Rick Colella

Richard Phillip Colella, Jr. (born December 14, 1951) is an American former breaststroke swimmer who represented the United States at two consecutive Summer Olympics. In Munich in 1972 he placed fourth in the 200-meter breaststroke final and in Montreal in 1976, he captured a bronze medal in the final of the men's 200-meter breaststroke. Before coming to Washington, Ellis coached a year at Seattle's Cascade Swim Club, where Colella had formerly trained. Colella was recruited to Washington by Coach John Tallman, who had begun coaching swimming at Washington in 1962 but completed his time at Washington the year before Colella's tenure with the team. After Collela left the University of Washington, Coach Ellis recruited Olympians Rick DeMont, Doug Northway and Robin Backhaus to Washington, who with the exception of Backhaus, had trained with Sacramento's Arden Hill's swim club, noted for long, high intensity training, a method which had become an important ingredient in Coach Ellis's winning tradition. In April, 1973, he scored the most individual points at the National AAU Short Course Men's and Women's Swimming Championships with the University of Southern California's Rick Furniss placing second.

In International competition, Colella captured the 200m breaststroke at the 1971 Pan-Am Games and won both breaststroke events at the 1975 Pan-Am Games.

1972, 1976 Olympics Colella finished fourth in the final of the men's 200-meter breaststroke at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. He was ahead of many in the pack through the first 150-meters but dropped to fourth, lagging behind in the final lap. American John Hencken took the gold, with Colella finishing only .4 seconds behind bronze medalist Nobutaka Taguchi of Japan. At the 1972 Munich Olympics, the U.S. men's team's head coach was the University of Southern California's swim coach Peter Daland.

Post-Olympic life After the 1976 Olympics, Colella worked for Boeing as a flight-operations engineer and pursued other sports including canoeing, running, and Nordic skiing. In 2013, he retired from Boeing. He drifted back to swimming in United States Master's meets at least by 1990 when he realized the sport was easier to sustain with age, and did much of his late life Masters swimming with Puget Sound Masters. He has set 47 records with United States Masters swimming, and his record for the 200-meter breaststroke for 60-64 year olds endured for a particularly long time.

Colella and his wife Terry have raised four children, Elise, Mariel, Brian and Angie. For the past twenty years, the Colellas have dedicated themselves to raising money for research to find a cure for facioscapulohumeral disease (FSHD), a common form of muscular dystrophy that affects their son Brian. They formed FSH Friends, an organization that they run out of their home. They work to raise money and put on an annual auction gala that takes place the beginning of February. They've also co-sponsored local workshops, bringing researchers together from around the world, to help move the research forward.

Honors Collela is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Collela was a Seattle Public High School Athletic Hall of Fame inductee.