How Wilkie won his place among Olympic greats
HIS achievements in the pool brought him legendary status as Scotland’s greatest-ever swimmer.
David Wilkie earned his place in the pantheon of sporting greats during the 1976 Montreal Olympics when he became the first Briton to win a gold medal in swimming for almost 70 years, knocking an incredible three seconds off the world record for the 200 metres breast-stroke.
Competing both for Scotland and for Britain, he also won titles at British, European, Commonwealth and World events – before retiring from professional sport at the age of just 22.
With his trademark moustache, he also enjoyed a playboy lifestyle in the glamorous social scene of the late 70s and early 80s.
Later he harnessed the same drive and determination that had made him a world-beating sportsman to create a multimillion pound business empire.
Summing up the extremes of his life in an interview, Wilkie once said: ‘I was not a bad-looking young guy with a few bob. I was once walking down London’s King’s Road when Elton John passed and said: “Hello, David!” My then American girlfriend said: “You know Elton John?”’
Looking back, Wilkie added: ‘Having children and being proud of what they achieve, and selling my business, have all been positive things in my life, but in terms of a natural positive feeling, I don’t think anything will ever match touching the pool wall first in July 1976. Winning that gold medal is a great memory that I’ll take to my grave.’
Born in 1954, Wilkie spent his early years in Sri Lanka, where he first began swimming – in the sea at the exotic beaches near his home.
He moved to his parents’ native Scotland as a boarder at Daniel Stewart’s College in Edinburgh.
The son of a tea exporter, Wilkie continued his swimming training at the nearby Warrender Baths Swimming Club at the behest of his father.
Reflecting on the beginnings of his swimming career in Edinburgh, Wilkie once said: ‘It wasn’t the most appetising pool to train in – a Victorian pool, with steps on the side, nylon lane ropes, 25 swimmers in this wee pond. It was like swimming in the Forth. It was choppy, it was cold.’
But the hard d work paid off: at just 16, he got first taste of a major championships ampionships at the 1970 Commonwealth th Games in Edinburgh.
Two years later, ater, aged 18, Wilkie ie got his first taste of the Olympics, taking silver in the 200 metres s breast-stroke at the 1972 Munich Games es before adding g silver in the 100 metres and nd improving to gold in the 200 metres four years later in Montre Montreal – a record yet to be match matched. Ret Retiring at the age o of 22, he star started to enjo enjoy the frui fruits of su success and t the wealth that came with it, using his n new-found fr freedom to purs pursue a string of women – notably Debbie Raym Raymond,
troubled da daughter of porn baron Paul Raymond. The two parted after a tumultuous affair and Wilkie eventually settled down with his partner Helen Isacson, with whom he has a daughter Natasha, 24, and son Adam, 21.
He later set up Health Perception, a company that producing nutritional supplements in Surrey, later selling the successful company in a multi-million-pound deal.
Wilkie, who has homes in Surrey and France, is on the Legacy Committee for the Glasgow Games, advising on how Scotland and Scottish sport can benefit from the event.