The first Aberdonian to win an Olympic gold medal back in 1976, swimmer David Wilkie, has died at the age of 70.
He clinched gold at the Montreal summer games nearly 50 years ago and it was during these that he also won a silver and broke the breaststroke world record.
That record remained unbeaten for six years.
Aged 22 at the time, Wilkie was the first British male swimmer to win an Olympic gold for 68 years.
After his success, Aberdeen’s Lord Provost R. Lennox said: “We recognise the great service he has done to sport, the country and the city.”
Born in the Sri Lankan city of Colombo in 1954 due to both his parents – who hailed from Aberdeen – being stationed there, he returned to the north-east after his honours in Canada and declared “this is my home”.
It was in Sir Lanka that he first learned to swim and he spent many times at Bon Accord Baths in the Granite City when his family returned home to visit family.
At the age of 11, he was sent to Scotland and attended Daniel Stewart’s College in Edinburgh as a boarding pupil.
In 1969, Wilkie represented Britain for the first time internationally and a year later he broke the British record for 200-metre breaststroke, whilst going on to win his first medal at that year’s Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
A silver medal for 200m breaststroke followed at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich and a year later the 18-year-old started a swimming scholarship at Miami University in Florida.
During the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, the Aberdeen swimmer won two golds and a silver in breaststroke and medley contests at competition.
Title record still stands
In 1977, Wilkie received an MBE for services to swimming and five years later was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
Having retired from swimming in 1978, to this day he continues to be the only person to have held British, American, Commonwealth, European, world and Olympic swimming titles at the same time.
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