Portal:University of Oxford/Selected biography/77

Davis Tarwater (born 1984) is an American swimmer who won gold at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London for his contributions in the heats of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay. He grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and began competitive swimming at age seven. During high school, he set three state swimming records and was named High School Swimmer of the Year in 2002. He attended the University of Michigan, where he was a three-time NCAA national champion and won a Big Ten Medal of Honor for being the school's top student-athlete. Tarwater has represented the United States in the World Championships three times, winning a gold medal as part of the 4×200-meter freestyle relay team in 2009. He has won three individual and five relay national titles, and set an American record in the 200-meter butterfly in 2011. In 2004, 2008 and 2012, he narrowly missed making the Olympic team in the 200-meter butterfly. After failing to make the Olympic team in 2008, he retired from swimming and obtained a Master's degree in Latin American Studies at St Antony's College, Oxford, returning to swimming full-time in 2010.