John Davies

John Griffith Davies (17 May 1929 – 24 March 2020) was an Australian-American swimmer and United States federal judge. As a breaststroke swimmer of the 1940s and 1950s, he won a gold medal in the 200-metre breaststroke at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, set a world record in the 200 yard breaststroke (short course) and tied the world record in the 200 m breaststroke (long course). After retiring from competition swimming, he became a lawyer in California and, after becoming a naturalized American, was appointed a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and presided over the federal trial of the Los Angeles Police Department officers charged with assaulting Rodney King.

Swimming career Davies entered and won both breaststroke events at the 1946 New South Wales Championships held at Manly. He began to train under Forbes Carlile in 1947 and won the 220yd breaststroke at the Australian Championships, as well as helping New South Wales to win the 3x110yd medley relay. He repeated these victories at the 1948 Australian Championships, earning selection to the 1948 Summer Olympics in London at the age of 19. In the lead up to the Games, he won two races in London. Davies came in second in his heat and fourth in his semifinal with an Australian record 2m 44.8s to qualify for the final of the 200m breaststroke. Davies set a new Australian record in the final, finishing 4th and recording a time of 2m 43.7s. His time was faster than the bronze medallist's but the judges ranked him as 4th.

After the Games, Davies enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he trained under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Matt Mann and became a two time All American. Without scholarship support being available for swimmers during that era, he pursued a political science degree, while supporting himself by washing dishes and working at the International Student Centre. Mann also altered Davies's style, changing from the even-paced racing of Carlile to an early-attack oriented style of swimming. Davies managed a second placing at the 200yd breaststroke at the NCAA Championships in 1948 but failed to place in 1949 and 1950. In 1951 he won the 200m breaststroke at the AAU National Outdoor Championships and in 1952 won the 200yd breaststroke short course at the NCAA Championships setting a new world record of 2:21.9 Davies, Stassforth, and Klein were the only three swimmers to better 2:35 in history in the 200 m breaststroke (long course) prior to the bifurcation of the stroke in 1953.

Legal career Davies graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1959. He became a U.S. citizen in 1960.

In January 1991, Davies found that the no obscenity clause in National Endowment for the Arts grants violated the Constitution's Free Speech Clause. In April 1996, Davies overturned the state conviction of Charles Keating for his involvement in the savings and loan scandal due to flawed jury instructions. In June 1998, Davies mediated the $400 million settlement which Merrill Lynch agreed to pay for its role in causing the Orange County, California bankruptcy.

In 1993, Davies presided over the federal trial of four Los Angeles Police Department officers for the beating of Rodney King, who were charged with federal civil rights violations and had previously been acquitted in state court. The United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines recommend the offenders serve up to ten years in prison. Instead, Davies sentenced the offenders to 30 months. Davies' sentencing was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in August 1994 for violating the sentencing guidelines. He faced widespread public criticism for the lightness of the sentences he delivered to the former police officers.

Davies died from cancer in Pasadena, California, on 24 March 2020, at the age of 90. and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1992. He received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000.

Record notes The world record for the 200-metre breaststroke prior to the bifurcation of the butterfly breaststroke into separate strokes in 1953 could be accomplished in either short or long course pools. FINA recognised only one world record for the 200-metre breaststroke. The 1952 US Olympic Book lists the 200-metre breaststroke world record as belonging to Herbert Klein with a time of 2:27.3 who swam it in a short course pool. If records were measured as they are today in long and short course pools, Davies tied Herbert Klein's long course world record of 2:34.4 for the 200-metre breaststroke set on 13 August 1950, in Göppingen, Germany at their 1952 Olympic final.