Don Schollander

Donald Arthur Schollander (born April 30, 1946) is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in four events. He won a total of five gold medals and one silver medal at the 1964 and 1968 Summer Olympics. With four gold medals, he was the most successful athlete at the 1964 Olympics.

Early career Schollander was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, and learned competitive swimming from his uncle, Newt Perry, who ran a swimming school in Florida. As a boy, Schollander moved with his family to Lake Oswego, Oregon. Although his first sporting passion was football, he was too small to compete in high school football.

Olympics As a teenager in 1962, Schollander moved to Santa Clara, California to train under legendary swim coach George Haines of the Santa Clara Swim Club.

College and Olympic swimming Schollander attended Yale College where he was a member of Skull and Bones, a secret society, and the Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) fraternity. He was the captain of Yale's swim team, winning three individual NCAA championships. In 1983, he was one of the first group of inductees into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. He is also a member of Oregon Sports Hall of Fame.

In 1971, he published his first book, Deep Water (with Duke Savage) chronicling his swimming, his teammates and coaches, and the behind-the-scenes politics of international swimming, especially the Olympic Games. He followed this book in 1974 with Inside Swimming (with Joel H. Cohen).

Schollander and his wife Cheryl reside in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where he runs Schollander Development, a real estate development company. His gold medals are on display to the public at a Bank of America branch location in downtown Lake Oswego.