Mike O'Brien

Michael Jon O'Brien (born October 23, 1965) is an American former competition swimmer who won the gold medal in the men's 1,500-meter freestyle event at the 1984 Summer Olympics and a bronze and two golds in the Pan Am Games. Early swim career Learning to swim at the age of only four, Mike joined a competitive swim team at five. He developed as a talented competitive swimmer in grade school, and by high school was recognized nationally as an outstanding backstroke swimmer and freestyle distance swimmer with his early team, the Irvine Novas. Newport Christian, the private high school Mike attended, lacked a swimming program, so he swam for the exceptional Mission Viejo Nadadores from his first year in High School. In his senior year in High School, he distinguished himself as a premier American distance swimmer winning his first US National Championship with a 4:16.88 in the 500-yard freestyle. He would take four more National Championships in his career. 1984 LA Olympics On August 3, 1984, O'Brien's 1500 swim time of 15:05.2 was sufficient to take Olympic gold at the University of Southern California, where he would soon attend and compete in swimming. Lagging five seconds behind O'Brien, American George DiCarlo took the silver.