Arthur Lindegren

Long Beach Polytech High School In his early career, Arthur swam for Long Beach Polytechnic High School in the Los Angeles suburb of Long Beach where he was coached by Wallace Detrick. A particularly strong program, in 1933 Coach Detrick's Polytech swim team was considered one of the strongest teams on the West Coast, winning the Pacific Coast and Southern California titles by large margins. While at Polytech, Lindegren was part of the All-American Interscholastic Swimming team and tied the High School world record for the 50-yard freestyle. Swimming as a High School Senior in 1932, Lindegren placed first in the 100-yard freestyle at the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section championship with a time of 54.7 seconds, gaining recognition as one of Southern California's outstanding young swimmers.

Lindegren was a charter member of the San Pedro Swim Club which received a charter from the Red Cross Life Saving Service in April, 1936.

Representing the Los Angeles Carters Swim Club at age 17, Lindegren was an entrant for the San Diego Suns Silver Gate Channel Swim to be held on June 23, 1929. The race was usually a 670-yard sprint in the San Diego Harbor area, and Florence Chambers was a frequent entrant.

Golden Gate Junior College After graduating Long Beach Polytechnic, at 5 feet, 10 inches and 167 pounds Lindegren swam for and later graduated San Francisco's Golden Gate Junior College in the mid-1930's, under the training and supervision of Coach George Madera. During his collegiate career, Lindegren held the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate record for the 100-yard distance at 51.4 seconds,

In the 1930's, San Francisco's Golden Gate College had one of the more outstanding college swim teams on the West coast. Fellow 1936 freestyle Olympian Ralph Gilman, and backstroker Bob Walker swam with Lindegren for Golden Gate. The team beat the strong varsity swim team from Stanford with a decisive 57-33 victory Golden Gate also defeated the strong team at the University of California 49-35 in competition between colleges with Lindegren competing for Golden Gates's winning 4x100 freestyle relay. In gaining regional swimming dominance, Golden Gates's swimmers set a number of Pacific Coast Intercollegiate records. Known as the Golden Gate Junior College "Wandering Raiders," they garnished considerable publicity for the school on San Francisco's Golden Gate Avenue. Affiliated with San Francisco's Central YMCA in the 1930's, the school had access to their swimming facilities.

In February 1935, Lindegren swam in a relay that covered around 4.1 miles with the Golden Gate Junior College relay team from San Francisco to Oakland Bay as part of the Bay Bridge Relay. The mayor of Oakland, William J. McCracken and Angelo Rossi of San Francisco were present as part of the event.

1936 Olympic swimming trials At the 1936 US Olympic Trials at the Rocky Point Pool in Providence, Rhode Island from July 10-12, Lindegren finished third in the 100-meter freestyle, qualifying him for the U.S. team. He had technically qualified for the 100-meter freestyle sprint and the 4x200 meter free relay. Arthur Highland of Northwestern placed first with a 58.8, two seconds over the world record, and Peter Fick of Philadelphia, who had formerly set the world record, was second. After qualifying for the U.S. team, Lindegren trained in New Haven, Connecticut with Robert J. H. Kiphuth, the 1936 Olympic Coach. By the time of the trials and earlier, he represented the Los Angeles Athletic Club.

Careers In 1937 in San Pedro, Lindegren worked for the General Petroleum Company.

In 1962, Lindegren moved to the greater Bremerton, Washington area from Long Beach, California. On June 8, 1970, he married Leona E. Phebus in Bremerton.