Personal information
Full name: Matthew Nicholas Biondi
Nickname(s): "Matt", "The California Condor"
National team: United States
Born: October 8, 1965 (age 49)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 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. 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 freshman year he played on Berkeley 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. 4x100 meter freestyle relay at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. 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 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, 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 the event. He won a total 24 U.S. 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, 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 stroke, and Biondi was edged out by Anthony Nesty of Surinam by just one one-hundredth (0.01) of second.
Biondi still won five gold medals, one silver medals, and one bronze medal in the 1988 Olympics, breaking the world records in four 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 broken or equalled the existing 50 meter freestyle world record.
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 seconds fastest swim at this distance in history.
1992 Olympics
At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Biondi won two more gold medals in relays and a silver in the 50 meter freestyle.
World Championships
Biondi competed at the World Championships in 1996 and 1991, winning six gold medals.
In 1986, he won three gold medals, one silver and three bronzes to set a record of seven medals at one World Championships meet. (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 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 2000; 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.
In recent years Biondi has worked as a school teacher and swimming coach in Hawaii. As of 2012, he has been hired to teach math and coach 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 24, 2014, in Simi Valley, California. The competition is a one-day short course yards meet held in Conjunction with Biondi is masters club, the Conejo Valley Multisport Masters.
Medal Record
International aquatics competitions
| Event | 1st | 2nd | 3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Games | 8 | 2 | 1 |
| World Championships (LC) | 6 | 2 | 3 |
| Pan Pacific Games | 13 | 3 | 2 |
| Summer Universiade | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| Total | 31 | 8 | 6 |
Men's swimming
Competitor of the United States
Olympic Games
Gold: 1984 Los Angeles - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1988 Seoul - 50 m freestyle
Gold: 1988 Seoul - 100 m freestyle
Gold: 1988 Seoul - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1988 Seoul - 4x200 m freestyle
Gold: 1988 Seoul - 4x100 m medley
Gold: 1992 Barcelona - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1992 Barcelona - 4x100 m medley
Silver: 1988 Seoul - 100 m butterfly
Silver: 1992 Barcelona - 50 m freestyle
Bronze: 1988 Seoul - 200 m freestyle
World Championships (LC)
Gold: 1986 Madrid - 100 m freestyle
Gold: 1986 Madrid - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1986 Madrid - 4x100 m medley
Gold: 1991 Perth - 100 m freestyle
Gold: 1991 Perth - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1991 Perth - 4x100 m medley
Silver: 1986 Madrid - 100 m butterfly
Silver: 1991 Perth - 50 m freestyle
Bronze: 1986 Madrid - 50 m freestyle
Bronze: 1991 Perth - 200 m freestyle
Bronze: 1991 Perth - 4x200 m freestyle
Pan Pacific Games
Gold: 1985 Tokyo - 50 m freestyle
Gold: 1985 Tokyo - 100 m freestyle
Gold: 1985 Tokyo - 4x100 m freetyle
Gold: 1985 Tokyo - 4x100 m medley
Gold: 1987 Brisbane - 100 m freestyle
Gold: 1987 Brisbane - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1987 Brisbane - 4x100 m medley
Gold: 1987 Brisbane - 4x200 m freestyle
Gold: 1989 Tokyo - 4x100 m medley
Gold: 1991 Brisbane - 100 m freestyle
Gold: 1991 Brisbane - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1991 Brisbane - 4x100 m medley
Gold: 1991 Brisbane - 100 m butterfly
Silver: 1985 Tokyo - 200 m freestyle
Silver: 1987 Brisbane - 50 m freestyle
Silver: 1991 Brisbane - 50 m freestyle
Bronze: 1985 Tokyo - 100 m butterfly
Bronze: 1987 Brisbane - 100 m butterfly
Summer Universiade
Gold: 1985 Kobe - 100 m freestyle
Gold: 1985 Kobe - 200 m freestyle
Gold: 1985 Kobe - 4x100 m freestyle
Gold: 1985 Kobe - 4x200 m freestyle
Silver: 1985 Kobe - 100 m butterfly
