The Polk County high school swimming championship meet of 1976 was as good a place as any to start, and it was there he set his first two records in the short course 100-yard and 200-yard freestyle.
It was the beginning of a lifetime of record breaking, including breaking a few of his own. In 1989, he set six world records; in 1990 he set four. In 1994, at age 35, he set seven world records and became the only swimmer in history to hold world records in all six long course meters freestyle distances: 50, 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500 meters.
He’s broken 25 world records in the course of his career, some of which stayed unbroken a very long time. His 1991 world in the 100-meter freestyle held 17 years. The world records he set in 1990 for 50- and 100-meter freestyle lasted 19 years before being bested in 2009. Today, he holds 11 national records and his two worlds in the 400-meter and 800-meter freestyle have remained unbeaten since 1995.
It was his return to the pool in his golden year that showed he never really left it. In 2009, at age 50, after a 13-year hiatus from competition, he dove in with a vengeance that erased any doubt there may have been about his pool credibility. His 100-meter freestyle was, 25 years later, off his Olympic time by less than two seconds. He proceeded to set two world records and six nationals, and, in a sport where records are smashed by barely measurable units of time, his performance was stunning, eclipsing the previous time by more than 2 ½ seconds. There is one goal: winning.
