Mehmet Uğur Taner (born June 20, 1974) is a retired Turkish-born American swimmer. Taner was born in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

, the son of Erol and Gulcin Taner, who moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

one year later. He attended high school at Newport High School in

Bellevue, Washington Bellevue ( ) is a city in the Eastside region of King County, Washington, United States, located across Lake Washington from Seattle. It is the third-largest city in the Seattle metropolitan area and has variously been characterized as a s ...

, where he excelled in swimming. The summer after his senior year, he swam for Turkey in the

1992 Summer Olympics The 1992 Summer Olympics ( es, Juegos Olímpicos de Verano de 1992, ca, Jocs Olímpics d'estiu de 1992), officially known as the Games of the XXV Olympiad ( es, Juegos de la XXV Olimpiada, ca, Jocs de la XXV Olimpíada) and commonly known as ...

. He swam for

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

and was on the US national team from 1993 to 2000, winning nine national individual titles as well as 1994 world champion in the 4 × 100 m freestyle

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

. In 2000, Taner married another internationally recognized swimmer, Liesl Kolbisen, and began to work at her family's swim school, La Petite Baleen. Taner and Kolbisen have 7 children together. A son, Brooks, was born in 2001; daughter Channing followed in 2003; son Vaughn in 2006; daughter Charis in 2008; son Grey in 2010; son Canaan in 2013; and daughter Sevilen in 2017. Since January 2006, Taner has been playing guitar with the Matt Nightingale Band as well as numerous churches including Mount Hermon.

External links

* * Living people 1975 births American people of Turkish descent Turkish male freestyle swimmers American male freestyle swimmers Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Olympics Turkish guitarists Olympic swimmers of Turkey World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming 21st-century guitarists California Golden Bears men's swimmers {{US-swimming-bio-stub