Мэттью Бионди: Путь к олимпийским вершинам

American swimmer

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

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

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.

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