Bill Woolsey

Bill Woolsey

Woolsey (far left), and the 1952 Olympic Gold Medal 4x200m free relay team
Personal information
Full name	William Tripp Woolsey
National team	United States
Born	(1934-09-13)September 13, 1934 Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii, U.S.
Died	June 25, 2022(2022-06-25) (aged 87) California, U.S.
Height	6 ft 0 in (1.83 m)
Weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
College team	Indiana University
Coach	Robert A. Royer Doc Counsilman (Indiana)
Medal record Men's swimming Representing the United States Olympic Games 1952 Helsinki 4×200 m freestyle 1956 Melbourne 4×200 m freestyle Pan American Games 1959 Chicago 100 m freestyle Representing Indiana NCAA 1956 Ann Arbor 220 yard freestyle 1956 Ann Arbor 440 yard freestyle 1957 Chapel Hill 220 yard freestyle 1957 Chapel Hill 440 yard freestyle

William Tripp Woolsey (September 13, 1934 – June 25, 2022) was an American competition swimmer and Olympic champion.^[1]

Born on September 13, 1934, in Honolulu, Woolsey was raised in the Manoa Valley, near the shoreline and after taking to the water by six, he was swimming competitively by nine. In his youth he met Soichi Sakamoto, a Boy Scout master on Maui, who also taught school. His swim school was called the Three-year School dedicated to producing outstanding swimmers in three years.^[2] Sakamoto was one of the earliest advocates of interval training in swimming. Though the method could be challenging and uncomfortable, his students trained in irrigation ditches, swimming against the current,^[3] a form of resistance training. Sakamoto would work as an Assistant Coach for the American Olympic team from 1952 through 1956, the years of Woolsey's Olympic participation, and^[3] would become one of Woolsey's primary swimming coaches and mentors.^[2]

Olympic competition[edit]

Woolsey represented the United States at the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland, where he won a gold medal in the men's 4×200-meter freestyle relay with Wayne Moore, Ford Konno and Jimmy McLane.^[4] With Woolsey, the youngest member of the four man team swimming the second leg, the U.S. beat the second place Japanese relay team by two body lengths, and achieved an Olympic record time of 8:31.1^[5]

He won the 1956 Olympic Trials with a time of 57.0, but Olympic competition from the Australians would later be strong.^[2] At the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia, he won a silver medal in the 4×200-meter freestyle relay with University of Michigan swimmer Dick Hanley, George Breen, and Ford Konno, another native Hawaiian.^[6][7] Competing in the finals of the 100-meter freestyle, Woolsey took a sixth place behind strong Australian competition that won the first three places in the event, though in a tight race he finished only .9 seconds from the bronze medal finisher, Australian Gary Chapman.^[2][8] In the 400-meter freestyle preliminaries, Woolsey placed tenth and did not make the finals, and though American George Breen managed to take the Bronze medal, the event, was won by another exceptional Australian, Murray Rose.^[8]

Indiana University[edit]

Woolsey attended McKinley High School in Honolulu, and then Indiana University beginning in 1955, and swam for coach Robert A. Royer's Indiana Hoosiers swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition. After 1956, Doc Counsilman served as an Assistant Coach under Royer, and began to assume fuller coaching responsibilities during Royer's illness in 1957. While at Indiana, Woolsey was twice an NCAA champion, winning a total of four AAU titles and was a recipient of All-American honors on eight occasions. As an Indiana junior in 1956, he won Big Ten titles in the 220-, 440- and 1,650-yard freestyles andd NCAA titles in the 220 and 440.^[9][10]

Woolsey won a bronze at the 1959 Pan American Games in Chicago in the 100 m freestyle with a time of 57.6.^[8][11]

Woolsey had several business ventures in later life including his family's Woolsey Poi company which had a farm in the Manoa Valley, where he grew up. He was a swim instructor for a period at Kaneohe District Park. He later moved to California where he taught swimming, continuing his work as an instructor. Late in life, he was inducted into the Hawai’i Sports Hall of Fame, though not the Indiana University Sports Hall of Fame. An athlete like his grandfather, Woolsey's grandson Ikaika Woolsey, played for the University of Hawaii as a quarterback.^[8]

He became a strong advocate of teaching children to swim, particularly in his home state of Hawaii, and later California, and created a ten lesson learn to swim program, known as the Ho’au learn-to-swim method. Woolsey had other businesses, but he continued to teach swimming into his 70s.^[2]

Woolsey died in California on June 25, 2022, at the age of 87.^[12][13]

See also[edit]

• List of Indiana University (Bloomington) people
• List of Olympic medalists in swimming (men)

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Bill Woolsey". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020.
• Woods, David, Indianapolis Star, Bill Woolsey, IU's First NCAA Champion Dies at 87

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