Before there was Michael Phelps or Mark Spitz winning Olympic gold medals for the United States — there was Tarzan. Yes Tarzan, the fictional literary and film character who was raised by apes in the African jungle. This of course was Johnny Weissmuller, who played Tarzan in the films but was also a swimming superstar 100 years ago.
He won three gold medals at the 1924 Paris Olympics: the 100-meter freestyle, the 400 free, and the 4×200 relay. Weissmuller also won bronze in water polo in an Olympics that featured many stars including Paavo Nurmi. Weissmuller defeated Duke Kahanamoku in the 100 final after the famous Hawaiian — often called the “father of surfing” — had won gold in 1912 in Stockholm and in 1920 in Antwerp.
The 1916 Olympics were set for Berlin but canceled because of World War I. Adolf Hitler and the Nazis hosted the 1936 Berlin Olympics, where the torch relay originated. Weissmuller’s swimming brought fame, and his virile image got him cast in the “Tarzan the Ape Man” film in 1932 — the first of his 12 Tarzan films.
There was, of course, the signature Tarzan yell — akin to a yodel — and what the character’s creator Edgar Rice Burroughs described as “the victory cry of the bull ape.” Weissmuller won two more golds in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics and could have won a third had he not been pulled from the 400 to play for the water polo team. He set a world record in the 100 of 57.
4 seconds prior to the 1924 Olympics that stood for a d.