American athlete on the 1984 Olympics swimming team who competed in the 400 meter free style relay, his first international competition. He and his teammates won a Gold Medal on 8/02/1984, setting a world record in the relay team event of 3:19:03. He was the NCAA Water Polo champ for the University of California at Berkeley, and on the third All-American Polo Team.
He was kept busy winning awards, including the United Press International Sportsman of the Year and the Italian-American Man of the Year in 1987. Besides speaking engagements and some commercial appearances, he swam with the dolphins for an ABC-TV special that showed the remarkable communication between dolphins and kids with Down’s syndrome, due for release 4/02/1987.
Looking more like a basketball player than a swimmer at 6′ 6″ and 205 lbs, with a seven-foot wingspan, Biondi’s sport has been swimming and water polo from the time he was in high school. Called the most sensational swimmer since Mark Spitz, he is also faster than Spitz.
He explained that 1988 would not be the best year for athletes to make money from Olympics association, as there was so much controversy over steroids and character flaws. Companies would rather sponsor an event than an athlete as the event does not do drugs or beat their wives, whereas athletes do. An Olympic athlete is a star for a week every four years; he has to have more to go on than that. At the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, bets were on that Biondi would match Mark Spitz’ record in 1972 with a beat taking seven gold medals. .
In 1993, he was defeated by Russian Alexander Popov, who set a new record at the 25th Olympiad.
Link to Wikipedia biography