adolph Kiefer Arthur Lindegren John Macionis Jack Medica Al Vande Weghe Paul Wolf
Women's team	Alice Bridges Iris Cummings Mavis Freeman Ann Govednik Bernice Lapp Olive McKean Edith Motridge Mary Lou Petty Katherine Rawls Elizabeth Ryan Dorothy Schiller Lenore Wingard

• 1914 births
• 1985 deaths
• American male freestyle swimmers
• World record setters in swimming
• Medalists at the 1936 Summer Olympics
• Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
• Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming
• Columbia Lions coaches
• Penn Quakers coaches
• Swimmers from Seattle
• Swimmers at the 1936 Summer Olympics
• Washington Huskies men's swimmers
• United States Navy personnel of World War II
• 20th-century American sportsmen