George Prifold Harrison (April 9, 1939 – October 3, 2011) was an American competition
swimmer, Olympic champion, and former world record-holder in three events.[2] He competed at the
1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where he received a gold medal as the lead-off swimmer of the winning U.S. team in the
4×200-meter freestyle relay. Harrison, together with his American relay teammates
Dick Blick,
Mike Troy and
Jeff Farrell, set a new world record of 8:10.2 in the event final.[3]
Individually Harrison won a silver medal in the 400-meter freestyle at the
1959 Pan American Games. He also held the world record in
200-meter individual medley (long course) from August 24, 1956, to July 19, 1958, and the world record in the
400-meter individual medley (long course) from June 24 to July 22, 1960.
Harrison studied at
Acalanes High School, and in 1965 graduated from
Stanford University, where he was a member of
Beta Theta Pi fraternity and was later inducted into the Swimming Hall of Fame. He spent most of his career with Lee & Associates at
Pleasanton, California, working in investment and industrial brokerage.[1] At the time of his death, from complications during surgery, he lived in
Moraga, California.[4]