When he was an eighth grader he was hit by a furniture truck while riding a bicycle with a friend. Earlier he loved to play football and basketball, but the injuries due to this accident made him abandon contact sports, and left swimming as one of the few fitness options.
Burton graduated from El Camino High School. He won 10 AAU titles, and while at UCLA Burton was a NCCAA champion five times.[1] These included the 500 Free (1970), 1650 Free (1967, 1968, 1970), and 200 Fly (1970), which is also became an All-American for these events. Burton was also a four-time Pac-10 champion, he helped lead the Bruins to the Pac-10 Championship Team Title in 1970. He enter the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame as a Character Member.[2] At the 1967 University Games in Tokyo, Japan, he won a gold medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle, ahead of Russian Semyon Belits-Geiman.[3]
Burton won two gold medals in individual events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City: the 400-meter freestyle and 1,500-meter freestyle. Four years later at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, he became the only American ever to repeat as the 1,500-meter freestyle gold medalist, and he also recaptured the world record in the process. While winning gold in the 1972, Burton also set a new World Record in the 1500 Free.[2] Burton's repeat proved a stunning win: in the spring of 1972, Burton had been diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, and at the U.S. Olympic Trials had barely made the Olympic Team. The Olympic Trials were held in Chicago, Burton failed to make the Olympic team in the 400 freestyle event and the 200 butterflies. On the next to the last day of the Trials, he snuck into the finals of the 1500 when he finished eighth. Burton manager to be able to finish in third to make the team (at the time, a country could enter up to three athletes per event in swimming).[4]
At the Munich Games, Burton loved to start out fast and was the early leader even over Australian star Graham Windeatt. Yet, Windeatt fought back and regained the lead. Burton overtook Windeatt on the closing lengths, broke Rick DeMont's world record and won the gold medal for himself and the United States.[4]
The celebration in Munich of his historic repeat, however, was overshadowed by Mark Spitz's performance at those Games and by the terrorist attack on the Olympic Village, which occurred the day after his race.
Burton coached the Seahawks in Billings, Montana, at the local YMCA until 2007. His daughter Loni embarked on her own successful swimming career. She is one of two swimmers in NCAA history to win twelve individual titles. She performed the feat in three years as Division II swimmers are eligible to participate in four individual events versus three in Division I and III.{{Citation needed|date=June 2015}}
He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1977.
See also
{{Portal|Biography|Olympics|Swimming}}- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
- List of multiple Olympic gold medalists in one event
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
- List of University of California, Los Angeles people
- World record progression 800 metres freestyle
- World record progression 1500 metres freestyle
References
{{Commons category|Mike Burton (swimmer)}}1. ^{{Cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/athletes/bu/mike-burton-1.html|title=Mike Burton Bio, Stats, and Results|website=Olympics at Sports-Reference.com|language=en|access-date=2017-03-20}}
2. ^1 {{Cite web|url=http://www.uclabruins.com/news/2016/2/11/210705769.aspx|title=Four Bruins Named to All-Century Team|last=|first=|date=February 11, 2016|website=|access-date=}}
3. ^{{cite web |author=Ralph Hickok |url=http://www.hickoksports.com/history/univmswim.shtml |title=World University Games Men's Swimming Medalists |publisher=HickokSports.com |date=January 16, 2010 |accessdate=August 2, 2011 |deadurl=yes |archiveurl=https://archive.is/20121209042650/http://www.hickoksports.com/history/univmswim.shtml |archivedate=December 9, 2012 |df= }}
4. ^1 {{Cite web|url=http://www.usaswimming.org/ViewNewsArticle.aspx?TabId=0&itemid=5080&mid=8712|title=Lessons from Legends: Mike Burton and Rick DeMont, Performance Greatness|website=USA Swimming|access-date=2017-03-20}}
{{s-start}}{{s-ach|rec}}{{succession box
| before =
Stephen Krause
Guillermo Echevarria
Rick DeMont
| title = Men's 1,500-meter freestyle
world record-holder
| years = August 21, 1966 – July 7, 1968
September 3, 1968 – August 23, 1970
September 4, 1972 – August 5, 1973
| after =
Guillermo Echevarria
John Kinsella
Stephen Holland}}{{s-end}}
{{Footer USA Swimming 1968 Summer Olympics}}{{Footer USA Swimming 1972 Summer Olympics}}{{Footer Olympic Champions 400 m Freestyle Men}}{{Footer Olympic Champions 1500 m Freestyle Men}}{{Footer Pan American Champions 1500 m Freestyle Men}}{{Footer Universiade Champions 1500m Freestyle Men}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Burton, Mike}} 20 : 1947 births|Living people|American male butterfly swimmers|American male freestyle swimmers|Former world record holders in swimming|International Swimming Hall of Fame inductees|Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming|Olympic swimmers of the United States|Sportspeople from Billings, Montana|Sportspeople from Des Moines, Iowa|Swimmers at the 1967 Pan American Games|Swimmers at the 1968 Summer Olympics|Swimmers at the 1972 Summer Olympics|UCLA Bruins men's swimmers|Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics|Medalists at the 1968 Summer Olympics|Pan American Games gold medalists for the United States|Pan American Games bronze medalists for the United States|Pan American Games medalists in swimming|Universiade medalists in swimming