About Scott Leary
John Scott Leary (December 29, 1881 – July 1, 1958) was an American freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri. He won a silver medal in the 50-yard freestyle and a bronze in the 100-yard freestyle. Leary is widely acclaimed for helping to introduce his use of the Australian crawl to American swimming spectators and competitors and for breaking the world record in the 100-yard swim in July, 1905, with a time of 60 seconds. Born on December 29, 1881 in Shasta, California, Leary is believed to have first joined San Francisco's Olympic Club around 1899 at the age of 17. In June 1901, the San Francisco Call reported that Leary had set a new world record in the 50 yard swimming sprint, then known as the dash with a time of 29.2 seconds, though it seems probable English swimmer John Derbyshire had already eclipsed that time. In January 1906, the Call reported Leary had set a new American amateur record in that distance with the time of 26.2, 0.4 seconds faster than the previous record set by J.W. Lawrence in 1905. In August 1901, the Call reported that Leary had set a new American record in the 100 yard swim with a time of 1:03.5, besting the prior record by 2.5 seconds.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.