At the Munich Olympics in 1972, swimmer Tim McKee, a Malvern Prep grad who grew up in Newtown Square, thought he had won the 400-meter individual medley, writes Barry Svrluga for The Washington Post.
Then, McKee saw the score of Sweden’s Gunnar Larsson.
Both had a “1” after their name, but McKee didn’t tie for the gold.
“I didn’t know at the time, but I was about to be the closest loser in the history of sports,” said McKee, now living in Australia.
Since then, there have been three ties for gold in Olympic swimming: in 1984, 2000, and 2016.
All those tied swimmers got gold medals. McKee, now 68 and retired, did not.
McKee lost his gold medal by two-thousandths of a second.
The final result? Larsson: 4:31.981. McKee: 4:31.983.
“I didn’t know that they thought they had the technology to be able to determine something to the thousandth of a second,” McKee said.
The sad part is, since 1972, no Olympic event is timed to the thousandth of a second.
For his part, McKee is being a good sport about it.
“I felt I was so lucky to have been there to be able to compete,” he said.
Read more about Tim McKee in The Washington Post.
