{"id":102563,"date":"2014-08-02T13:35:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-02T20:35:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=102563"},"modified":"2014-08-03T08:16:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-03T15:16:32","slug":"how-did-george-dicarlo-win-400-free-gold-at-1984-olympics-but-lose-olympic-record","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/how-did-george-dicarlo-win-400-free-gold-at-1984-olympics-but-lose-olympic-record\/","title":{"rendered":"How Did George DiCarlo Win 400 Free Gold At 1984 Olympics But Lose Olympic Record?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Each day through August 4, Jeff Commings will take you back 30 years to the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, highlighting one of that day\u2019s swimming events that continues to be a benchmark for the current culture of the sport. A full list of medalists from that day\u2019s competition follows at the end of the article.<\/i><\/p>\n

Feature by Jeff Commings<\/i><\/p>\n

PHOENIX, Arizona, August 2. THOMAS Fahrner is probably the most famous Olympic swimmer whose name you probably don\u2019t recognize. For four years, his name was listed as the Olympic record holder in the 400 freestyle, but not among the names of the event\u2019s medalists.<\/p>\n

Three days before the heats of the 400 free, Fahrner was part of the epic 800 free relay<\/a> in which West Germany won the silver medal behind the Americans. Fahrner was picked as a medal hopeful in the 400 free, and in an effort to save energy for the final, cruised to a 3:55.26, good enough for ninth place and one spot out of the championship heat.<\/p>\n

Fahrner could only watch as American George DiCarlo blazed through the final to win in 3:51.23, which erased Vladimir Salnikov\u2019s record from the 1980 Olympics. It was a great moment for DiCarlo and the home crowd, who settled in to watch the \u201cB\u201d final mere minutes after DiCarlo\u2019s swim.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how Swimming World Magazine described Fahrner\u2019s consolation final swim:<\/p>\n

Barely had the tumult (from the championship final) subsided when Fahrner jumped in to begin his consolation final swim. He, too, wasted no time in showing his intentions: Fahrner\u2019s 100 split was 55.66, almost a full second faster than DiCarlo\u2019s. He was a half-a-second ahead of DiCarlo\u2019s time at 200 meters — nearly two seconds ahead of the consolation field \u2013 and seven-tenths ahead at 300. When he finished in 3:50.91, Spain\u2019s Juan Enrique Escalas was more than four seconds back, at 3:55.25 \u2013 and DiCarlo\u2019s record was history.<\/i><\/p>\n

\u201cI swam like bleep this morning,\u201d Farhner said, accurately. \u201cI decided then that I wanted to swim faster in the consolations than the winner. When I saw DiCarlo\u2019s time, I was convinced I could beat it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should have swum as hard as I could this morning,\u201d he said, \u201cinstead of trying to take it easy and just qualify.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Men\u2019s 400 free medalists:
\nGold:<\/b> George DiCarlo, USA (3:51.23)
\nSilver:<\/b> John Mykkanen, USA (3:51.49)
\nBronze:<\/b> Justin Lemberg, Australia (3:51.79, Australian record)<\/p>\n

Public video footage does not exist for Fahrner\u2019s swim, but here is DiCarlo\u2019s gold medal swim, as well as the valiant effort by American John Mykkanen to capture silver ahead of Australian Justin Limberg:<\/p>\n