UCLA BRUINS - Athletics News
April 17, 2013 | Bruin Athletics
UCLA Produces 58 Olympians in 2000
Fifty-eight former, current and future UCLA athletes and coaches will represent the United States and six foreign countries as 2000 Olympians.
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Over the past nine decades, 389 men and women athletes, coaches and trainers have represented UCLA in the Summer Olympic Games. The first two Bruin Olympians participated in 1920, just one year after the founding of the university. Edward S. Butler competed in the long jump and Clyde A. Swendsen was a member of the water polo team.
In 1932, UCLA athletes captured their first gold Olympic medals, winning five gold, one silver and three bronze medals. The gold medals were won by John E. Biby Jr., Richard F. Moore and William H Cooper, three of the 12 crew members of the eight-meter yacht Angelita, skippered by Owen Churchill, and by gymnasts Ray Bass (rope climb) and Dallas Bixler (high bar). Dr. Phillip R. Erenberg earned a silver medal in club swinging, while George G. Jefferson (athletics-pole vault), Thomas F. Connolly (gymnastics-rope climb) and Edward Carmichael (gymnastics-vaulting horse) won bronze medals.
In the 1984 Olympics, 48 former, current and future Bruin athletes represented the United States and 10 foreign countries. UCLA athletes won a total of 36 medals -- 17 gold, 13 silver and six bronze. Gymnast Mitch Gaylord earned four medals (one gold, one silver and two bronze) while fellow gymnast Peter Vidmar captured three (two gold and one silver). In addition, UCLA had 10 current or former coaches on the Olympic staffs of the U.S. or foreign countries.
In 1988, 31 current and former Bruins representing the United States and six other nations earned a total of 22 medals -- 17 gold, four silver and one bronze. If UCLA were a country, it would have placed fourth in the world with its 17 gold medals. Florence Griffith-Joyner (track) led the group with three gold medals.
In 1992, UCLA's 47 athletes and three coaches won a total of 16 medals - eight gold, two silver and six bronze - and participated in all three track and field world records.
UCLA athletes earned 22 medals in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. The 61 competitors and coaches earned 12 gold medals, two silver and eight bronze. Gail Devers and Ato Boldon were double winners, as Devers won gold medals in the 100 meters and the 4x100 meter relay, while Boldon captured bronze medals in the 100 and 200 meters.
The Bruins have had at least one competitor in every Olympics since 1920 with one exception (1924), and UCLA has won a gold medal in every Olympics since 1932 with the exception of 1980 (boycott). Overall, UCLA has won 177 medals - 90 gold, 46 silver and 41 bronze.