Jack George Neil Taylor (January 31, 1931 – May 30, 1955) was an American competition swimmer and Olympic medalist. At the

1952 Summer Olympics The 1952 Summer Olympics ( fi, Kesäolympialaiset 1952; sv, Olympiska sommarspelen 1952), officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad ( fi, XV olympiadin kisat; sv, Den XV olympiadens spel) and commonly known as Helsinki 1952 ( sv, Helsin ...

in Helsinki, Finland, as a 21-year-old, he received a bronze medal for his third-place finish in the event final of the men's 100-meter backstroke. Taylor was born in

Akron, Ohio Akron () is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is located on the western edge of the Glaciated Allegheny Plateau, about south of downtown Cleveland. As of the 2020 Census, the city prop ...

. He attended

Ohio State University The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best publ ...

, where he swam for the

Ohio State Buckeyes The Ohio State Buckeyes are the intercollegiate athletic teams that represent Ohio State University, located in Columbus, Ohio. The athletic programs are named after the colloquial term for people from the state of Ohio and after the state tre ...

swimming and diving team in

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) competition from 1950 to 1952. He later became a naval aviator in the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

; he died practicing aircraft carrier landings near

Guantanamo Bay Naval Base Guantanamo Bay Naval Base ( es, Base Naval de la Bahía de Guantánamo), officially known as Naval Station Guantanamo Bay or NSGB, (also called GTMO, pronounced Gitmo as jargon by members of the U.S. military) is a United States military bas ...

Cuba Cuba ( , ), officially the Republic of Cuba ( es, República de Cuba, links=no ), is an island country comprising the island of Cuba, as well as Isla de la Juventud and several minor archipelagos. Cuba is located where the northern Caribbea ...

at the age of 24. He is a member of Ohio State University's sports hall of fame.OhioStateBuckeyes.com
Men's Varsity "O" Hall of Fame
. Retrieved October 4, 2012.

References

1931 births 1955 deaths American male backstroke swimmers Ohio State Buckeyes men's swimmers Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in swimming Swimmers from Akron, Ohio Swimmers at the 1952 Summer Olympics United States Naval Aviators Medalists at the 1952 Summer Olympics United States Navy officers Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1955 Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Cuba 20th-century American people {{US-swimming-bio-stub

See also

References