John Scott Leary (December 29, 1881 – July 1, 1958) was an American freestyle swimmer who competed in the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis, Missouri.

[1][2][3] Born on December 29, 1881 in Shasta, California, Leary is believed to have first joined San Francisco's Olympic Club around 1899 at the age of 17.

[1] Leary originally tied in the final heat of the 50-yard freestyle with Hungarian Zoltan Halmay, as both swimmers recorded a time of 28.2 .

However, the final heat of the event was controversial, and when Leary claimed Halmay had tried to hold him to prevent him from finishing near the end of the race, the swim was repeated.

Sydney Cavill held an Australian swimming championship and after arriving in America around 1899 with his brothers, began coaching at the Olympic club around 1905, continuing until his retirement in 1929.

[13][14] After instruction from Sydney Cavill, Leary began to dominate American swimming in sprint events in 1905 and 1906 moving to the Australian crawl and dropping the Trudgeon stroke.

[15][16][17] Eventually swimmer Charlie Daniels began using the Australian crawl as well and resumed his prior place as America’s leading swimming competitor.

He was buried at Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery in Colma, California, as had been his wife Hellen Wollenberg Leary of 32 years, who predeceased him on August 7, 1943.