Jeff Float

Jeff Float
Personal information
Surname:	Jeffrey James Float
Nation:	United States
Swimming style (s) :	Freestyle
Society:	Arden Hills Swim Club, Sacramento
Birthday:	April 10, 1960
Place of birth:	Buffalo
Size:	1.90 m
Weight:	85 kg
Medal table

Jeffrey James "Jeff" Float (born April 10, 1960 in Buffalo ) is a former American freestyle swimmer . In 1984 he was Olympic champion with the 4 × 200-meter freestyle relay . He was the first deaf athlete to win a gold medal in regular Olympics.

Youth and education

At the age of 13 months, Jeff Float lost almost all of his hearing due to life-threatening meningitis : he became 90 percent deaf in the right ear and 65 percent in the left. After finishing school, he began studying psychology at the University of Southern California (USC) , where he worked for the university team, after swimming for his college team. He was bullied at school because of his disability, but he later stated that his success in sport had given him confidence.

Athletic career

When he was seven, Float began swimming at the Arden Hills Swim Club in Sacramento , a club that included world-class athletes like Mark Spitz and Debbie Meyer .

Float achieved success in all ages and at various national levels. In 1977 he took part in the Deaflympics in Bucharest, where he won ten gold medals. In 1980 he qualified for the Olympic Games in Moscow , which were boycotted by the United States. In 1984 he qualified again and was elected team captain by his teammates. The swimming competitions took place in his USC home pool. Together with Mike Heath , David Larson , Bruce Hayes , Geoff Gaberino and Rich Saeger , he won the gold medal in the 4 × 200 meter freestyle relay . In the final, Heath, Larson, Float and Hayes swam a new world record with 7: 15.69 minutes, with which they narrowly won against the West German relay team around Michael Groß . In the individual race over 200 meters, Jeff Float finished fourth. After the games, he ended his active sports career.

Float later reported - who himself likes to refer to his apt surname Float ( swimming or floating on the water ) - that after leaving the pool he saw the audience's fists raised. Then he felt the stamping of his feet and - for the first time in his life - heard the enthusiastic screams of the 17,000 spectators.

Professional

Jeff Float works as a real estate agent, swim coach and motivational speaker. He also invented a training device called the FloatWister .

Web links

• Jeff Float in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Jeff Float on swimrankings.net

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jeff Float - Swim Across America. (No longer available online.) In: swimacrossamerica.org. Archived from the original on August 17, 2016 ; accessed on August 17, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Deaflympics: Jeffrey James FLOAT ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ ^{a b} Jeff Float - Swimming: “If people take strength from what I've done,” he says of overcoming his hearing loss, then that's more important than a gold medal. In: wcspeakers.com. Accessed August 17, 2016 .