Graham M. Johnston is a South Africanswimmer who competed in the 1952 Summer Olympics. Johnston graduated from the University of Oklahoma and has lived in the United States of America since 1958. He met his wife-to-be, Janis in 1952. The two married in 1955 and have five children. His father, a municipal pool manager, taught him to swim before the age of one. He also tried other athletic endeavors, lettering in five sports during his high school years. But the water was his true love and he achieved national success during high school with the following championships: South African National Junior Diving Champion 1946, 1947, 1948,South African National Junior Swimming Champion 1946, 1947, 1948,South African National Senior Swimming Champion 1948, 1949, 1950. Johnston won two gold and two silver medals in each of the 1950 and 1954 Commonwealth Games held in New Zealand and Canada. In 1952 he was selected to represent South Africa in the Olympic Games held in Helsinki. Johnston was one of the first foreign-born athletes to enjoy a full scholarship at an American college. He received a full scholarship for swimming at the University of Oklahoma where he achieved NCAA All-American status three consecutive years. Johnston retired from competitive swimming between 1956 and 1972. In 1973, at the age of 41 he returned to the sport and swam in his first Masters nationals in Santa Monica, California. In addition to Johnston's world records in short and long course, he holds six national short course records and seven national long course records. He also holds all national freestyle records in the distances ranging from 100 yards through 10K in the 65 to 70 age group. He has won the Waikiki Rough Water Swim eight years in a row. And he is the only person to hold all seven USMS national long distance records in any age group. In 1998 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. At age 69 his 1650 yd. national record was just five seconds slower than the time that won him the gold medal at the Commonwealth Games in 1950. Johnston won gold in the 200-meter free, 400-meter free, 800-meter free, the 400-meter IM and the 5k open water swim at the World Masters Swimming Championship in Munich, Germany.
