Bruce Furniss

Furniss was a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic men's swimming team, which was coached by three American swimming giants, Indiana University's Doc Counsilman, Santa Clara Swim Club's George Haines, and the University of Alabama's Don Gambril, all International Swimming Hall of Fame Coaches. The 1976 U.S. Olympic Swim Team is regarded by most sports historians as the most dominating Olympic sports team ever assembled, winning 12 of 13 (92%) possible gold medals and 27 of 35 (77%) possible total medals. Furniss won Olympic gold in the 200-meter freestyle, (one of three Americans to ever win this Olympic event; Mark Spitz in 1972 and Michael Phelps in 2008 being the other two), and the 4×200-meter freestyle relay, setting world records in each event. On July 19, 1976, the second day of the 1976 Olympic swimming program, Furniss won the 200-meter freestyle with a winning time of 1:50.29, leading an American sweep finishing ahead of fellow Americans John Naber (silver) and Jim Montgomery (bronze). Two days later, on July 21, 1976, he teamed up with Naber, Montgomery and Mike Bruner on the 4×200-meter freestyle relay with a winning time of 7:23.22. On that relay, Furniss, who swam the second leg, became the first person ever to break the 1:50 second barrier, splitting 1:49.56 (53.77/55.79).

Furniss also garnered two gold and two silver medals in the 1975 World Aquatics Championships in Cali, Colombia and 1978 World Aquatics Championships in West Berlin.

As a 7-year-old in 1964, Furniss was inspired by the four gold medal performance of American swimmer Don Schollander, who broke the 200-meter freestyle world record ten times during his career. Eleven years later, Furniss became the twelfth of fourteen Americans in history to break the 200-meter freestyle world record. During his career he broke the 200-meter freestyle world record four different times. Furniss laid claim to the 200-meter freestyle world record from 1975 to 1979.

Furniss is the third of four successful aquatic brothers, often referred to as "Orange County California's First Family of Swimming." Older brother Steve Furniss, a two-time swimming Olympian (1972 Olympic bronze medalist and 1976 Olympic team captain), and Bruce are among a rare group of siblings, in any sport, to make the same Olympic team. Oldest brother, Chip, a USC Collegiate Swimming All-American, finished fifth in the 1972 Olympic Swimming Trials in the 200 meter Butterfly (behind Mark Spitz and Gary Hall Sr). Youngest brother, Craig, also attended USC, where he was a two-time Collegiate All-American Water Polo Player and was USC's Valedictorian of his 1981 graduating class.

The decision by the International Olympic Committee to remove the 200-meter individual medley from the 1976 Summer Olympics robbed Bruce and Steve of the unique opportunity to compete against each other in an Olympic swimming event. However, Bruce and Steve share the distinction as the only known brothers ever to have held and broken one another's world records consecutively. In August of 1975 at the United States Swimming National Championships, Bruce broke Steve's 200-meter individual medley world record in a race in which Steve also competed. In that same meet, Bruce and Steve, swimming for Long Beach Swim Club, shared the equally unique accomplishment, (along with teammates Tim Shaw and Rex Favaro), as the last swim club team to break a swimming relay world record (4×200-meter freestyle relay). Earlier that same summer at the 1975 World Swimming Championships team trials, Furniss also accomplished the rare feat of breaking the same world record twice in the same day (June 18, 1975) in the 200-meter freestyle.

Notably, Furniss's dream of winning a third, and, quite possibly, a fourth Olympic Gold Medal was thwarted when the International Olympic Committee removed the 200-meter individual medley and the 4×100-meter freestyle relay (an event the United States had won in all three previous Olympics and both World Championships) from the 1976 Summer Olympics. As the reigning 200-meter individual medley world record-holder from 1975 through 1977, Furniss was the apparent favorite for the event's 1976 Olympic gold medal. Furniss was also United States' third fastest swimmer in the 100-meter freestyle in 1975, and was a member of the world champion and world record-holding quartet (Furniss, Andy Coan, Jim Montgomery & John Murphy) in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, an event the Americans were favored to win in 1976 had the race been swum. Ironically both events were permanently reinstated into the Olympic program eight years later at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, CA..

From 1973 to the end of his career in 1980, while swimming for Long Beach Swim Club, Furniss was coached by two International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) coaches, Dick Jochums and Jon Urbanchek. Prior to their 1973 arrival at Long Beach Swim Club, both Furniss Brothers were coached by another ISHOF inducted coach, Ralph "Flip" Darr, who also coached Gary Hall Sr. and Shirley Babashoff while at Huntington Beach Aquatic Club.