U. S. National Long Course Championships : Biondi Just Might Break Gaines’ World Record

MISSION VIEJO —  The Olympic year was a very good year for Matt Biondi. It was the year in which he answered that oft-quoted and by now infamous question posed by Rowdy Gaines, “Who is Matt Biondi?”

But 1984 was not the ultimate for Biondi. It was just the beginning.

Biondi came out of nowhere in the Olympic trials last summer to win a spot on what even Biondi himself acknowledges as “Rowdy Gaines’ relay” (the 400-meter freestyle relay).

Biondi won a gold medal with that relay team last summer. And he’s proud of that, of course.

But last spring, as a sophomore at Cal, Biondi broke Gaines’ American records in both the 100-yard freestyle and the 200-yard freestyle in the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. meet. Now, that’s something to be proud of.

Tonight, when Biondi swims the 100-meter freestyle at the Phillips 66/U.S. Swimming Long Course National Championships, Gaines’ world record will be in jeopardy.

He’s not making any promises. In fact, he’s not even talking about world records. But if he swims fast enough to beat Mike Heath and Chris Cavanaugh (both members of “Rowdy’s Relay”) he might also be fast enough to beat the record of 49.36 seconds set by Gaines in 1981.

Biondi’s best time for 100 meters is the 50.23 he swam in the Olympic trials.

He was 18 then. More important--and more incredible in the obsessive, excessive world of developing swimmers--he was a fresh, enthusiastic 18.

When Matt Biondi presented himself to Cal Coach Nort Thornton, he was not the typical waterlogged overachiever.

Biondi had done all of his swimming in a recreational league in Moraga and at Campolindo High School. No year ‘round training. No weight work. No big pressure.

“Swimming was important to me, but it wasn’t the only important thing in my life,” Biondi said. “It was fun.”

Biondi, who also has unusual size for a swimmer at 6-6, 195 pounds, played basketball until his second year in high school when he decided to concentrate on swimming and water polo only.

Stu Kahn, Biondi’s age-group coach and also his high school coach, told Swimming World magazine, “He was involved in so many other things. I thought as long as he was happy, I didn’t need to pressure him to swim more. Kids who start early and go overboard don’t last.”

Kahn had likened Biondi to Peter Rocca and John Naber when Biondi was just 12 years old. Last month, he told Swimming World that he wouldn’t be surprised to see Biondi do at the ’88 Olympics what Mark Spitz did at the ’72 Olympics.

Kahn said, “I think a repeat of seven gold medals is not out of the question. He’s got a real long fly stroke and I think he could do well in the 200 as well as the 100. If he wanted to win seven gold medals, he could do it. I also think he could make mild commercials without saying, ‘You know’ a lot.”

No doubt Biondi could handle the public relations’ money-making aspect of superstardom. He has all the tools.

But first he has to attain superstardom, and Thornton thinks he has all the tools to do that, too.

“Physiologically, a man peaks at about 25, and there’s no reason why a swimmer should be any different,” Thornton said.

Biondi will be 22 in 1988. Thornton said: “The Olympics are timed well for him. . . . The physical potential is definitely there. And the mental potential is there because of the way he has come up.

“There is no problem with burnout.”

Biondi will swim the 200-meter freestyle, the 50-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly at this meet in addition to the 100-meter freestyle.

He admits that one of his goals is to make the finals in all four events, but that’s about all he wants to share about his goals--which he says were set for this summer before his college season began.

“I do have defined goals, but it’s my style and my preference to keep those goals between me and Nort,” Biondi said.

For most swimmers, the Olympic Games is the goal for years and years and years--and one Olympic gold medal means those long hours in the pool can end.

“For me, last summer was exciting, it was a good experience, but I was a team member, I wasn’t really swimming for myself,” Biondi said. “It was perceived as Rowdy Gaines’ relay. I was proud to be a part of it. But as far as the pressure and the preparation were concerned, it was a lot easier than this summer.

“This summer, there is more pressure because I’m swimming as an individual, under the title of Matt Biondi.”

And for anyone who needs to ask, “Who is Matt Biondi?” the name now appears in the record books.