Harrison Glancy, 98; Swimmer Won Gold on Weissmuller Team

Harrison Smith Glancy, 98, who won a swimming gold medal and set a world record at the 1924 Olympics as part of a relay team that included Johnny Weissmuller, died Sunday of heart failure at his home in New Orleans.

A native of Ben’s Run, W.Va., Glancy and his family moved to Pittsburgh when he was 14. It was there that he took up swimming after working as a towel boy at a local health club.

A 19-year-old Glancy swam the first leg for the 800 freestyle relay team that set a world record at the Paris Summer Games. Weissmuller, who later starred as Tarzan in movies, anchored that team.

A winner of three AAU national championships, Glancy was a member of three relay teams that set world records.

A Gulf Oil Co. executive before retiring in 1969, Glancy served as a judge at three Olympics. He was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1990.