John Davies (swimmer)

Australian American swimmer and judge (1929–2020)

John Griffith Davies (17 May 1929
– 24 March 2020) and tied the world record in the 200 m breaststroke (long course). After retiring from competition swimming, he became a lawyer in California and, after becoming a naturalized American, was appointed a United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Central District of California by President Ronald Reagan in 1986, and presided over the trial of the Los Angeles Police Department officers charged with assaulting Rodney King. His time was faster than the bronze medallist's but the judges ranked him as 4th. After the Games, Davies enrolled at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he trained under the guidance of Hall of Fame coach Matt Mann and became a two time All American. Without scholarship support being available for swimmers during that era, he pursued a political science degree, while supporting himself by washing dishes and working at the International Student Centre. Mann also altered Davies's style, changing from the even paced racing of Carlile to an early attack oriented style of swimming. Davies managed a second placing at the 200yd breaststroke at the NCAA Championships in 1948 but failed to place in 1949 and 1950. In 1951 he won the 200m breaststroke at the AAU National Outdoor Championships and in 1952 won the 200yd breaststroke short course at the NCAA Championships setting a new world record of 2:21.9 Davies, Stassforth, and Klein were the only three swimmers to better 2:35 in history in the 200 m breaststroke (long course) prior to the bifurcation of the stroke in 1953.

Davies graduated from the UCLA School of Law in 1959. He became a U. S. citizen in 1960. In January 1991, Davies found that the no obscenity clause in National Endowment for the Arts grants violated the Constitution's Free Speech Clause. In April 1996, Davies overturned the state conviction of Charles Keating for his involvement in the savings and loan scandal due to flawed jury instructions. In June 1998, Davies mediated the $400 million settlement which Merrill Lynch agreed to pay for its role in causing the Orange County, California bankruptcy. In 1993, Davies presided over the federal retrial of four Los Angeles Police Department officers for the beating of Rodney King. The United States Federal Sentencing Guidelines recommend the offenders serve up to ten years in prison. Instead, Davies sentenced the offenders to 30 months. Davies' sentencing was vacated by the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in August 1994 for violating the sentencing guidelines. Davies faced widespread public criticism for the lightness of the sentences he delivered to the former police officers. Retired U. S. District Court Judge Robert C. Bonner said of his former colleague: "He was one of the best federal judges ever to serve, and to my knowledge the only Olympic gold medalist to become a federal judge. In my view, he was the judge who saved L. A. with his superb handling of the federal civil rights trial of the police who beat Rodney King. We have lost a great judge and a good friend. He was also a masterful trial lawyer before his appointment to the bench." and the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1992. He received an Australian Sports Medal in 2000.

The world record for the 200 metre breaststroke prior to the bifurcation of the butterfly breaststroke into separate strokes in 1953 could be accomplished in either short or long course pools. FINA recognised only one world record for the 200 metre breaststroke. The 1952 US Olympic Book lists the 200 metre breaststroke world record as belonging to Herbert Klein with a time of 2:27.3 who swam it in a short course pool. If records were measured as they are today in long and short course pools, Davies tied Herbert Klein's long course world record of 2:34.4 for the 200 metre breaststroke set on August 13, 1950, in Göppingen, Germany at their 1952 Olympic final.