Thompson Mann


Harold Thompson Mann was an American competition swimmer, Olympic champion, and world record-holder. He competed at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, where he received a gold medal swimming for swimming the lead-off backstroke leg for the winning U.S. team in the 4×100-meter medley relay. Mann and his relay teammates Bill Craig, Fred Schmidt and Steve Clark set a new world record of 3:58.4 – and Mann set an individual world record in the 100-meter backstroke swimming his leg.
In 1965 Mann won the national indoor and outdoor titles in both the 100 and 200 yd backstroke, setting a world's best time and American record over 100 yd. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1984, and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1988. Mann was 1960 graduate from Great Bridge High School in Chesapeake, VA, where he served as senior class president.