Not elder law: For 90 year old Olympian "Swimming is my life"

Adolph Kiefer celebrated his 90th birthday last Friday as he celebrates every day -- with a 30-minute workout in the water.  "Swimming is my life," the Wadsworth resident said. What a life it has been.  Growing up in Chicago, he set a world record in the backstroke as a teenager at Roosevelt High School. At 18, he won the gold medal for the 100-meter backstroke at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, a contest where he met Adolf Hitler.  "I should've thrown him in the pool," Kiefer said. 

In the wake of his Olympic success, Kiefer was invited to Hollywood to audition to play Tarzan in the movies. The 1950s saw him starring in aquatic shows in which he performed diving and swimming stunts -- like racing against seals.  Over the years, he invented about a dozen swimming products, including the first nylon racing suit. A profile in Aquatics International magazine described him as "a combination of Thomas Edison, Abraham Lincoln and George Washington."

Kiefer has spent much of his life trying to expose inner-city kids to swimming -- kids like he was growing up on Chicago's Northwest Side during the Depression.  Last month, Kiefer donated $20,000 in swimming equipment to the Chicago Park District, which is providing lessons to every child enrolled in its summer camp program this year.

More:  http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/newssun/news/1035032,5_1_WA02_KIEFER_S1.article