Famed swimmer ‘brought the love of the sport to so many people’
Graham Johnston, a legendary swimmer who competed in the Olympics in 1952 and continued swimming competitively into his 80s, died Saturday morning of natural causes in Houston, his longtime home.
He was 88.
Friends and family said Johnston’s love of swimming was contagious.
“Our world revolved around swimming,” said Johnston’s daughter, Jenny Lord, who has fond childhood memories of her parents piling their children into a red Volkswagen convertible to go swimming at their local pool in Sharpstown, where she grew up.
During drives through the scenic Texas Hill Country, her father would often pull over whenever he spotted a watering hole.
“He really helped other people to love the sport, because he had such a passion for it,” Lord said.
Johnston grew up in South Africa, where his father managed a swimming pool and encouraged his sons to swim as much as possible. Johnston was hooked.
In college, Johnston swam competitively at the University of Oklahoma, where he met his future wife, Janice. He competed in the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki but didn’t win any medals. After Johnston married Janice in 1955, he stopped swimming competitively until the 1970s, when the U.S. Masters Swimming Program was launched for older swimmers.
Johnston rediscovered the joy of swimming. And over the next four decades, he shared that joy with everyone he met in the tightly knit world of swimming, from longtime veterans he loved to compete against to newcomers who barely knew the breast stroke.
“He was just an absolutely brilliant swimmer,” said Helena Finley, a longtime family friend whose father used to race against Johnston. “He not only enjoyed it himself, but he brought the love of the sport to so many people.”
Even in his 60s, Johnston was swimming almost as fast as he did in his 20s, according to a 1998 Houston Chronicle profile.
“Swimming has been my life for so long,” Johnston said at the time. “I can’t picture ever doing anything else. I love the sport. As long as I am alive, I probably will be swimming.”
Over the years, Johnston trained for races by swimming two hours a day on a nearly daily basis at the Dad’s Club in Houston. By the age of 79, he had broken 81 records in Masters Swimming and was inducted in the International Masters Swimming Hall of Fame, according to the Chronicle’s archives.
He could swim fast in short races or swim for miles in open water — forgoing a wet suit no matter how cold the conditions. He almost swam across the English Channel, Lord said, but the rough waves made him sick.
There was more to Johnston than swimming, Lord said. Johnston was also a great father who doted on his five children.
“He just had unconditional love,” Lord said.
Services are pending.