John Arthur Jarvis

Jarvis waits in a boat to start at the 1900 Olympic Games

John Arthur Jarvis (born February 24, 1872 in Leicester , † May 9, 1933 in St Pancras ) was a British swimmer and multiple Olympic champion.

Jarvis lived in Leicester and worked there as a house painter . He was a member of the Leicester Swimming Club . As a swimmer, he had an extraordinary talent. Although he was a specialist in long-distance swimming , this did not prevent him from being active in water polo and even water jumping , and this was quite successful. In addition, he was constantly engaged in improving swimming styles and was involved in water rescue .

At the Olympic Games in Paris in 1900 he was Olympic champion over 1000 m and 4000 m. Jarvis was also entered for the British water polo team, which won the gold medal. It is not certain whether it was actually used, especially since it was not a member of the participating team from Osborne Swimming Club Manchester . In the official list of winners of the IOC he is therefore not listed as a medalist in water polo, but only with his two gold medals in swimming.

Jarvis still preferred the side swim at the games. Two years later he added a hand flip to this swimming style and developed a special leg kick with British professional swimmer Joey Nuttall , the Jarvis-Nuttall kick . With this style he won the Kaiserpreis in Berlin in 1902 . However, he was not allowed to take the trophy back to his home country, England, and instead received a photograph.

The high travel costs to the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis were one reason why only 3 athletes competed for the United Kingdom at the time  . Jarvis was still one of the world's best swimmers at the time, and it undoubtedly robbed him of his chances of further Olympic success.

At the Olympic Intermediate Games in Athens in 1906 he was there again. In the one mile competition , he finished second (silver) behind his compatriot Henry Taylor , and over 400 m he finished third (bronze). With the British team he achieved another bronze medal in the relay competition over 4 × 250 m.

Jarvis won 108 championship titles in his career, many of them were named world champions , but at the time the various events were not official championships in their current form. He was able to win 28 British championship titles, including a title in diving in 1904. He held several world records, even if they had no official status at the time. Jarvis also had bizarre top performances to offer, for example in 1904 he won the national championships in the head long jump with 22.98 m. In this discipline you had to stay under water for as long as possible without swimming strokes after a pike jump. The distance was measured after a minute or earlier. This discipline, popular at the time, which was held at the Olympic Games in 1904, was not officially recognized by the IOC.

After retiring from active sports, he became a theorist and was nicknamed Professor Jarvis . As early as 1902, he had dealt with the theory of different swimming styles in his book The Art of Swimming . He also worked actively and as an instructor for water rescue. Even abroad, on the occasion of various swimming competitions, he taught various techniques of water rescue.

In 1968 he was inducted into the international swimming pool 's hall of fame .

Web links

• John Arthur Jarvis in the International Swimming Hall of Fame (English)
• John Arthur Jarvis in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )