Australian swimming great, Olympic gold medalist John Konrads dies at 78

John Konrads, who set 26 individual freestyle swimming world records and won an Olympic gold medal in 1960, has died, the Sport Australia Hall of Fame announced Monday. He was 78.

Konrads was born in Latvia in 1942 and moved to Australia with his parents, his two sisters, and a grandmother in 1949.

“As a swimming sensation in the 1950s and 60s, John Konrads dominated the world swimming scene, breaking every freestyle world record between 200 meters and 1,500 meters by the time he was 15,” Sport Australia Hall of Fame chairman John Bertrand said in a statement. “His career tally of 26 individual world records is an incredible record.”

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