Description
Kevin John Berry OAM was an Australian butterfly swimmer of the 1960s who won the gold medal in the 200 m butterfly at the 1964 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. He set twelve world records in his career. After his swimming career ended, he became the Pictorial Editor of the Sydney Morning Herald and later the head of ABC Sport.
Berry, the second of seven children, was born in Sydney and grew up in the western suburb of Marrickville, in a family with no prior sporting background. His father Frederick had arrived in Australia in the 1920s and had worked as a bar manager to support the family. He was taught to swim by his elder sister Colleen along with his younger siblings at Botany Bay. His younger brother Paul was a promising youth swimmer who defeated dual Olympic gold medallist Michael Wenden, and later became a professional rugby league player. Berry was educated at De La Salle College, and represented the school in athletics and rugby league, with moderate success. Berry joined the Pyrmont Club, which trained at Victoria Park Swimming Pool, under Eric Hayes, and swam from 1956 until 1958 as a freestyler, with reasonable age group success.
Born
April 10th, 1945 in Sydney as Kevin John Berry / Died: Dec 7th, 2006
Last Changes
2006/12/09
The celebrity has been marked as passed away