Full name William Victor Mahony Weight 70 kg (150 lb) Nickname(s) "Bill" Sport Swimming | National team Canada Name Bill Mahony Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | |
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Born September 16, 1949 (age 74) ( 1949-09-16 ) New Westminster, British Columbia | ||
William Victor Mahony (born September 16, 1949) is a former breaststroke swimmer who represented Canada in multiple international championships from 1966 to 1974, including two Summer Olympics, the Pan American Games, and two Commonwealth Games.
Mahony began his international career at the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Jamaica, with a bronze medal in the 220-yard breaststroke. In Mexico City for the 1968 Summer Olympics, he competed in the semifinals of the 100-metre breaststroke, the preliminary heats of the 200-metre breaststroke, and the finals of the men's 4×100-metre medley relay.
He attended the University of Michigan, where he swam for the Michigan Wolverines swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) and Big Ten Conference competition from 1969 to 1971. He received All-American honours during each of his three varsity seasons as a college swimmer in the States.
At the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, he won three gold medals in the 100-metre and 200-metre breaststroke, and the 4×100-metre medley relay. In Cali, Colombia for the 1971 Pan American Games, Mahony earned a silver medal as a member of Canada's 4×100-metre medley relay team. At the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, he won a bronze medal in the men's 4×100-metre medley relay, together with Canadian teammates Erik Fish, Bruce Robertson and Robert Kasting.
In his final international event at the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Auckland, New Zealand, he won another gold medal by swimming the anchor leg for the first-place Canadians in the 4×100-metre medley relay, alongside Brian Phillips, Bruce Robertson and Steve Pickell.
From 1977 to 1987 he developed the Adapted Aquatics program at Variety's Treatment Centre in Surrey, British Columbia, and helped to form the British Columbia Branch of the Cerebral Palsy Sports Association. Later, while coaching parapalegic and blind swimmers, he was selected to coach the Canadian swimmers at the 1980 Olympics for the Disabled in the Netherlands. He was awarded Athlete of the Year in New Westminster, and inducted into the BC Swimming Hall of Fame, Canadian Swimming Hall of Fame, and BC Sports Hall of Fame.