Robert Earl Bennett is an American former competition swimmer, Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder.
Education
Bennett attended the University of Southern California ( University of Southern California), where he competed for the University of Southern California Trojans swimming and diving team from 1963 to 1965. He received All-American honors for three consecutive years, and graduated in 1965.
Career
Bennett represented the United States at the 1960 and 1964 Summer Olympics. He also swam for the gold medal-winning United States. team in the heats of the 4×100-meter medley relay, setting a new world record of 4:08.2 in the process. He again swam for the first-place United States. team in the preliminary heats of the 4×100-meter medley relay, but was again ineligible to receive a medal.
Bennett set a new world record of 1.01.3 in the 100-meter backstroke on August 19, 1961.
The record survived for twelve months until broken by American Tom Stock.