Son of Legend David Wilkie Chasing His Father’s World-Record Time in 200 Breaststroke
At the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal, Great Britain’s David Wilkie captured the gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke, on the strength of a world-record performance of 2:15.11. The effort was the lone gold medal not won by an American athlete, and was the pinnacle mark of Wilkie’s Hall of Fame career. A half-century later, his son is taking aim at his father’s global standard.
According to an article by the BBC, Adam Wilkie, a 33-year-old marketing manager, has announced he will chase his father’s time over the next year. In an effort to complete the goal, the younger Wilkie has left his job and will train full-time with the assistance of a coach and the support of Aquatics GB. David Wilkie died in 2024 and his son will raise money for charity (Sports Aid) through his pursuit.
“I’m going to be getting up to six, seven, eight sessions of swimming a week,” Adam Wilkie told the BBC. “It’s going to be all-encompassing. It’s going to be the hardest thing I’ve ever done. It’s going to be incredibly painful at points and there’ll be moments where I’ll sit on the side of a pool being like: ‘Why the hell did I decide to do this?’ But I’m trying to pay homage to my father, keep his memory alive in my own mind and test myself. I’m testing myself against the yardstick of the greatest man I knew, who was my dad.”
Adam Wilkie last took the sport seriously as an 18-year-old. As for his father, his 1976 Olympic title was complemented by a silver medal in the 100 breaststroke. He also claimed silver in the 200 breaststroke at the 1972 Games in Munich, and was a five-time medalist at the World Championships.
“Doing this challenge has allowed me to go back through his life,” Adam Wilkie told the BBC. My dad retired at 22, long before I came along, so it’s a part of his life that I didn’t necessarily know that much about. I’m hoping I’ve got a lot of his swimming genes, so we’ll see as the year unfolds. I want this story to demonstrate how amazing swimmers are, how hard this sport is and how much effort, time and work these guys and girls put in to get to where they are. And I want to demonstrate how good my dad was.”