Rick Carey

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Medal record
Men’s Swimming
Competitor for Image:Flag of the United States.svg United States
Olympic Games
Gold	1984 Los Angeles	100m Backstroke
Gold	1984 Los Angeles	200m Backstroke
Gold	1984 Los Angeles	4x100m Medley
Pan Pacific Games
Gold	1985 Tokyo	100m Backstroke
Gold	1985 Tokyo	200m Backstroke

Richard ("Rick") John Carey (born March 13, 1963 in Mount Kisco, New York) was an American backstroke swimmer of the 1980s who won three gold medals at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. He broke nine world records, five individually, and also was a double world champion. He was named as the World Swimmer of the Year in 1983 by Swimming World magazine.

Carey was selected to make his international debut at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, but had to withdraw when the American team boycotted the Olympics due to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. In 1981 Carey was the American champion in both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke, setting a national record in the latter, after moving to the University of Texas at Austin to train under Eddie Reese. In 1982 he collected gold in the 200 m backstroke and 4x100 m medley relay, and silver in the 100m backstroke at the World Championships in Guayaquil, Ecuador.

In 1983, Carey set world records of 55.38 s in the 100 m and 1:58.93 s in the 200 m backstroke, breaking marks set in 1976 by John Naber. At the Pan-American Games that year in Caracas, Venezuela, he lowered the 100 m record to 55.19 s and he also won the 200 m event. He also broke the world record in the 4x100m medley relay, along with Steve Lundquist, Matt Gribble and Rowdy Gaines, all of whom were world record holders in their respective disciplines. This earned him the World Swimmer of the Year award.

At the 1984 Summer Olympics, he won both backstroke events and again was part of the winning medley relay team. Carey created a minor controversy after his victory in the 200m backstroke, when despite winning Olympic gold, he appeared noticeably unhappy about having failed to break his own world record time. He later apologized and responded much more positively to his 100m win, despite the fact that it too fell short of his own world record. He continued to win events at a national level thereafter, retiring in 1986.

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Olympic champions in men's 100 m backstroke

v • d • e Olympic champions in men's 200 m backstroke
1900: Ernst Hoppenberg \| 1964: Jed Greaf \| 1968: Roland Matthes \| 1972: Roland Matthes \| 1976: John Naber \| 1980: Sándor Wladár \| 1984: Rick Carey \| 1988: Igor Polyanskiy \| 1992: Martin López-Zubero \| 1996: Brad Bridgewater \| 2000: Lenny Krayzelburg \| 2004: Aaron Peirsol

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Olympic champions in men's 4x100 m medley relay

1960: USA (McKinney, Hait, Larson, Farrell) | 1964: USA (Thompson Mann, Craig, Schmidt, Clark) | 1968: USA (Hickcox, McKenzie, Russell, Walsh) | 1972: USA (Stamm, Bruce, Spitz, Heidenreich) | 1976: USA (Naber, Hencken, Vogel, Montgomery) | 1980: Australia (Kerry, Evans, Tonelli, Brooks) | 1984: USA (Carey, Lundquist, Morales, Gaines) | 1988: USA (Berkoff, Schroeder, Biondi, Jacobs) | 1992: USA (Rouse, Diebel, Morales, Olsen) | 1996: USA (Rouse, Linn, Henderson, Hall, Jr.) | 2000: USA (Krayzelburg, Moses, Crocker, Hall, Jr.) | 2004: USA (Peirsol, Hansen, Crocker, Lezak)