LAKE OSWEGO, Ore. -- While most of us watch the Olympics and enjoy them, a Lake Oswego man watches and understands them.
Don Schollander was the first swimmer ever to win four gold medals at one Olympic Games. It happened in 1964. It got his picture on the cover of Life magazine.
He remembers feeling loose and confident.
“At 18, it was different because I thought I’d have another four years ahead of me. So I wasn't quite as nervous as I was at 22,” he said.
He'd win two more in 1968, a silver and a gold.
His medals now sit on display in the lobby of Bank of America in downtown Lake Oswego.
“It stays with you because you have that memory and that accomplishment and the self-confidence it does definitely stay with you,” Schollander said.
He used the determination and confidence gained through swimming to forge a successful career as a real estate developer. Along the way, he got married and raised three children. He still lives in Lake Oswego where he grew up and swam in high school.
He's semi-retired now and is watching the Olympics.
“It’s been a lot of fun to watch it,” he said.
He can’t believe how fast the swimmers are now.
“They are beyond belief! I mean they are so far ahead of what we did years and years ago its hard to comprehend!" Schollander said.
"You look at the hundred meter freestyle and 46 seconds is easily six seconds faster than I was going so I’d have to run half the race in order to even get close to them!” said Schollander.