PETER KENDREW was also part of the York City Baths Club relay team, along with Terry Boyes, Alan Clarkson and Roddy Frame, who became national freestyle and medley relay champions.

Along with that esteemed quartet, Rodney Clayden and Elspeth Ferguson ensured that York boasted six GB internationals at a time when the national squads only carried 24 swimmers of each sex.

Kendrew believes two fine coaches were largely responsible for such an impressive stream of talent.

“In the 1950s, York had the best swimming club in the country because of the old St George’s pool and its manager Lawrence Webster, who was a great coach.

“He coached all the different schools in the mornings. That’s how he picked up on any talented children.

“He encouraged me because he knew my family wasn’t well off and that it would be too expensive for me to swim at the local pool so he gave me a free ticket.

“After Lawrence died, Derek Stubbs took over and did as good a job too. They allowed York City Baths Club to train there every day.”

The former St John’s College pool manager still swims two to three times a week “to keep fit” and only stopped competing at Masters level, where he had won a host of national and regional titles, in 2010.

As an international Olympian, he juggled working as a labourer with his sporting commitments.

“Being in Tokyo and taking part was absolutely fantastic,” he said. “We were well looked after and it was such a well-run, pleasant Olympics. It was the last really before political problems began during 1968 and 1972.

“I swam my best-ever time there and, when you train and work so hard, the Olympics are the pinnacle of what you can achieve in sport even though, as amateurs back then, it was hard going.

“I was the oldest member of the team at 24. Most swimmers finished in their teens back then because you couldn’t really afford to keep going.

“I didn’t have a particularly good job and had got married in 1962 but I would be away for three months every year swimming and not getting paid for it. I was lucky to have the support and understanding of my family.”

Swimmers from America won seven of the ten men’s events in 1964 and Kendrew believes that, back then, the British team were light years behind the States in preparation – a gap that has subsequently narrowed.

He said: “If we got together a week before a big meeting, then that was a long time.”

Kendrew’s love of the Olympics has endured and he is looking forward to watching sporting history unfurl on these shores.

He is not as enamoured by the corporate nature of the modern-day Games, saying: “It’s great to have the Olympics in this country although I feel it’s a little bit too commercialised.”