Biography Wikipedia
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Lance Larson (born July 3, 1940) In El Monte High School he set a CIFSS record in 1957 and 58 in Butterflies 100 yards in 55.5/54.6 seconds and also set another CIFSS record in 1958 in Freestyle 100 yards in 50.9 seconds..He is a American swimmer and Olympic champion. He competed at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where he received a gold medal in the 4 × 100 meter medley relay. He received a silver medal in the 100 meter freestyle.
Lance Larson was the first man in the world to go under a minute for the 100m butterfly. He was also the first high school swimmer to break the 50 second barrier in the 100 yard freestyle. He won his Olympic gold medal on the butterfly leg of the 400m medley relay with a split time of 58.0 seconds (a world record) at the 1960 Rome Olympics. An all-around swimmer at the University of Southern California in the four-stroke individual medley, the butterfly, and the sprint crawl, Larson won AAU Nationals in all three.
Larson is featured as a participant in one of the most controversial Olympic swimming finishes ever. John Devitt of Australia was listed as the winner of the men's 100 meter freestyle race. Results were decided by finish judges who relied on their eyes and did not use replays. Three judges were assigned to each finishing position. There were three official timers in 1960 for each lane and swimmer, all timing by hand. All three timers for Devitt, in lane three, timed him in 55.2 seconds. The three timers for lane four timed Lance Larson in 55.0, 55.1, and 55.1 seconds.
Former Olympic swimmer and FINA co-founder Max Ritter inspected the judge's score cards. Two of the three first place judges found that Devitt had finished first and the third found for Larson. Of the three second place judges, two found that Devitt finished second and one found that Larson was second. Ritter pointed out to chief judge Hans Runstrümer of Germany that the score cards indicated a tie. Runstrümer cast the deciding vote and declared Devitt the winner. However, the rules at that time did not provide for the chief judge to have a vote or give him the right to break ties. Ties were supposed to be broken by referring to the timing machine. The official results placed Devitt first and Larson second, both with the identical time of 55.2 seconds. The United States team appealed, bolstered by videotaped footage of the finish that appeared to show Larson the winner. The appeal jury, headed by Jan de Vries, also the President of FINA in 1960, rejected the appeal, keeping Devitt the winner.
Awards
Larson was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in Fort Lauderdale, Florida in 1980.
Current life
Larson, formerly married to Betty Lee Puttler (1940–2007) of Newport Beach, CA, has four boys. He was remarried in the late 1990s and has two adopted daughters. He lives in Southern California's Orange County and has owned and operated a dentistry practice in Orange, CA since 1979.