Swimmer, born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, N England, UK. He made his international debut in 1980 and went on to win many major titles in a long career at breaststroke. He won Commonwealth Games gold medals in the 100 m in 1982, the 200 m in 1986, and the 100 m in 1990 in which he set a world record of 1:01·49 s. At the Olympic Games in 1988 he took the gold medal in the 200 m.
| Olympic medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Men’s swimming | |||
| Gold | 1988 Seoul | 100 m breaststroke | |
Adrian David Moorhouse MBE (born 24 May 1964) is a British former swimmer who dominated British swimming in the late 1980s. He won the 100 m breaststroke gold medal at the Seoul Olympics.
In 1980 he was selected for the England Junior team and broke the national junior records for both the 100 m and 200 m breaststroke.
Moorhouse became Britain’s number one breaststroke swimmer in 1981 when he won a bronze medal for the 200 m in the European Championships in Yugoslavia. The following year he gained his first taste of gold after winning the 100 m breaststroke at the Commonwealth Games in Australia.
At the Los Angeles Olympics in 1984, Moorhouse was tipped for a gold medal in the 100 m breaststroke but missed out completely coming fourth.
He celebrated his comeback in April 1985 when he broke the World Short Course (25 m pool) record for the 100 m, and went on to win the European Championship gold medal in Bulgaria.
In 1986, Moorhouse suffered another setback to rank with his Olympic debacle, finishing first in the World Championships in Madrid but being disqualified for an illegal turn.
In 1987, putting the Madrid episode behind him, Moorhouse became the first person in history to swim 100 m breaststroke in under a minute, out-swimming the former world record holder, Rolf Beab, in front of a partisan German crowd in Bonn, in a time of 59.75 s.
Moorhouse started Olympic year, 1988, on the right note by winning the 100 m breaststroke at the US Indoor Championships to confirm his status as number one in the world. In September he achieved a lifetime’s ambition at Seoul when, following in the footsteps of David Wilkie and Duncan Goodhew, he won Olympic gold in the 100 m breaststroke.
Rivalry with Victor Davis
Perhaps the most enduring memories of Adrian Moorhouse's career arise from his arch-rivalry with the late Victor Davis of Canada.
Victor Davis first encountered Adrian Moorhouse at the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane, with Davis taking gold in the 200 m breaststroke, whilst Moorhouse took the gold in the 100 m breaststroke.
They met again later at the 1982 World Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador, but this time Davis had the upper hand in both events, taking the gold in the 200 m and silver in the 100 m. Moorhouse, also in his first World Championships, only managed to finish 5th in the 100 m, and 7th in the 200 m. The 1984 Games were perhaps Victor Davis’ finest competition, as he took gold in the 200 m and silver in the 100 m. Having had severe tonsilitis just days before the start of the Games, he finished 4th in the 100 m and 6th in the 200 m.
At the time of the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh, Victor Davis was universally recognised as the finest breastroker in the world. Now the European Champion, he surprised Davis by sneaking the gold in the 200 m event.
By the time of the 1986 World Championships in Madrid, the world swimming media were hyping up the 100 m breaststroke event as ‘the event of the championships’, knowing that it would inevitably prove to be another great battle between Victor Davis and Adrian Moorhouse. Davis couldn’t contain Moorhouse over the final 25 m, and Moorhouse took the 100 m gold in a new European Record of 1.02.01 secs.
The officials decided to disqualify Moorhouse for an ‘illegal turn’, stating that he had used a butterfly kicking action during the underwater phase of the 50 m turn.
The British camp tried to appeal against the decision, but the call of the ‘turn judge’ was upheld and Victor Davis was awarded the gold medal, leaving Moorhouse with absolutely nothing. Later in the same championships, Davis went on to take silver in the 200 m breaststroke — beaten by the emerging Hungarian swimmer, Josef Szabo. Meanwhile, Moorhouse withdrew from the 200 m event with a strained adductor muscle.
The final encounter between Davis and Moorhouse at the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, which also proved to be Davis’ final international competition. Davis had performed poorly at the Canadian Olympic Trials, and had surprisingly not made the team in the 200 m breaststroke, whilst Moorhouse was now in the form of his life.
Davis, still the Canadian Record Holder at 1:01.99, was only ranked 6th in the world going into the 1988 Olympics and no-one really knew what kind of shape he was going to be in.
In the anticipation before the final, many people believed that Moorhouse was the slight favourite, but some pundits still had the feeling that Davis had one more great swim left up his sleeve. As the first 50 m unfolded, Dmitri Volkov of the USSR powered into a 2-metre lead, whilst Davis was now being matched stroke for stroke by Moorhouse. Volkov touched first at the 50 m mark in 28.12s, setting a new 50 metre breaststroke world record.
In an extremely close finish, Moorhouse took the gold in 1:02.04, just ahead of Guttler’s time of 1:02.05, only one one-hundredth of a second separating the two of them.
The bronze medal was won by Volkov, in a time of 1:02.20, leaving Victor Davis in 4th place, with a time of 1:02.38.
Later career and retirement
In 1989 Moorhouse was appointed MBE.
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