At the Munich Olympics in 1972, swimmer Tim McKee, formerly of Newtown Square, thought he had won the 400-meter individual medley, writes Barry Svrluga for The Washington Post.

Then Tim McKee saw Sweden’s Guinnar Larsson’s score.

Both had a “1” after their name, but McKee didn’t tie for the gold.

“I didn’t know at the time, but I was about to be the closest loser in the history of sports,” said McKee, now living in Australia.

Since then, there have been three ties for gold in Olympic swimming in 1984, in 2000 and in 2016.

All those tied swimmers got gold medals. McKee, now 68 and retired, did not.

McKee lost his gold medal by two-thousandths of a second.

The final result? Larsson: 4:31.981. McKee: 4:31.983.

“I didn’t know that they thought they had the technology to be able to determine something to the thousandth of a second,” McKee said.

The sad part is, since 1972, no Olympic event is timed to the thousandth of a second.

For his part, McKee is being a good sport about it

“I felt I was so lucky to have been there to be able to compete,” he said.

Read more in The Washington Post about Tim McKee’s so close race.

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