And how about gorgeous "Boy" Charlton?
Andrew Murray Charlton (12 August 1907 – 10 December 1975), known popularly as Boy Charlton, was an Australian freestyle swimmer of the 1920s and 1930s who won a gold medal in the 1500 m freestyle at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris.
"Physiologists had become involved in sport at the time of the Paris Olympics and Charlton's lung capacity was tested with a machine, which blew mercury through a set of bent tubes. They could not believe his lung capacity. It was the highest lung capacity of anyone they had rated at that time - only 16 years of age."
He was like the Phar Lap of swimming
He set five world records and also won a further three silver and one bronze medal in his Olympic career.
Yet refused to go professional, instead chose to live his life on the land he loved.
His son, Murray Charlton, said on ABC's Australian Story, "...Probably smoked up until the last five years of his death, but he had emphysema, so really, once he got emphysema, he couldn't even smoke.
Er, that was the irony of it. And he yeah, it was certainly what killed him in the end. I mean, yeah. Which was, I thought, was very sad, coming from a world champion, to die of cigarettes.
It was very sad, I thought. It's like the gods… I mean, if you're a wonderful artist, they usually take your sight away. And I think that's probably what they did with him, in that they took these wonderful lungs away with cigarettes."
Phwoar!
Apparently the movie talent scouts were all after him like Johnny Weissmueller who was the original Tarzan, but he declined. Didn't want to be filmed running around after crocodiles and monkeys lol.
