Geoffrey Steven Gaberino (born July 18, 1962) is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic gold medalist, and former world record-holder. Gaberino was a member of two national championship college teams and a four-time college national champion in relay events.

Early years

Geoff Gaberino was born in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

in 1962.Sports-Reference, Olympic Sports
Geoff Gaberino
. Retrieved June 7, 2010. He was a standout swimmer at the

Baylor School Baylor School, commonly called Baylor, is a private, coeducational college-preparatory school in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Founded in 1893, the school currently sits atop a 690-acre campus and enrolls students in grades 6-12, including boarding stu ...

Chattanooga, Tennessee Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...

, and led the team to an Eastern Prep School Championship in 1980.Swim Across America, Olympians
Geoff Gaberino
Retrieved July 14, 2010.

College swimming career

Gaberino attended the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where he swam for coach

Randy Reese Randy Reese (born 1946) is an American college and Olympic swimming coach. Reese is best known for coaching the Florida Gators swimming and diving teams of the University of Florida to four national championships, and coaching the winners of ei ...

Florida Gators swimming and diving The Florida Gators swimming and diving program represents the University of Florida in the aquatics sports of swimming and diving. The program includes separate men's and women's teams, both of which compete in Division I of the National Coll ...

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 an ...

(NCAA) competition from 1981 to 1984.
Florida Swimming & Diving 2014–15 Media Supplement
'', University Athletic Association, Gainesville, Florida, pp. 78, 79, 83, 84, 87, 101 (2014). Retrieved March 5, 2015. Gaberino won four NCAA championships and five SEC titles as a member of the Gators' winning relay teams in the 4x100-yard and 4x200-yard events. A fifteen-time All-American at the University of Florida, Gaberino served as team captain in 1983 and 1984 when the Gators men's swim team won back-to-back NCAA national team championships. Gaberino graduated from Florida with his bachelor's degree in 1984 and his master's degree in business administration in 1988.

International swimming career

Gaberino qualified to represent the United States at the

1984 Summer Olympics The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

in Los Angeles. He earned a gold medal by swimming for the winning U.S. team in the preliminary heats of the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay.Associated Press,
Add 3 / U.S. gold total at 9
" ''The Indiana Gazette'', p. 14 (July 31, 1984). Retrieved March 5, 2015. The American team of

David Larson David Erwin Larson (born June 25, 1959) is an American former competition swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and former world record-holder. Larson is a Georgia native who became an All-American college swimmer for the University of Flori ...

, Bruce Hayes and Richard Saeger set a new world record in the Olympic preliminary heat (7:18.87), only for the Americans to break the record again in the event final later on the same day. Gaberino has been inducted into the Tennessee Swimming Hall of Fame, Chattanooga Sport Hall of Fame, Baylor School Sport Hall of Fame, and the

University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame The University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame includes over 300 former Florida Gators athletes who represented the University of Florida in one or more intercollegiate sports and were recognized as "Gator Greats" for their athletic excellence ...

as a "Gator Great" in 1996. UF Hall of Fame inductees
" ''The Gainesville Sun'', p. 2C (April 12, 1996). Retrieved March 5, 2015.

Life after swimming

Gaberino and his wife Susan live with their two sons, Wilson and Spencer, in

Gulf Shores, Alabama Gulf Shores is a resort city in Baldwin County, Alabama, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 9,741. Geography Gulf Shores is located on the Gulf of Mexico at 30°16'4.069" North, 87°42'5.285" West (30.267797, −87.70 ...

, where they own a small vacation rental property management company. Gaberino serves on an Alabama City of Excellence (ACE) Economic Development Committee, and is a board member of The Academy of Arts & Sciences. He has served on The Waterway Commission in addition to coaching youth baseball and serving as a

Boy Scout A Scout (in some countries a Boy Scout, Girl Scout, or Pathfinder) is a child, usually 10–18 years of age, participating in the worldwide Scouting movement. Because of the large age and development span, many Scouting associations have split ...

leader. Gaberino is also a veteran celebrity swimmer for Swim Across America, a charitable organization that uses former Olympians to raise funds for cancer research, in which he has participated for the past decade. His role in the "Olympic Day in the Middle School" program earned him the honor of being asked in the 1996 Olympics opening ceremony to be one of the eight bearers of the Olympic flag at the beginning of the games.

World records

Men's 4×200-meter medley relay

References

Bibliography

* De George, Matthew,
Pooling Talent: Swimming's Greatest Teams
', Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, Maryland (2014). .

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaberino, Geoff 1962 births Living people American male freestyle swimmers Florida Gators men's swimmers World record setters in swimming Olympic gold medalists for the United States in swimming Sportspeople from Dallas Swimmers at the 1984 Summer Olympics People from Gulf Shores, Alabama Medalists at the 1984 Summer Olympics