Johnny Wismuller who won Olympic gold medals and was the Tarzan of Hollywood cinema .........

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He was the world's fastest swimmer in the early 20th century. Recognized as one of the world's greatest swimmers, this athlete claimed 6 Olympic gold medals in swimming and one bronze medal in water polo. Born on June 2, 1904, he was a German Johann Peter Wismueller aka Johnny Wismueller.
Johnny Wismueller's father was Peter Wismueller and mother was Elizabeth Kersh. Peter, who was a laborer, immigrated to America in 1905 in search of a job, when little Johnny was only seven. They settled in the Pennsylvania mining town of Winder. Taking a job as a miner, Peter struggled to provide for his family and a year later, Johnny's younger brother Peter (Junior*) was born.

Meanwhile, nine-year-old Johnny contracted polio. Doctors advised him to take up swimming as a remedy. Peter Wismuller got a job at a brewery in Chicago, so the Wismuller family decided to leave Pennsylvania and move to Chicago. The new life in Chicago appealed to little Johnny and he joined the Young Christian Association's sports club and became a member of its swimming team.
As a teenager, Johnny Lane attended Technical College but had to find a job before finishing school to escape the Wismuller family's financial hardships. Johnny had to work various jobs as a lifeguard at Lake Michigan and a lift operator at the Illinois Sports Club. In his free time he used to swim in the sports club swimming pool. The swimming coach of the Illinois Athletic Club was William Bachrak. Bachrak noticed Johnny's swimming style and offered to take Johnny under his wing and train him.
Johnny Wismuller won the 50-yard and 220-yard races at the 1921 US National Championships. Since a foreigner could not compete in the American Championship, he gave Pennsylvania as his birthplace and gave his brother Peter's date of birth as his birth date. Therefore, he could avoid the hurdle of representing the US Olympic team and obtaining a US passport.
On July 9, 1922, Johnny Wismueller broke the swimming record set by Duke Kahanamoku, a famous Hawaiian swimming champion, for the 100-meter freestyle. At the 1924 Summer Olympics, he won Olympic gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle events and the 400m relay. The American team he represented also won the bronze medal in water polo.

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