Don McKenzie

Who was Don McKenzie?

Donald Ward McKenzie, Jr. was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder.

McKenzie attended Indiana University, where he swam for coach Doc Counsilman's Indiana Hoosiers swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association competition during the late 1960s. He won an individual NCAA national championship in the 100-yard breaststroke while swimming for the Hoosiers.

He competed at the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, where he received a gold medal for winning the men's 100-meter breaststroke. He won a second gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the men's 4x100-meter medley relay. The first-place team of Charlie Hickcox, McKenzie, Doug Russell and Ken Walsh set a new world record time of 3:54.9 in the event final.

McKenzie was inducted as an "Honor Swimmer" into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1989. In 2000, he was inducted into the Indiana University Hall of Fame. He was also inducted, posthumous, into the Los Angeles Valley College Athletic Hall of Fame on June 25, 2011.

McKenzie continued to swim after the Olympics. He became a Masters swimmer with the Sierra Nevada Masters and held the men's 50-54 age group 100-yard national breaststroke record with a 1:01.02 in 1998. His record stood until 2010.