Olympic swimming champion David Wilkie dead at 70
British Olympic swimming champion David Wilkie has died at the age of 70, his family said on Wednesday. Wilkie, who won 200 metres breaststroke gold for Great Britain at the 1976 Games in Montreal, died on Wednesday after suffering from cancer. "It is with great sadness that the family of David Wilkie MBE announce that he died peacefully surrounded by his family this morning, following his brave battle with cancer," his family said in a statement released to Britain's Press Association news agency: Wilkie also won two Olympic silver medals and three world titles. Born in Colombo, Sri Lanka in 1954 to Scottish parents, Wilkie won his first major medal with a bronze at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, representing Scotland. His first World Championship gold followed in 1973 in Belgrade, and two years later he won both 100m and 200m breaststroke titles in Cali, Colombia. But his finest performance came at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal where Wilkie, who had been training and studying at the University of Miami, broke the US dominance of Olympic swimming by winning 200m breaststroke gold with an outstanding swim, breaking the existing world record by over three seconds. He was the only non-American to win a gold in the men's swimming events in Montreal. Wilkie retired from competitive swimming soon after the Games, at the age of 22, and subsequently became a successful businessman. He is survived by his wife, Helen, and children Natasha and Adam. (AFP)