{"id":467724,"date":"2021-03-30T11:07:49","date_gmt":"2021-03-30T18:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=467724"},"modified":"2021-03-30T11:07:49","modified_gmt":"2021-03-30T18:07:49","slug":"filmmaker-john-l-mcleod-looking-to-go-beyond-in-telling-olympic-stories","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/filmmaker-john-l-mcleod-looking-to-go-beyond-in-telling-olympic-stories\/","title":{"rendered":"Filmmaker John L. McLeod Looking to Go \u2018Beyond\u2019 in Telling Olympic Stories"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filmmaker John L. McLeod Looking to Go \u2018Beyond\u2019 in Telling Olympic Stories<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a kid, John L. McLeod<\/strong> was entranced by the Olympics. Watching Bud Greenspan\u2019s features of the Games, there was a mystique in the Olympics of the post-World War II era that McLeod, growing up in Canada, was drawn into.<\/p>\n

It was enough to pull him into sports, to eventually inspire him to earn a place at the 1976 Montreal Olympics as a member of the Canadian water polo squad. But the memories that lasted most profoundly, and the ones he would think of long after his athletic career ended, were always mediated by the camera lens.<\/p>\n

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From “Conviction: The Steve Genter Story”; Photo Courtesy: Beyond Bronze, Silver and Gold<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cAs a kid, watching the Mexico City Olympics and seeing Bob Beamon<\/strong> make that 29-plus-foot jump and sort of pop up and skip around and then the next shot, he\u2019s on his knees with his head in his hands and he\u2019s being helped up by teammates because he\u2019s so overcome with emotion,\u201d McLeod said recently. \u201cThat is just drilled in my brain.\u201d<\/p>\n

It informs the filmmaker\u2019s latest project, a documentary series called \u201cBeyond Bronze, Silver and Gold<\/a>,\u201d which McLeod hopes to showcase a new generation of stories like the ones that once held him so in thrall.<\/p>\n

McLeod, who is looking for distribution for his short films, already has the first two mostly completed, both of which take place in the pool. The first, \u201cConviction: The Steve Genter Story,\u201d showcases the journey of American Olympic swimmer Steve Genter.<\/strong> Now 70, Genter was viewed as a favorite in the mid-distance freestyle at the 1972 Olympics until he suffered a collapsed lung several days before competition in Germany.<\/p>\n

Genter would battle through, against doctors\u2019 orders, and win three medals at a Munich Games best known for Mark Spitz\u2019s<\/strong> seven-gold-medal triumph in the pool<\/a>.<\/p>\n