Mike Bruner
 Bruner at the 1976 Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Michael Lee Bruner | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Mike" “Coach” | ||||||||||||||||||||
| National team | United States | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | July 23, 1956 Omaha, Nebraska, U.S.[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 161 lb (73 kg)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Butterfly, freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | DeAnza Swim Club[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | Stanford University | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Michael Lee Bruner (born July 23, 1956) is an American former competition swimmer, 1976 Montreal two-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two events.
Born in Omaha, Nebraska on July 23, 1956, Bruner grew up in Stockton, California, and started swimming around age seven. At 12, he won two events at the San Joaquin Swimming and Diving Championships in July, 1968.[2] By 14, he qualified for the American Athletic Union National Championships for the first time.[3]
High School era swimming
[edit]He attended and graduated from Stockton's Lincoln High School and represented their swim team at meets. By the summer of 1973, before his Senior year in High School, Bruner also swam for the Pacific Athletic Club, placing third in the 1500-meter freestyle at the Los Angeles Invitational Swim meet, with a time of 16:17.20, only seven seconds behind Rick DeMont's first place world record time of 16:05.17.[4]
By his Junior year, Bruner was rated as a High School All American in the 200 and 400-yard freestyle events.[5][6][7] By his Senior year at Stockton, Bruner had already recorded a time for the 1650-yard freestyle of 15:15.5, an American Record, and had a 500-yard freestyle time of 4:25.81. Both times were faster than the 1974 National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) winning times in those events, with his 1650-yard time a full ten seconds faster. As a top recruit, he signed a letter of intent for Stanford by May, 1974.[8]
After being accepted to Stanford University for the Fall of 1974, he began swimming with the De Anza Swim Club, currently known as DACA, after a move to Cupertino.[7]
Stanford University
[edit]Bruner attended and swam for Stanford University, under Hall of Fame Head Coach James Gaughran, beginning in the Fall of 1974. He graduated from Stanford in 1979.[9] In one of his first Stanford meets at the Stanford Invitational Championships on November 29, 1974, he broke the pool and school record for the 500-yard freestyle event with a time of 4:32.2.[10][7] During his Stanford career, Bruner won two NCAA national championship titles with one in the 1650-yard freestyle, and one in the 200-yard butterfly.[3]
1976 Olympic gold medals
[edit]At the 1976 Montreal Olympics he won gold medals in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay and in the 200-meter butterfly, setting a world record in both events.[11] Two years later he won the 1978 World Championships in the 200 m butterfly. During his career Bruner set two world records: in the 200-meter butterfly (1:59.23) and in relay.
Bruner performed well and was a high point scorer at the 1980 Olympic trials for the Moscow Olympics, qualifying first or second in three events, but was unable to compete due to the U.S. boycott of the games.[12]
Bruner at one time held two American records, one in the 1650-yard freestyle, and one in the 200-yd butterfly. Primarily a freestyle distance specialist, he captured seven AAU National championship titles in four events, the 400-meter, 1500-meter, 1650-yard freestyle, and 200-meter butterfly.[3]
By 1980, Bruner served as a partner with MacFarlane Partners, an investment management firm that managed assets in real estate for pension plans. At the time, his wife Melanie and he were active in the Cupertino schools, where they and their three sons resided.[7] In 2000, Bruner served as the Board President of the Bay Areas Sport Organizing Committee, a non-profit that supported sporting events in the San Francisco Bay area and was making a bid to host the U.S. Olympics.[13]
Honors
[edit]Swimming World Magazine named Bruner its American swimmer of the year in 1980. In a highly distinctive honor, he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1988.[12] He was made a member of the Stanford University Athletic Hall of Fame in 1982, was a J.H. Kiphuth Award recipient in 1980.[3] The J.H. Kiphuth Award is the high-point award given at the United States' Swimming National Championships named in honor of 40-year Yale swim coach Robert John H. Kiphuth.[14]
See also
[edit]
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
- List of Stanford University people
- List of World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming (men)
- World record progression 200 metres butterfly
- World record progression 4 × 200 metres freestyle relay
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Mike Bruner at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- ^ "Many Star Performers at S.J. Swimming Meet", Stockton Evening and Sunday Record, Stockton, California, 29 July 1968, pg. 30
- ^ a b c d {{cite web|url=https://ishof.org/happy-birthday-mike-bruner-2/%7Ctitle="Happy Birthday, Mark Bruner, Mike Bruner USA Biography|webpage=ishof.org|access-date=19 September 2024
- ^ "DeMont Collects Third Win", Press-Telegram, Long Beach, California, 5 August 1973, pg. 56
- ^ "Lincoln Captures Relays", Tracy Press, Tracy, California, 16 April 1973, pg. 7
- ^ "15 All-Americans Here for Subsection Swim", Tracy Press, 4 May 1973, pg. 8
- ^ a b c d {{cite web|url=https://basoc.org/basoc2012/board_bruner_m.html%7Ctitle=BASOC, The Board, Mike Bruner, Biography|website=basoc.org|access-date=19 September 2024
- ^ "Cards Sign Top U.S. Prep Star", The San Francisco Examiner, San Francisco, California, 4 May 1974
- ^ "Heavy Medal for Gaughran Swimmers", The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho, 26 July 1984, pg. 39
- ^ "Impressive Start for Swimmer", The Peninsula Times Tribune, Palo Alto, California, 30 November 1974, pg. 13
- ^ "1976 Olympics – Montreal, Canada – Swimming" Archived 2010-12-25 at the Wayback Machine – databaseOlympics.com (Retrieved on May 2, 2008)
- ^ a b "Mike Bruner (USA)". ISHOF.org. International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on July 13, 2015. Retrieved April 13, 2015.
- ^ "Olympics Corporate Sponsorship Sought", Oakland Tribune, Oakland, California, 14 December 2000, pg. 9
- ^ Awards and Honors (p.133) published by USA Swimming in 2009; retrieved June 12, 2012.
External links
[edit]
Media related to Mike Bruner at Wikimedia Commons
- Mike Bruner at World Aquatics
- Mike Bruner at the International Swimming Hall of Fame
- Mike Bruner at Olympics.com
- Mike Bruner at Olympedia
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- 1956 births
- Living people
- American male butterfly swimmers
- American male freestyle swimmers
- World record setters in swimming
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- Sportspeople from Omaha, Nebraska
- Stanford Cardinal men's swimmers
- Swimmers at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
- Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics
- American swimming Olympic medalist stubs