Today marks the 50th birthday of Vladimir Salnikov, the Russian who led the way below 15 minutes over 1,500m back in 1980 when winning the Olympic crown as a home Games and then survived an absence during the next boycott, in 1984, only to make a spectacular return and regain the title at the 1988 Games in Seoul.
After living in Spain for several years, Salnikov returned to mother Russia and is now the president of the Russian Swimming federation, his right-hand man, Alex Popov. What a spectrum-busting combination.
Our salute to Salnikov:
Vladimir Valeryevich Salnikov’s became the first man to race inside 15 minutes over 1,500m freestyle on July 22, 1980. In doing so, he won one of three gold medals at a home Olympic Games in Moscow.
If that marked his entry into the club of sporting immortals, it was his Magnus Opus eight years on, beyond another Olympic boycott (this time affecting those the other side of a political divide) and in the midst of a comeback written up as doomed to fail, that brought him universal acclaim and recognition.
When Salnikov, fresh from a second, stunning 30-lap Games victory, walked into the athletes’ dining hall in the Olympic village in Seoul 1988 a little shy of midnight on September 25, 1988 - medal ceremony, drug testing, media interviews and television appearances out of the way - some 300 fellow competitors, coaches and officials from all sports spontaneously laid down their cutlery and gave a standing ovation to honour the "monster of the waves", as he was known in the Soviet Union.
The son of a sea captain in Leningrad, Salnikov was taken to a local swim club at 8 to learn how to be safe. At 9 he joined the Zenit training squad and later entered the Armed Forces Sports Society. Salnikov was spotted by Igor Koshkin, who coached the swimmer to world-class status and was responsible for ensuring that his young charge knew his enemy: Salnikov trained for a short spell at Mission Viejo in California with coach Mark Schubert and Brian Goodell (1976 Olympic 400 and 1,500m champion) and Tim Shaw (1975 world 200, 400 and 1,500m champion).
At 15, he took silver in the 1,500m at the European junior championships, and at 16, he raced to 5th as Goodell stormed to Olympic victory at Montreal 1976 at the helm of a spellbinder of a race, one in which the Russian set the first of his seven European records over the distance (and one of 22 continental standards), 15:29.45. He never lost a European final over 1,500m, winning in 1977, 1981 and 1983.
Salnikov remains the only man to win an Olympic swimming title eight years apart after having lost his crown in between and in 1988 joined Henry Taylor (GBR) and Michael Burton (USA) in the club of men to have won the 30-lap race twice. The world will never know what Goodell might have cranked out had he got a chance to defend his crown from 1976, but what we can say is that Moscow witnessed the fastest and most historic 1,500m free performance ever seen: 14:58.27. By 2008, just 21 other men had followed him below the magic 15-minute mark.
The world record was down to 14:54.76 at Salnikov's sharpest in 1983. In 1989, Glen Housman (AUS) clocked 14:53.59 but the electronic timing failed and his time was never ratified as a world record. Jorg Hoffmann (GER) went down in history as the man who broke the Russian's record, his 14:50.36 win at 1991 world titles in Perth keeping another budding giant at bay, a teenage Kieren Perkins (AUS)just 0.22sec away.
Salnikov came to wider prominence in aquatic circles when he set a European record to win the 1977 European title in 15:16.45. A year later, he claimed both the 400 and 1,500m world titles in Berlin, both in European record times. Come spring 1979 he was ready to set the global pace: he broke the first two of 13 world records, the first in Minsk in March, with a 7:56.49 800m that made him the first man to break 8mins, the second a month later in East Berlin, his 3:51.41 400m taking 0.15sec off Goodell's 1977 effort.
Between March 1979 and July 1986, Salnikov dominated distance freestyle, setting 13 world records over 400m (6, including 1 equalled), 800m (4) and 1,500m (3), his time at the helm of times interrupted only by Peter Szmidt (CAN), on 3:50.49 in July 1980 (absent from boycotted Moscow 1980). At those Games, Salnikov also claimed gold in the 400m and 4x200m free with Soviet teammates.
In 1982, at World Championships in Guayaquil, he claimed both distance crowns, and remains to this day the only man to have ever retained the 400m and the 1,500m freestyle world titles.
The biggest losses of his career, during his preparations for the 1988 Olympic Games, led to many a pundit writing him off. Having won 61 consecutive 1,500m races between 1977 and 1986, Salnikov, who from 1984 was coached by his wife, Marina (a former Soviet national track and field record holder over 100m and a sports psychologist), found himself locked off the podium in 4th at the 1986 world championships in Madrid, 13sec behind West German winner Rainer Henkel. The following year, Salnikov failed to make the final at the European Championships, and in Olympic year Soviet coaches ruled him out of contention, his place in Seoul only secured by the intervention of his national sports ministry. Time magazine wrote: “Salnikov’s long day [at the top] … has passed. He can expect nothing more in Seoul than to see the last of his records fall in front of him.”
In Seoul, he laid down an unexpected gauntlet with a 15:07.83 heats effort. Only Matt Cetlinski (USA) was faster. In the final, the American led for 13 lengths before Salnikov drew up and went on to lead for the last 800m. A late challenge from West German Stefan Pfeiffer was not enough to keep Salnikov from his date with destiny: a 15:00.40 victory, Pfeiffer 2.29sec away, Uwe Dassler, 400m champion two days earlier, a further 3.46sec back.
Salnikov made history that day as the only man ever to win the same Olympic swimming title eight years apart and at 28, as the oldest champion since 28-year-old Yoshiyuki Tsuruta (JPN) retained the Olympic 200m breaststroke crown at Los Angeles 1932.
Happy half a century to a man who knows what going the distance is all about.
