John Griffith Davies (born May 17, 1929) is a 1940s and 1950s Australian breast swimmer who won a 200-meter gold medal at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. After retiring from the swimming competition, he became a prominent lawyer in California, and after becoming a naturalized American, he was appointed US District Judge of the United States District Court for California's Central District by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and presided over a court of fi cer The Los Angeles Police Department accused of attacking King Rodney.
Video John Davies (swimmer)
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Growing up in Willoughby, Sydney, where his father was an accountant and his mother a nurse, Davies learned to swim in a tidal pond in Northbridge, where he enjoyed competing against his friends. He and his brother spent their adolescence apart from their father, who joined the Australian Air Force and became a Japanese prisoner of war for three years. Davies left Narrabeen High School in 1945 and worked for Caltex oil company, which often gave him permission to compete in the swimming competition. She entered and won both breaststroke events at the 1946 New South Wales Championships held in Manly.
Davies began training under Forbes Carlile in 1947 and won a 220d breaststroke at the Australian Championships, as well as helping New South Wales to win the 3x110yd medallion relay. He repeated this victory at the 1948 Australian Championships, earning a selection for the 1948 Summer Olympics in London at the age of 19. Ahead of the Olympics, he won two races in London. Davies finished second in his heat and fourth in his semi-final with an Australian record of 2m 44.8s to qualify for the 200m breaststroke final. Davies set a new Australian record in the final, recording a time of 2m 43.7 seconds. Although the time was recorded by the timekeepers to be 0.2s faster than Br Sohl's bronze medalist from the United States, the judges believed that Sohl had touched first and awarded him bronze.
After the Olympics, Davies enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he was trained under the guidance of coach Matt Mann. Without the scholarship support available to swimmers in that era, he pursued a political science degree, while supporting himself by washing dishes and working at the International Student Center. Mann also changed the style of Davies, changing from fast-paced Carlile racing to an early attack-oriented swim style. Davies succeeded in putting a second on the chest 200yd style at the NCAA Championship in 1948, but failed to place in 1949 and 1950. In 1951 he won a 200m breaststroke at the US Championships and in 1952 won a short 200yd chest course at the US Championships. The Australian Olympic Federation gave him an exemption from the Australian Championship and selected him for the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki. He trained with fellow team members John Marshall at Yale University under coach Robert Kiphuth while other Australian teams are training in Townsville.
Davies arrived in Helsinki as a favorite after setting a 200d breaststroke world record earlier this year but after a poor trial period a week before the Olympics, he was forced to limit his training under one kilometer per day and sleep for 20 hours every day.. Davies is not the fastest qualifier in the heat, but broke the Olympic record in the semi-finals to qualify fastest for the final. Swim in his fast paced style, Davies lagged for more than 2 seconds on the 100m mark, but overtook his rival, scoring Bowen Stassforth United States by 0.3 seconds to set a new Olympic time record of 2m 34.4 seconds.
Maps John Davies (swimmer)
Legal career
Davies retired from swimming and returned to the University of Michigan to study law for two years before making a year exchange at the University of Sydney and then moved to the University of California Los Angeles, where he completed his degree in 1959. He married and settled in Pasadena, California , take US citizenship and pass the test to become a lawyer.
From 1960 to 1971 Davies was associated with, and later became a partner of Hagenbaugh, Murphy & Davies where he specializes in litigation and tried many cases in the areas of personal injury, product liability, medical malpractice, construction and insurance coverage. Davies joined the Beverly Hills, California Rosenfeld, Meyer & amp; Susman in 1971, became a partner in 1972, practicing litigation. He represents the movie studios and major entertainment companies.
On April 22, 1986, Davies was nominated by US president Ronald Reagan to a seat in the United States District Court for the Central District of California left by Cynthia Holcomb Hall. Davies was confirmed by the United States Senate on 6 June 1986, and received his commission on 9 June 1986. He was highly respected by lawyers practicing in the courtroom. They sometimes call it outside the courtroom as "Swimmers", but only in a good way.
Davies chaired the trial of a group of Los Angeles Police Department officials accused of being linked to the Rodney King incident in 1992. In 1993 he was appointed District Judge of the Year by the Criminal Justice Section of the Los Angeles County Management Association and he received a Certificate of Special Recognition Congress for Exemplary Performance. He also received the Daniel O'Connell Award from the Irish American Bar Association. He retired from the bench on July 18, 1998. He continued to practice law personally, mostly as a private arbitrator.
Awards
Davies was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1984, and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1992. He received the Australian Sports Medal in 2000.
See also
- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
References
Source
Andrews, Malcolm (2000). Australia at the Olympics . Sydney, New South Wales: ABC Book. pp.Ã, 124-125. ISBN 0-7333-0884-8.
External links
- The official website of John Davies
- John G. Davies in the Biographic Directory of Federal Judges , public domain publications from the Federal Judicial Center.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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