Tom Bruce (swimmer)
 Bruce in his youth | ||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Thomas Edwin Bruce | |||||||||||||||||
| Nickname | "Tom" | |||||||||||||||||
| National team | United States | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | April 17, 1952 Red Bluff, California, U.S. | |||||||||||||||||
| Died | April 9, 2020 (aged 67) Royal Oaks, California | |||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) | |||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 161 lb (73 kg) | |||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Marilee | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Breaststroke | |||||||||||||||||
| Club | Santa Clara Swim Club | |||||||||||||||||
| College team | U. of California, Los Angeles | |||||||||||||||||
| Coach | Robert Horn (UCLA) | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Thomas Edwin Bruce (April 17, 1952 – April 9, 2020) was an American competitive swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder.
Bruce was a graduate of Marian A. Peterson High School in Sunnyvale, California, and trained and competed with the Santa Clara Swim Club under Hall of Fame Coach George Haines. He attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he swam for the UCLA Bruins swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition under Head Coach Robert "Bob" Horn.[1]
1972 Munich Olympics
[edit]Bruce represented the United States at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. At Munich, he won a silver medal in the men's 100-meter breaststroke with a time of 1:05.43. At the eighty-five meter mark, with the race nearing completion, Bruce seemed to have won the race, but Nobutaka Taguchi of Japan quickly accelerated, passing Bruce to capture the gold medal with a world record time of 1:04.94. Bruce managed second place with American John Hencken winning bronze in a time of 1:05.61.[1]
Bruce earned a gold medal swimming the breaststroke leg for the winning U.S. team in the men's 4×100-meter medley relay. Bruce, together with his relay teammates Mike Stamm (backstroke), Mark Spitz (butterfly) and Jerry Heidenreich (freestyle), set a new world record of 3:48.16.[1]
He married his wife Marilee around 1987.[2]
He died on April 9, 2020, at the age of 67 in Royal Oaks, California after a battle with cancer. Before retirement, he worked as a director of hospital facilities. He was survived by his wife Marilee, son Cameron, daughter Lanie, brother Phil, a large loyal group of family, friends, and his dog Buster. [2]
See also
[edit]- List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)
- List of University of California, Los Angeles people
- World record progression 4 × 100 metres medley relay
References
[edit]- ^ a b c "Olympedia Biography, Tom Bruce". olympedia.org. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
- ^ a b "Legacy Obituaries, Santa Cruz Sentinel, Tom Bruce". www.legacy.com. Retrieved July 26, 2025.
External links
[edit]| Men's team |
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| Women's team |
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  | This biographical article related to a United States swimmer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
- 1952 births
- 2020 deaths
- Deaths from cancer in California
- American male breaststroke swimmers
- World record setters in swimming
- Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming
- Olympic silver medalists for the United States in swimming
- People from Red Bluff, California
- Sportspeople from Tehama County, California
- Sportspeople from Sunnyvale, California
- Swimmers at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- UCLA Bruins men's swimmers
- Medalists at the 1972 Summer Olympics
- 20th-century American sportsmen
- American swimming biography stubs