26 Facts About Bob Windle

Robert George Windle was born on 7 November 1944 and is an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1960s, who won four Olympic medals, including an individual gold medal.

Bob Windle won a bronze and silver in the respective relays and retired after the games.

Bob Windle was coached by Frank Guthrie at the Enfield pool from the age of 12.

Bob Windle dropped out of high school to attend a three-month training camp in Queensland with the Olympic swimming team.

Bob Windle did not swim in Rome; team officials merely wanted him to learn from the routine and atmosphere of Olympic swimming.

Talbot said that Bob Windle was the most thinly built elite swimmer that he had trained, and had great trouble in trying to increase Bob Windle's frame.

Talbot motivated Bob Windle and instilled him with a greater level of self belief.

Bob Windle trained with a determination that often saw him swim through others who were in his training lane.

Bob Windle often did twice as much pre-season training as the other swimmers in Talbot's squad.

Bob Windle had trouble in pacing himself to conserve energy for later events.

Talbot lamented to "never [being] astute enough to realise that he [Bob Windle] didn't have the subtleties of pace that would have added to his armament as a swimmer".

Bob Windle anchored the team as Australia came from second at the halfway point to win their heat.

Bob Windle was one of the top seeds for the race, and Talbot advised him to swim hard in the first half of the race before slowing down.

Bob Windle's tactics disrupted the raceplan of the Americans; Nelson and world record holder Roy Saari had planned to pace each other throughout the race, but ended up reacting to Bob Windle instead of swimming their own race.

Bob Windle did so after getting advice from Australian teammate, Olympic gold medallist and Indiana student Kevin Berry.

Bob Windle studied business while competing for the university, where he switched his focus to shorter sprint distances.

Bob Windle did not enjoy as much success at short-course swimming in the United States as he did in long-course swimming.

Bob Windle enjoyed learning from Counsilman, who was regarded as an expert in mechanics, resulting in an improvement in his swimming technique.

In 1967, Bob Windle retired, but made a comeback to compete in the shorter distances after being persuaded by Talbot.

Bob Windle then competed in the Australian Championships for the first time in four years.

Wenden was pulled from the water and saved after Bob Windle noticed the incident.

Australia used the same team and swimming order in both the heats and finals, with Bob Windle doing the third leg.

Bob Windle was usually regarded as the fittest and hardest-working member of the Australian swimming team.

In retirement, Bob Windle stayed in the United States for a few more years, working for Allis-Chalmers, an agricultural equipment corporation.

Bob Windle returned home after being transferred to the Australian division of the firm's operations.

Bob Windle was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1987 and the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1990.