Bruce Hayes

Lawrence Bruce Hayes (born March 8, 1963) is an American former competition swimmer best known for anchoring the U.S. men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay team that won the gold medal at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Born in Sarasota, Florida, and raised in San Antonio, Hayes was an outstanding Texas age-group swimmer, setting numerous TAGS records. He capped a successful high school career at Highland Park High School under Coach Mike Sorrells, winning a state championship in the 200-yard individual medley and 100-yard backstroke. Hayes' success as a Texas age group and high school swimmer earned him a full scholarship to University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Swimming for coach Ron Ballatore's UCLA Bruins swimming and diving team, he was the highest scoring freshman at the 1982 NCAA Men's Swimming and Diving Championships, helping the Bruins win the national team championship.

International career

Hayes represented the United States in several international swimming meets. He qualified in the 400-meter and 1500-meter freestyle events for the U.S. national team that won a 1981 dual meet against the Soviet Union in Kiev, Ukraine. At the 1982 FINA World Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, he was a finalist in the 400-meter individual medley and also contested the 400-meter and 1,500-meter freestyle events. He also collected three gold medals at the 1983 Descente International Invitational Swim Meet in Tokyo in the same three events.

Hayes won the 400-meter freestyle race at the 1984 winter United States Swimming Championships for his second national title. He finished third in the 200-meter freestyle at the 1984 United States Olympic Swimming Trials, qualifying him for a place on the U.S. team in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay in Los Angeles.

In an event unaffected by the Soviet-led boycott, the Americans would battle a talented West German relay team including the 200-meter freestyle world record holder, Michael Gross. The U.S. coaches decided to capitalize on Hayes' finishing ability by having him take the final leg behind teammates Mike Heath, David Larson and Jeff Float. However Hayes knew that because his best 200m freestyle time was three seconds slower than Gross', he would need a three-second lead upon starting the relay to guarantee a win.

The Los Angeles media dubbed Hayes' team the "Grossbusters." Among their many media appearances was a Vanity Fair magazine cover with Raquel Welch. Capping the year, the U.S. men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay team won the 1984 Phillips Performance Award. Hayes appears in Bud Greenspan's documentary of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, 16 Days of Glory, in the segment about the race. "When you're famous and you come out, all of a sudden, the gay community wants to embrace you. You become a role model, and I felt there was a lot I could do on behalf of the Games. The media would listen to me because I have the credibility of being an Olympic gold-medal winner, the kind of leeway to say the Gay Games are serious competition."

Hayes worked for the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games as the Assistant Competition Manager for Swimming at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. During his time in Atlanta, he co-founded the Atlanta Rainbow Trout Masters swimming team.

He resumed his public relations career at Edelman in New York following the Atlanta Olympics and later worked for two years in Edelman's Madrid office. In 2002, Hayes became a charter member of the Gay Games Ambassadors. He attended the Gay Games' 25th anniversary celebration in San Francisco in 2007 and presented the Federation of Gay Games' inaugural Media Award.

Hayes swam again at the 2010 Gay Games VIII in Cologne, Germany, winning a bronze in the 1,500-meter freestyle (age 45–49) behind Aaron Murphy (Great Britain) and Jonathan Haines (Australia).