Michael Jay Burton (born July 3, 1947) is an American swimmer, three-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in two freestyle distance events.

When he was an eighth grader he was hit by a furniture truck while riding a bicycle with a friend. The accident caused injuries that made him have to quit contact sports. He loved to play football and basketball, but the accident made him want to be the best swimmer in the world.

Burton graduated from El Camino High School. At the 1967 University Games in Tokyo, Japan, he won a gold medal in the 1,500-meter freestyle, ahead of Russian Semyon Belits-Geiman.

Burton won two gold medals in individual events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City: the men's 400-meter freestyle and men's 1,500-meter freestyle. Four years later at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany, he became the only American ever to repeat as the 1,500-meter freestyle gold medalist, and he also recaptured the world record in the process. Burton's repeat proved a stunning win: in the spring of 1972, Burton had been diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency, and at the U.S. Olympic Trials had barely made the Olympic Team, qualifying seventh for the final and then finishing third to make the team (at the time, a country could enter up to three athletes per event in swimming).

The celebration in Munich of his historic repeat, however, was overshadowed by Mark Spitz's performance at those Games and by the terrorist attack on the Olympic Village, which occurred the day after his race.

Burton coached the Seahawks in Billings, Montana, at the local YMCA until 2007 . His daughter Loni embarked on her own successful swimming career. She is one of two swimmers in NCAA history to win twelve individual titles. She performed the feat in three years as Division II swimmers are eligible to participate in four individual events versus three in Division I and III.

He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as an "Honor Swimmer" in 1977.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]