After clocking exactly 60.0 sec. for the 100m backstroke in September 1964 for a world record, Thompson Mann, of the University of North Carolina, became the first person to break the one-minute barrier when he clocked 59.6 on the opening leg of the 1964 Olympic medley relay final. Representing the North Carolina AC, Mann won all four AAU backstroke titles (short- and long-course) in 1965. At the 1965 Universiade he won a bronze medal in the 100 backstroke and a gold medal in the medley relay. He had grown up in Richmond, Virginia where he swam for the Country Club of Virginia.
After college, Mann attended the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, and then did a residency in internal medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. After residency, he stayed in San Francisco where he practiced medicine, later moving back home to set up a practice in Richmond. In his later years, he moved his practice to Newburyport, Massachusetts, although he had to retire from practice prematurely because of health issues. Mann was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1984, and the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame in 1988.
United States