Member 1975, 1980 - 1989

USMS National Records – 14 Lifetime
USMS All American Honors – 8 years, 24 Individual
USMS Top Ten Achievements – 56 Individual
NE LMSC Individual Records – 33 Lifetime

Bill started swimming competitively at age 17, as a premed student at Springfield College in his hometown of Springfield, MA. “I’d always wanted to be an athlete in high school, but I was always the first kid cut from the baseball, basketball and football squads.” Red Silvia his college coach, saw something in a freshman who was for all intents and purposes a non-swimmer. Bill had the drive, ambition and intelligence to follow though.

Five years after joining the Springfield swim team, Yorzyk surprised every coach who had ever doubted his athletic ability. The 22-year-old competitor won a gold medal in the 200-meter butterfly at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, Australia. He also set a world record of 2:18.03 for the event, which made its Olympic debut that year.

“Nobody, but nobody, thought I would get a gold medal, much less a world record.” Yorzyk finished 10 yards ahead of the nearest competitor. “Getting that gold medal draped abound my neck in Melbourne was the most thrilling moment of my life, a very patriotic feeling.”

Yorzyk was the first competitor to swim the “dolphin-butterfly” stroke, using two kicks to one arm cycle, the first to use the every other stroke breathing cycle and the first to apply such principles of physics as the law of levers and the bending the elbow during the propulsive phase of the arm stroke, the laws of inertia in the arm stroke recovery.

After graduating in 1960 from the University of Toronto Medical School, Yorzyk established a private practice in anesthesiology and took a lengthy hiatus from his sport.

The New England All Time Top Tens show that back in 1975 Bill made a brief first appearance in Masters competition. “At age 40, I found myself fat and lazy”. Yorzyk quickly proved he could still race with the best. It was from 1981 through 1984 that Bill took Masters swimming most seriously. In 1983 at the age of 50, Bill set NE records in 12 events and a World Record in the 200 Fly. In 1989 at the age of 55 he set NE records in 4 events.

After 1984 Bill laid low until 1988 (an age up year to the 55-59 age group) and competed at 1988 and 1989 SC Nationals in Austin Texas and Boca Raton Florida. 1989 was the last year he competed (reconstructive shoulder surgery) earning All American honors in the Men’s 55-59 SCY 200 Fly.

The January 1990 issue of The Main Event, a sports journal for physicians, selected the 10 best physician-athletes of all time. Bill was selected for swimming (other notables – Tenley Albright – figure skating, Roger Bannister – track and field, Sammy Lee - diving, Benjamin Spock – rowing).

“Swimming in Masters events actually makes me look forward to getting older.”