Matt Biondi Lowers 100-Meter Freestyle World Record to 48.95

Matt Biondi broke the 49-second mark in the 100-meter freestyle Tuesday night at the Phillips 66/U.S. Swimming Long Course National Championships, upstaging his own world record in a preliminary heat earlier in the day.

Biondi had the capacity crowd of 2,500 at the Mission Viejo Swim Complex whooping and whistling as they stood to see the numbers go up on the scoreboard--48.95 seconds.

As amazing as the time was the sight of Biondi leading by a length (and he is 6-foot-6) in a race that is usually won in a touch.

In his morning race, Biondi had broken the world record set by Rowdy Gaines in a timed attempt at the University of Texas in 1981.

That’s a long-standing record. But no one has set a world record in an actual race since 1976, when Jonty Skinner of South Africa swam a 49.44 in the 1976 national championships.

To put into perspective the 49-second milestone, the record that Skinner broke was the 49.99 set by Jim Montgomery in the 1976 Olympics. It was considered quite an amazing feat, at the time, for Montgomery to break 50 seconds.

“I had wanted to be the first one under 49,” said Biondi, who seemed to be taking his accomplishment in stride. “It was under by just five-hundredths. It isn’t much, but I’ll take it.”

Asked how he was managing to stay so cool when everyone else in the complex was going wild about his time, Biondi said: “I’m proud of it. . . . I feel a great sense of satisfaction. I don’t think it has registered with me that I just swam the fastest 100 free of all time. When it does sink in, I’ll probably be jumping up and down.”

Biondi, who is now 19, swam in his first major international event last summer as a member of the 400-meter freestyle relay team that won a gold medal.

It has become known as “Rowdy’s relay” but it included Biondi and Mike Heath, the man who finished second to Biondi Tuesday night. Heath swam a 50.37.

Heath is the American record-holder at 200 meters. That race is tonight, but Biondi was having no part of a big buildup for his showdown with Heath in that one.

Biondi prefers to keep things low-keyed. He’s been going about his business pretty quietly up to this point, but that will end now.

Biondi, who will be a junior at the University of California, came up through recreational swim programs in Moraga. He’s just starting to show his potential, and that has U.S. Swimming officials very excited.

There was some anticipation that Biondi would get Gaines’ world record at this meet, and Biondi said he had been hearing from a lot of people who wanted to see him put a 48 on the board.

“I felt more pressure to perform in this meet than I had ever felt before,” he said. “Nobody was telling me what time I had to swim, but there were a lot of subtle things. I’m relieved that it is over, after all the build-up.

“It helped to get the record in the morning. That eased the pressure tonight.

“I think I am more relieved than satisfied.”

Biondi said that he had been thinking about the world record since last summer. “When I had such a good short course season (including breaking Gaines’ records in the 100- and 200-yard freestyles in the NCAA meet) the dream became more vivid, more realistic.”

Carrie Steinseifer, the Olympic gold medalist in the 100-meter freestyle for women, won the event Tuesday night with a time of 56.41 seconds, beating young Michele Griglione, who finished in 56.72.

Jenna Johnson of Industry Hills, who had set a pool record of 56.21 in the preliminary heats and who Steinseifer had considered her biggest competition, was third in 56.80.

“Every girl in that field has so much talent,” Steinseifer said. “It was just a fast field, all the way around.”

But, of course, Steinseifer was expected to win. “Being on top is not all fun and glory,” she said. “There are such big expectations. What happened at the Olympics was the best achievement of my life, but that’s over now. Life goes on.

“I hope I can stay on top.”

There were so other Olympians staying on top Tuesday night.

Mary T. Meagher, the Olympic gold medalist and the world record-holder in both the 100- and 200-meter butterfly events, won the 200, just missing her world record of 2:05.96 set in 1981. She finished in 2:06.09 when she took two extra strokes on her last 50. On the last length of the pool she took 27 strokes instead of the 25 she had needed on the first three lengths.

She didn’t have much competition in the water to push her to a world-record time. She finished more than six seconds ahead of Erika Hansen.

But she did have the crowd to encourage her. “My coach told me that he knew I’d be out fast enough and that I should listen to the crowd to see how much faster I needed to go,” Meagher said. “I could hear them.”

She said that there was a chance that she might update her world record in the Pan Pacific Championships in Tokyo later this month.

Rick Carey, the Olympic gold medalist in both the 100- and 200-meter backstroke events won the 200 Tuesday in 2:01.64. That’s not a real impressive time for him, but he was four seconds faster than his nearest competition.

John Moffett, who suffered a pulled groin muscle in the Olympics and finished a disappointing fifth in the 100-meter breaststroke, won the 200-meter breaststroke in 2:17.41, the second-fastest time in the world this year.

“It was my fastest ever,” Moffett said. “It was faster than I went at the (Olympic) trials last summer. I’m pleased. I’m excited to be going to Japan.”

Moffett, who took plenty of time off after the Olympics to heal, was the NCAA champion last spring in both the 100 and 200-yard breaststroke events.

Pablo Morales won the men’s 200-meter butterfly in 1:59.15, well off the American record of 1:57.75 that he set in the Olympics last summer.

Susan Johnson, a 15-year-old from Mission Viejo, won the women’s 200-meter breaststroke, and Andrea Hayes, a 16-year-old from Pensacola, Fla., beat Olympian Betsy Mitchell (a silver medalist in the 100) in the 200-meter backstroke.

The meet will continue through Friday.