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Victor Davis has competed for Canada Victor Davis has won 1 gold medal at the Olympic Games Victor Davis has won 3 silver medals at the Olympic Games  

Victor Davis was a swimmer who competed for Canada. He competed at the 1984 and 1988 Summer Olympic Games.

Davis was widely regarded as one of the top Canadian swimmers of all-time. He arrived at his first Olympics in 1984 as both the world-record holder and the world champion. He claimed his first individual medal with a silver in the 100 metres breaststroke, trailing the winner Steve Lundquist by 0.34 seconds and cracking the 1:02 barrier. Four days later and swimming in lane five of the 200 metres breaststroke, he strengthened his lead from the start to win his first gold medal. Davis' winning time of 2:13.34 erased his own world record by 2.5 seconds, the largest in an Olympic breaststroke final after six decades. He also helped his teammates Thomas Ponting, Mike West, and Sandy Goss secure a runner-up spot behind the Americans in the 4x100 metres medley relay.

Four years later in Seoul, Davis returned to his second Olympics as the defending champion of the 200 metres breaststroke, but he aimed for another gold in the 100 metres breaststroke instead. Entering the final with a second-fastest time, he suddenly slipped off the podium to fourth by the closest margins. He rebounded from his shocking podium loss to close out his Olympic career with a runner-up finish as the breaststroke swimmer of the Canadian men's 4x100 metres medley relay team.

On 11 November 1989, he was struck by a car following a verbal altercation with the driver outside a Montréal bar. After two days in a coma, he died of a severe skull fracture, coupled with brain and spinal hemmorhage, at a hospital. His ashes were mixed with a quart of water from lane five of the University of Southern California pool and scattered at sea. His heart, liver, kidneys and corneas were transplanted. After his death, the Victor Davis Memorial Fund was established to help young swimmers continue their education while training for international competition.

Olympic Results[]

Year Event Rank
1984 Men's 100m breaststroke Silver
Men's 200m breaststroke Gold
Men's 4x100m medley relay Silver
1988 Men's 100m breaststroke 4th
Men's 4x100m medley relay Silver

1984[]

Discipline Round Time
100 metres breaststroke Heats 1:03.63
A Final 1:01.99 NR
200 metres breaststroke Heats 2:18.20
A Final 2:13.34 WR
4x100 metres medley relay Heats 3:46.12
(1:02.54 split)
Final 3:43.23
(1:02.33 split)
NR

1988[]

Discipline Round Time
100 metres breaststroke Heats 1:02.48
A Final 1:02.38
4x100 metres medley relay Heats 3:44.56
(1:03.14 split)
Final 3:39.28
(1:00.90 split)
NR
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