Background
Burgess was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
Burgess was born in Baltimore, Maryland.
He attended the Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida, where he swam for the Bolles high school swim team He graduated from Bolles in 1990.
Burgess accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he swam for the Florida Gators swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletics Association (National Collegiate Athletic Association) competition from 1991 to 1994. Burgess received twelve All-American honors as a Gator swimmer. He graduated from the University of Florida with a bachelor"s degree in economics in 1994.
He represented the United States in the 1992 and 1996 Olympic Games.
Four years later at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, he finished sixth in the event final of the men"s 200-meter individual medley with a time of 2:02.56. Burgess joined the United States. Marine Corps in 1997, and has been promoted to the rank of major.
In 2010, Burgess was inducted into the Marine Corps Sports Hall of Fame. Burgess has served two tours of duty in Iraq, and as the Chief of Mission for the United States. military team at the international military games (CISM) for swimming in 2009 (Canada) and 2010 (Germany).
He is one of a select few American Olympians to volunteer for military service.
While in college, he set four American records: two in the 200-meter individual medley and two in the 400-meter individual medley, and was a four-time National Collegiate Athletic Association champion in the same two events in 1993 and 1994. He won a silver medal for his second-place performance in the men"s 200-meter individual medley at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, finishing with a time of 2:00.97.
