Burton won two gold medals in individual events at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City : the 400-meter freestyle and 1,500-meter freestyle . Four years later at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich , Germany , he became the only American ever to repeat as the 1,500-meter freestyle gold medalist , and he also recaptured the world record in the process . While winning gold in the 1972 , Burton also set a new World Record in the 1500 Free . Burton 's repeat proved a stunning win : in the spring of 1972 , Burton had been diagnosed with a vitamin deficiency , and at the U.S. Olympic Trials had barely made the Olympic Team . The Olympic Trials were held in Chicago , Burton failed to make the Olympic team in the 400 freestyle event and the 200 butterflies . On the next to the last day of the Trials , he snuck into the finals of the 1500 when he finished eighth . Burton manager to be able to finish in third to make the team ( at the time , a country could enter up to three athletes per event in swimming ) . At the Munich Games , Burton loved to start out fast and was the early leader even over Australian star Graham Windeatt . Yet , Windeatt fought back and regained the lead . Burton overtook Windeatt on the closing lengths , broke Rick DeMont 's world record and won the gold medal for himself and the United States . The celebration in Munich of his historic repeat , however , was overshadowed by Mark Spitz 's performance at those Games and by the terrorist attack on the Olympic Village , which occurred the day after his race
terrorist attack on the Olympic Village
Munich massacre
Mike Burton (swimmer)