Matt Biondi

Matthew Nicholas Biondi (born October 8, 1965) is an American former competitive swimmer and water polo player.

As a swimmer, he is an eleven-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in five events.

Though he did not start swimming year-round until he started at Campolindo High School, by his senior year in 1983 Biondi was the top schoolboy sprinter in America with a national high school record of 20.40 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle.

Biondi accepted a scholarship to attend the University of California, Berkeley, to swim and play water polo, and enrolled in 1983.

In his other sport, Biondi was named to an All-American College Water Polo team four times: a third-team selection in 1983, 1985, and 1987, and a second-team selection in 1984.

Biondi's Cal Water Polo teams won NCAA Championships in 1983, 1984, and 1987, and Biondi was voted the team's most valuable player in 1985.

Biondi competed in the Summer Olympic Games in 1984, 1988 and 1992, winning a total of eleven medals (eight gold, two silver and one bronze).

During his career, he set three individual world records in the 50-meter freestyle and four in the 100-meter freestyle.

In his first year, he played on Berkeley's NCAA championship water polo team, and made the consolation finals at the 1984 NCAA Swimming Championships, finishing in ninth place in the 50-yard freestyle and 7th place in both the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events (until 1985 only the top six swimmers advanced to the championship finals) along with a fourth-place finish as part of the 400-yard freestyle relay and a second place in the 800 free relay.

In the summer of 1984, Biondi surprised the swimming community by qualifying for a spot on the United States 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics with his fourth-place finish in the 100-meter freestyle at the Olympic Trials held in Indianapolis.

In 1985, fresh off of his 1984 Olympics success, Biondi won the 100 and 200-yard freestyle events at the NCAA Championships, setting NCAA and American Records in each event, and contributed relay legs on Cal's victorious 400 and 800-yard freestyle relays, with the 400 free relay team also setting NCAA and American records.

He finished second to Tom Jager of UCLA in the 50-yard freestyle and was part of Cal's second place 400-yard medley relay team.

Thanks in large part to Biondi's efforts, the Cal team finished fourth overall in the team standings.

He broke individual NCAA and American records seven times, and was named the NCAA Swimmer of the Year in 1985, 1986, and 1987.

Biondi set the first of his twelve individual swimming world records in 1985.

The next season, 1986, Biondi swept the sprint freestyles, repeating his 1985 victories in the 100 and 200, and adding a win in the 50 with new NCAA and American records in the event.

Cal once again finished first in the 400 and 800 free relays with Biondi anchoring both, but once again fell short in the 400 medley relay finishing third.

By virtue of his three individual victories, Biondi tied with Stanford's Pablo Morales for high-point scorer in the meet in which Cal finished runner-up to Stanford for the team title.

In two World Championships (1986 and 1991), Biondi won 11 medals including six gold.

During his career, he was a finalist for the James E. Sullivan Award, the UPI Sportsman of the Year, the U.S. Olympic Committee Sportsman of the Year, and selected twice as the Swimming World magazine Male Swimmer of the World, in 1986 and 1988.

In his final collegiate season, 1987, Biondi repeated as winner in the 50, 100, and 200-yard freestyle events, breaking his own NCAA and American records in all three.

Having broken the 50 free record in both his preliminary heat and again in the final, he became the first swimmer to break four individual NCAA and American records in the same meet.

Once again Cal repeated as champions in the 400 and 800 freestyle relays, yet again they finished third in the 400 medley relay, and for the second straight year Biondi shared the high-point individual title with Morales.

The Bears finished fifth in the team standings.

For his career, Biondi won eight individual NCAA titles and swam on six winning relays.

At the 1988 Olympic Games in Seoul, Biondi won five gold medals, setting world records in the 50-meter freestyle and three relay events.

Biondi is a member of the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the United States Olympic Hall of Fame.

Biondi started his aquatics career as a swimmer and water polo player in his hometown of Moraga, California.

As he moved into his teens, his incredible abilities as a sprint swimmer began to emerge.

He was the first man to swim the 100-meter freestyle faster than 49 seconds, and by 1988 he owned the ten fastest times swum in that event and held the world record for nearly nine years.

He won a total 24 U.S. Championships in the 50, 100, and 200-meter freestyle events, as well as the 100 butterfly.

Biondi was involved in one of the closest defeats of any competitor at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

In the 100-meter butterfly final race, he was caught between strokes as he approached the finishing wall.

He chose to glide rather than take another stroke, and Biondi was edged out by Anthony Nesty of Suriname by just one one-hundredth (0.01) of a second.

Biondi still won five gold medals, one silver medal, and one bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics, breaking the world records in four of those victories: three in relay races, and one in the 50-meter freestyle, taking just 22.14 seconds for this swim.

This was the third time that he had broken or equalled the existing 50-meter freestyle world record.

He also finished 18th in the preliminaries of the 200-meter freestyle, failing to advance to the finals.

At the Los Angeles Olympics, Biondi swam the third leg of the relay, entering the water in second place, just barely behind the team from Australia.

Thanks to his 49.67 second split time, the U.S. had taken a four-tenths of a second lead by the time that Biondi turned over the race to anchor swimmer Rowdy Gaines.

The U.S. won the gold medal in Olympic and World Record time.