Alfred James Swift was a South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

n Olympic Athlete and cyclist.

Swift was born in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa on 25 June 1931. He was awarded provincial colours for Natal (Kwazulu Natal) and then later for Transvaal (Gauteng). He was awarded his springbok colours in 1952 and went to the 3 Olympic games, 1952 in Helsinki, 1956 in Melbourne and captained the South African Team to the 1960 Olympics in Rome. He won Olympic Silver (4 000m Team Pursuit Men 1952) and bronze medals (1 000m Time Trial Men 1956) at the games. He went to 2 British Empire & Commonwealth Games, 1954 in Vancouver, Canada, 1958 in Cardiff, Wales. He won gold (Time Trial) at the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. He was one of only 3 Athletes (of all types) to win South Africa’s highest honour, the Shield of Jove.

He gave back to his sport by serving and being president of South African Cycling Federation and was one of the creators of the Rapport Tour (South Africa's Tour de France). Swift died on 13 April 2009 in Johannesburg, South Africa