| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Richard Michael McGeagh | ||||||||||||||
| National team | United States | ||||||||||||||
| Born | (1944-03-11)March 11, 1944 Los Angeles, California, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Died | September 9, 2021(2021-09-09) (aged 77) Hermitage, Tennessee, U.S. | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) | ||||||||||||||
| Weight | 185 lb (84 kg) | ||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Backstroke | ||||||||||||||
| Club | Los Angeles Athletic Club | ||||||||||||||
| College team | University of Southern California | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||
Richard Michael McGeagh (March 11, 1944 – September 9, 2021) was an American competitionswimmer andwater polo player in his youth, and later areal estate appraiser. He was best known for swimming the backstroke leg for theU.S. team in the preliminary heats of themen's 4×100-meter medley relay at the1964 Summer Olympics inTokyo, and establishing the Olympic record for a backstroke leg. The U.S. team won its preliminary heat and also won the event final, but McGeagh did not swim in the finals and was consequently not eligible for an Olympic medal under the rules in place at the time.
McGeagh was born inLos Angeles on March 11, 1944.[1][2] He attendedHerbert Hoover High School inGlendale,[3] where he won the 100-yardbackstroke event at theCIF Southern Section championships three consecutive times from 1960 to 1962.[4] He also established the national high school record for that event in 1961, with a time of 51.8 seconds.[5] He went on to study at theUniversity of Southern California from 1962 to 1967. He was involved in swimming and water polo for theUSC Trojans and received All-American honors in both sports. He won the 400-yard individualmedley at the1964 NCAA championships during hissophomore year.[3][4]
McGeagh participated in the1963 Pan American Games, winning a gold medal in the4×100 m medley relay.[6] He was also part of the American team that established the long course world record of 4:00.1 in the same event at a meet inOsaka that year.[3][4] He took a semester off in order to get ready for the1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.[4] He was selected to compete in the preliminary heats of themen's 4×100 m medley relay. Although McGeagh,Virgil Luken,Walter Richardson, andBob Bennett were described by theAssociated Press as "a second‐string team", they established an Olympic record of 4:05.1.[7] McGeagh's time of 1:01.1 was also an Olympic record for the backstroke leg of the relay.[4][5] He was ultimately omitted from the medal round and was consequently not awarded a medal.[4] This was because under the 1964 Olympic swimming rules, only swimmers who competed in the event final were eligible to receive a medal.[3]
McGeagh was married to Barbara for 55 years until his death. Together, they had two children: Michael and Karin.[3][4]
After retiring from competitive swimming, McGeagh became areal estate appraiser. He initially resided inLa Crescenta-Montrose, California, before moving to theNashville neighborhood ofHermitage, Tennessee, in 2013. He died of complications fromCOVID-19 in Hermitage on September 9, 2021, at the age of 77, during theCOVID-19 pandemic in Tennessee.[3][4]
| Men's team |
|  |
|---|---|---|
| Women's team | ||
| Staff |
| |
