As a 16-year old High School Junior at the
1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, Nelson received a silver medal for his second-place finish in the
men's 1,500-meter freestyle finishing with a time of 17:03.0. Nelson trailed the first and second place swimmers throughout the race, but came on strong at 1350-meters catching American Alan Wood who was second to Australian Bob Windle. Though he finished close, Nelson was unable to catch Windle, who won the event.
Yale Nelson enrolled in
Yale University, around 1966, where he swam for coach
Phil Moriarty's
Yale Bulldogs swimming and diving team, which included other Olympic-caliber swimmers such as
Don Schollander. Nelson missed much of his Freshman swimming year from illness. For the 1968 Olympics, he was trained by Hall of Fame Coach
Sherm Chavoor at the Arden Hills Swim Club in Sacramento, as were fellow 1968 U.S. team swimming Olympians
Mark Spitz, Mark J. Burton,
John Ferris and
Sue Peterson. Chavoor was one of the early coaches to challenge elite swimmers with "overdistance training", which focused on workouts that gave more total yardage and semi-frequent mid-range and longer distance intervals to build greater endurance and speed. == 1968 Mexico City Olympics ==