Fred Tyler

Frederick Daniel Tyler (born March 15, 1954 in Winter Park, Florida) is an American swimmer and aquatics coach, winner of several high school and college championships and a gold medal in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.

High school and Indiana University

Fred Tyler began his high school swimming at St. Andrews School, in Boca Raton, Florida, where in 1969 & 1970 he won the 400 freestyle and 200 individual medley (IM) at the state championship. He next competed for athletic powerhouse the Bolles School in Jacksonville; at the 1971 state meet he was first in the 200 & 400 freestyle, and in 1972 won 100 freestyle and 200 IM. Tyler remains one of only 7 swimmers to win the Florida state swim championship in 2 different events for 3 separate years. [ [http://www.fhsaa.org/records/rec_swb.pdf FHSAA Records] ]

Tyler, along with John Kinsella, Mark Spitz and Gary Hall, Sr. were part of James Counsilman's legendary team at Indiana University, which dominated men's college swimming in the early 1970s. During his college career, Tyler's Indiana teams were Big Ten Conference champs all 4 years & NCAA Division I Champions in 1972 and 1973. In 1975, Tyler was the NCAA national champion in the 200 yard individual medley (time of 1:50:658), and his 800 yard freestyle relay finished first in the NCAA finals in 1973, 1974 and 1975. He closed out his time as a Hoosier as one of the best swimmers in the history of the program, receiving 14 career All-America certificates to place 8th all-time in program history after swimming greats Jim Montgomery (20) and Mark Spitz (19).

Munich Olympics

In spite of the terrorist attacks against the Israeli athletes, some of the most spectacular events at the 1972 Summer Olympics were in swimming, where Mark Spitz won seven Olympic titles with seven world records. On Aug 29, 1972, Tyler finished 5th in finals of 200 meter freestyle, missing Indiana teammate Mark Spitz' world record time by 2.18 seconds. On August 31, 1972, the American 4x200 meter freestyle relay of John Kinsella, Fred Tyler, Steve Genter and Mark Spitz set a World & Olympic record at 7:35:78, eclipsing the record set earlier that day by the USA team in the semifinal heat, and winning the Olympic gold medal. The victory was all the more remarkable in that Spitz swam in the 4x200 relay only one hour after his world record victory in the 100 meter butterfly, and Genter had been released from the hospital only a few days before, following surgery for a collapsed lung.

Coaching

Tyler began coaching swimming and water polo at West Orange High School, Winter Garden, Florida from 1979 to 1989. He has been head aquatics coach at Lake Mary High School in Lake Mary, Florida since 1990. He coached the Lake Mary Rams to a second place finish in 2004 and fourth place in 2005 at Florida state swimming championships. Tyler's boys' water polo team reached the 2005 state quarter finals, and the girls' the state 2005 semis and the 2007 quarter finals. [ [http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/community_involvement/_doc/Chalkboardpg4_5.pdf National & State School Recognitions] ] In 2004-2005, Fred Tyler was recognized as both the Seminole Athletic Conference and Florida State 3A Coach of Year. Tyler passed on the Olympic torch by coaching gold medal winner Brad Bridgewater (200 meter backstroke at 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta), who attended Lake Mary High School from 1987-1990. Tyler teaches social studies and mathematics to exceptional education students.

ee also

* List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
* Athletics at Indiana University Bloomington

External links

* [http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/past/index_uk.asp?OLGT=1&OLGY=1972 1972 Olympics Official Site]
* [http://espn.go.com/oly/summer00/almanac/swim/m4x200frelay.html Olympic winners, Men's 4x200 freestyle relay]
* [http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/nationworld/orl-localolympians,0,4212123.htmlstory?coll=orl-business-utility#summer Central Florida Olympians]

Notes