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Joel Ladd Thomas (born December 13, 1966) is an American former competition swimmer and Water Polo player for the University of California at Berkeley and a 1992 Olympic gold medalist in the 4x100-meter freestyle relay.

Thomas attended John Muir High School. He was honored with a selection as a second team All-League Water Polo player while competing for John Muir in January 1983.[1] In the Pacific League finals in May 1984, swimming for John Muir, Thomas set a league record in the 100-yard freestyle of 47.47. He would lower his times and remain an accomplished sprinter throughout his swimming career.[2]

U. Cal Berkeley

Thomas attended and swam for U Cal Berkeley, where he also played water polo as he had at John Muir High School. He helped the team win 1987 and 1988 NCAA Water Polo titles.[3] Swimming for Cal Berkeley, Thomas won the 100 freestyle competition at the Pacific 10 Conference Championships in the Spring of both 1988, and in March 1989, where he swam a 43.68 in Long Beach, California, leading Berkeley to a third-place finish behind powerful Stanford, and second place UCLA.[4]

Thomas tried out for the U.S. Olympic team at the 1988 Olympic Trials in Austin, Texas. Swimming in the 100-meter freestyle, he set a time of 50.69 in the preliminaries, finishing in 12th place and did not make the finals, as the top finishers were swimming under 50 seconds.[5] He also tried out for the 50-meter freestyle event, but swam a 23.74, placing 44th.[6]

Thomas swam for the U.S. National team between 1987-1992.[7] His singularly most impressive achievement in swimming is likely his win in the US Open on December 2, 1990 against Matt Biondi in the 100-meter freestyle, where he set a time of 50.46. Thomas was training with Coach Jack Nelson's Fort Lauderdale Swim Club in Fort Lauderdale at the time.[3][8] In December, 1990, while swimming the 200-yard freestyle event, Thomas also set a new 100-yard freestyle record of 43.77 at the Hall of Fame Trophy Meet in Fort Lauderdale, breaking the 15-year old record of Andy Coan set in 1975.[9] In 1990, Thomas led the U.S. National Team in a meet against University of Tennessee in Knoxville winning the 100-yard freestyle in 50.89, though it was not his fastest time that year, anchoring the winning 400-meter medley relay team, and leading off the winning 400-meter freestyle relay team.[10] In 1992, Thomas again swam in the U.S. Open placing third in the 100-yard freestyle with a time of 51.59.[11]

Pan Am Games, Universiade

At the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana, Cuba, Thomas won a gold medal as a member of the winning U.S. team in the 4×100-meter medley relay. Individually, he also received a silver medal for finishing second in the 100-meter freestyle event. In the 1987 Universiade in Zagreb, he won a gold medal swimming on the 4x100-meter freestyle relay team.[3]

1992 Olympics

Thomas represented the United States at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.[12] He received a gold medal for swimming for the first-place U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the men's 4×100-meter freestyle relay.[13] The combined time for the U.S. 4 x 100-meter freestyle relay team in the preliminary round 1 , heat 1, in which Thomas swam was 3:18.50, with a Final time, in which Thomas did not swim of 3:16.74, taking the gold and finishing ahead of the Combined Team of five former Soviet Republics, including Russia, which finished 1.2 seconds behind the American team.[3]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Whipple Given MVP", Monrovia News-Post, Monrovia, California, 2 January 1983, pg. 5
  2. ^ "Arcadia Dominates League Swim Finals", Monrovia News Post, Monrovia, California, 10 May 1984, pg. 13
  3. ^ a b c d "Olympedia, Joel Thomas". Olympedia.com. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  4. ^ "Stanford's Swim Depth Surfaces", The Peninsula Times Tribune, Palo Alto, California, 12 March 1989, pg. 26
  5. ^ "Swimming, U.S. Olympic Trials", The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, 11 August 1988, pg. 20
  6. ^ "Swimming, U.S. Olympic Trials", Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, 13 August 1988, pg. 68
  7. ^ "Olympics.com, Joel Thomas Biography". Olympics.com. Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  8. ^ "Swimmer's Sacrifices Paying Off", The Miami Herald, Miami, Florida, 4 December 1990, pg. 40
  9. ^ Rob, Sharon, "Pair of Coan Marks Fall After 15 Years," South Florida Sun Sentinel, 10 December 1990, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, pg. 30
  10. ^ "Pace, Thomas Win For U.S. National Team", South Florida Sun Sentinel, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 16 December 1990, pg. 51
  11. ^ Swimming, The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California, 7 December 1992, pg. 56
  12. ^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, Athletes, Joel Thomas Archived 2012-10-24 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 31, 2012.
  13. ^ Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports, United States Swimming at the 1992 Barcelona Summer Games Archived 2012-04-18 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved October 31, 2012.

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