When we last saw a swimmer on the cover of SI in August of 1975, it was Tim Shaw after his dominating performance in Colombia. He won three gold medals in the aquatic championships and easily could have garnered a 4th if his teammate, Bruce Furniss hadn’t jumped the gun and left the block a bit too soon. That cost the U.S. a world record and Furniss a lot of grief. The 18-year old was despondent about his blunder but less than a month later he had a chance to redeem himself… and he did just that…



Once again he anchored the 800m freestyle relay, and this time the result was perfect at the swimming championships in Kansas City… a new world record… and one of three times he touched the wall first in K.C.



"It happens very seldom," he said, grinning through his braces, "but once in a while you get a second chance.”



A year later in Montreal he would win 2 gold medals including in the 200m freestyle… Only three American men have ever won gold in that event… Mark Spitz (1972), Michael Phelps (2008) and Furniss in ’76. 



With shot-putter Brian Oldfield on the cover of SI in September if ’75, Furniss took center stage in the pool and shook off that disappointing meet from a month earlier while showing the sporting world he was ready to be one the of the all-time greats. Now 50 years later, he looks back on a career where he would go on to set 10 world records and was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1987.



On the podcast, he recounts the story of what happened in Colombia and afterwards how he went to dinner with his teammates when a waiter asked if they had heard what the American had done to cost them a world record? His brother without missing a beat said, yea… you want to ask him about it? That broke the ice as they all had a good laugh and set him on course to his great swim meet in Kansas City that propelled him to greater things in the Summer Games.



He tells us how his house was robbed in 1980 and the only things taken? His two gold medals… and what he did to try and replicate them is a great story.. And he tells us how in early 2020, he almost died from a cardiac arrest but was saved by his wife and then upon arriving at the hospital induced into a coma all while Covid was beginning to wreak havoc on the world. Once again given a 2nd chance and just like 50 years ago, Bruce Furniss is making the most of it. Listen to one of the all-time greats to ever get in the pool on the Past Our Prime podcast.
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