Date of Birth: 
About Graham Johnston (swimmer)
- Graham M.
- Johnston (born 10 July 1930 in Bloemfontein) is a South African swimmer who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics.
- Johnston graduated from the University of Oklahoma and has lived in the United States of America since 1958.
- He met his wife-to-be, Janis in 1952.
- The two married in 1955 and have five children. His father, a municipal pool manager, taught him to swim before the age of one.
- He also tried other athletic endeavors, lettering in five sports during his high school years.
- But the water was his true love and he achieved national success during high school with the following championships: South African National Junior Diving Champion 1946, 1947, 1948,South African National Junior Swimming Champion 1946, 1947, 1948,South African National Senior Swimming Champion 1948, 1949, 1950.
- Johnston won two gold and two silver medals in each of the 1950 and 1954 Commonwealth Games held in New Zealand and Canada.
- In 1952 he was selected to represent South Africa in the Olympic Games held in Helsinki.
- Johnston was one of the first foreign-born athletes to enjoy a full scholarship at an American college.
- He received a full scholarship for swimming at the University of Oklahoma where he achieved NCAA All-American status three consecutive years.
- Johnston retired from competitive swimming between 1956 and 1972.
- In 1973, at the age of 41 he returned to the sport and swam in his first Masters nationals in Santa Monica, California.
- In addition to Johnston's world records in short and long course, he holds six national short course records and seven national long course records.
- He also holds all national freestyle records in the distances ranging from 100 yards through 10K in the 65 to 70 age group.
- He has won the Waikiki Rough Water Swim eight years in a row (1993-2000).
- And he is the only person to hold all seven USMS national long distance records in any age group.
- In 1998 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
- At age 69 his 1650 yd.
- national record was just five seconds slower than the time that won him the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1950.
- Johnston won gold in the 200-meter free, 400-meter free, 800-meter free, the 400-meter IM and the 5k open water swim (in 67 degree water) at the World Masters Swimming Championship in Munich, Germany.
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