Keith Cawthon Converse (September 12, 1957 – August 8, 2024) was an American college swimming coach and competition swimmer. He was one of the United States' pre-eminent distance swimmers during the 1970s, competing at the 1976 Summer Olympics and setting a pair of NCAA records while swimming for the Alabama Crimson Tide swim team at the University of Alabama, coached by Don Gambril. On March 26, 1977, he set an NCAA record and became the first man in swimming history to break the 15-minute barrier in the mile on his way to winning the 1,650-yard freestyle when he clocked 14:57.30 at the NCAA Championships in Cleveland, Ohio.
Converse also set the NCAA record in the 1,000-yard freestyle during a dual meet at Auburn University. Prior to his record-shattering performances in 1977, Converse swam as a member of the 1976 U.S. Olympic Team as an 18-year-old, placing ninth in the men's 400-meter freestyle.
He was the head swimming coach at the Air Force Academy from 1988-2017. From 1988-1996 he was the head coach for both the men's and women's teams. During this time, the men's team went from last in the Western Athletic Conference to second, and the women made AFA history by winning two NCAA Division II championships in a row (1995 & 1996). In 1997, Converse moved his focus to the women's team as they changed from DII to NCAA Division I. Converse retired from coaching in 2017 as the winningest coach in AFA history.[1]
Converse was also the author of Munich to Montreal: Olympic Swimming in a Tarnished Golden Era, a book that explores the East German doping scandal in 1970 women's swimming, and the American women who fought against it. While writing, Converse worked as a consultant for The Last Gold, a documentary produced by USA Swimming to tell the same story.
