Matt Biondi

Matt Biondi
Personal information
Full name Matthew Nicholas Biondi
Nickname(s) "Matt," "The California Condor"
National team  United States
Born (1965-10-08) October 8, 1965
Moraga, California
Height 6 ft 7 in (2.01 m)
Weight 209 lb (95 kg)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle, butterfly
College team University of California, Berkeley

Matthew Nicholas Biondi (born October 8, 1965) is an American former competition swimmer, eleven-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder in five events. 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.

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.

Early life and athletics

Biondi started his aquatics career as a swimmer and water polo player in his hometown of Moraga, California.[1] As he moved into his teens, his incredible abilities as a sprint swimmer began to emerge. Though he did not start swimming year-round until he started at Campolindo High School, by his senior year Biondi was the top schoolboy sprinter in America with a national high school record of 20.40 seconds in the 50-yard freestyle. He accepted a scholarship to attend the University of California, Berkeley, to swim and play water polo, and enrolled in 1983. 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.

Olympic career

1984 Olympics

In the summer of 1984, Biondi surprised the swimming community by qualifying for a spot on the U.S. 4×100-meter freestyle relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. The team won the gold medal in a world record time. Upon returning to Berkeley, Biondi once again played on an NCAA champion water polo team in the fall, and during in the winter of 1985, he won the first of his eight individual swimming titles at the NCAA championships.

Biondi was selected as the NCAA Swimmer of the Year in 1985, 1986, and 1987,[1] and he set several American and NCAA records.

Biondi set the first of his twelve individual swimming world records in 1985. 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. He won a total 24 U.S. Championships in the 50, 100, and 200-meter freestyle events, as well as the 100 butterfly. 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.

1988 Olympics

Biondi was involved in perhaps one of the oddest 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 Surinam 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.[2][3]

Biondi's time in the 100-meter freestyle final was the only swim below 49.00 seconds of the competition, and he set a new Olympic record of 48.63 seconds, the second fastest swim at this distance in history.[4]

1992 Olympics

At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Biondi won two more gold medals in relays and a silver in the 50-meter freestyle. Following the 1992 Olympics, Biondi retired, which he attributed to multiple factors including lack of financial assistance.[5]

World Championships

Biondi competed at the World Championships in 1986 and 1991, winning six gold medals.[1]

In 1986, he won three gold medals, one silver and three bronzes to set a record of seven medals at one World Championship meet.[1] (This record has since been matched by Michael Phelps.)

Life outside competitive swimming

Biondi graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1988 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Economy of Industrialized Societies (PEIS).

Biondi married Kirsten Metzger in her home state of Hawaii in 1995. They have three children: their sons Nathaniel (Nate), born in 1998, and Lucas, born in 2002; and their daughter Makena, born in 2007.

Kirsten Biondi persuaded her husband to continue his education, and he earned his master's degree in education in 2000 at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.[6]

In recent years, Biondi has worked as a school teacher and swimming coach in Hawaii. As of 2012, he teaches math and coaches at Sierra Canyon School in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Chatsworth.[7]

Biondi has become active within the masters swimming community, launching an annual masters competition that bears his name. The Matt Biondi Masters Classic was held for the first time on March 23, 2014, in Simi Valley, California. The competition is a one-day, short course yards meet held in conjunction with Biondi's masters club, the Conejo Valley Multisport Masters.[8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Matt Biondi (USA): 1997 Honor Swimmer". International Swimming Hall of Fame. Retrieved November 20, 2016.
  2. ↑ Husar, John (September 25, 1988). "Biondi, Evans Stay on Gold Standard". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  3. ↑ Dodds, Tracy (September 24, 1988). "The Seoul Games / Day 9 : Biondi, the Underdog, Ends Up Top Dog Again". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  4. ↑ Robb, Sharon (September 23, 1988). "Evans Sets Record, Wins 2nd Gold". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved August 19, 2013.
  5. ↑ "#30 Most Swimfluential: Matt Biondi". Swimming World Magazine. July 28, 2015. Retrieved August 3, 2016.
  6. ↑ "Sachin Shenolikar: Catching up with Matt Biondi - 2008 Olympics - SI.com". CNN. July 29, 2008. Archived from the original on August 5, 2012.
  7. ↑ Erik Boal, "Chatter: Sierra Canyon hires Biondi as swim coach," Los Angeles Daily News (April 25, 2012). Retrieved October 10, 2012.
  8. ↑ "Masters swimmers turn fast times in inaugural Matt Biondi Classic". Ventura County Star. March 25, 2014. Retrieved June 12, 2016.


Records
Preceded by

Tom Jager
Tom Jager		 Men's 50-meter freestyle
world record-holder (long course)
June 26, 1986 – August 13, 1987
September 24, 1988 – August 20, 1989 		Succeeded by

Tom Jager
Tom Jager
Preceded by
Rowdy Gaines		 Men's 100-meter freestyle
world record-holder (long course)
August 6, 1985 – June 18, 1994 		Succeeded by
Alexander Popov
Awards and achievements
Preceded by

Michael Gross
Tamás Darnyi		 Swimming World
World Swimmer of the Year
1986
1988 		Succeeded by

Tamás Darnyi
Mike Barrowman
Preceded by
Ben Johnson		 United Press International
Athlete of the Year
1988 		Succeeded by
Boris Becker
Olympic Games
Preceded by
Carl Osburn		 Most career Olympic medals
by an American
1988–2004 		Succeeded by
Jenny Thompson
Preceded by
Mark Spitz
Preceded by
Carl Osburn		 Most career Olympic medals
by an American man
1988–2008 		Succeeded by
Michael Phelps
Preceded by
Mark Spitz


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