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Illustrated History of Olympic Swimming

By Mat Luebbers, About.com

7 of 10

Olympic Swimming, 1984 - 1988

Tracy Caulkins, USA 400m IM Gold, 1984 Los Angeles Olympics

Tracy Caulkins, USA 400m IM Gold, 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. She was the best swimmer of her era, but missed her prime due to boycott of 1980 Olympics

Tony Duffy/Getty Images
1984 - Los Angeles, and a pay-back boycott from the Soviet block countries. But just like Moscow, LA had plenty of fast swimmers, like Rowdy Gaines, Michael Gross, Rick Carey, and Alex Baumann on the men's side, and Nancy Hogshead, Carrie Steinseifer, Tiffany Cohen, Mary T. Meagher, and Tracy Caulkins among the women. Several of the 1984 game's swimmers had missed out on the 1980 games, when they may have been at their best. A swimmer named Dara Torres won a gold medal in the freestyle relays (no one knew that she would be back for more medals in 1988, 1992 and 2000 - and maybe 2008) The USA swam away with the most medals, 34, followed by our neighbor to the North, Canada, with 10.

1988 - The games moved across the Pacific to Seoul, South Korea and the return of the boycott teams to the games. The East German women (still on steroids and more) were tough to match - 22 medals - 10 gold, 5 silver, and 7 bronze medals (the East German men won 6 medals, for a total East German medal haul of 28). The highlight for the USA was Janet Evans, distance swimmer supreme, taking the gold in the 400 and 800 free and the 400 IM. The men's side was much more diverse, with swimmers from 8 different countries winning gold medals, including two by the USA's Matt Biondi (50/100 Free) and two by Hungary's Tamás Darnyi (200/400 IM). The US won 18 medals, coming in second in the count.

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