Today marks the 40th anniversary of the fourth day of racing in the pool at the <\/span>1980 Olympic Games in Moscow<\/strong>, where <\/span>P\u00e4r Arvidsson, Roger Pytell and David Lopez-Zubero <\/span><\/b>made history by placing their respective\u00a0<\/span>countries<\/span>\u00a0on an Olympic podium for the first time in men’s butterfly \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Swimming World<\/em> continues its 40th anniversary coverage of the events of Moscow 1980 and their impact on those who missed out and what the Moscow Games meant for those who made it, even, in some cases, when their Governments did not endorse their participation but their nations did.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Moscow 1980<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Our Moscow 1980 Olympics coverage so far<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
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Memories of Moscow 1980: 40 Years On, Mary T. Meagher Shares Memories of Olympic Boycott<\/a><\/li>\n
Memories of Moscow 1980: 40 Years To The Day Since Vladimir Salnikov Cracked 15-minute Barrier Over 1500m Free<\/a><\/li>\n
Memories Of Moscow 1980: How Duncan Goodhew Converted Olympic Gold To Victory In Life<\/a><\/li>\n
Memories of Moscow 1980: When Barbara Krause Took 100 Free Below 55sec 20 Years Before Her Day In Court With Kipke<\/a><\/li>\n
Memories of Moscow 1980 \u2013 When Sergei Fesenko Became The First Soviet Swimmer Among Men To Claim Olympic Gold<\/a><\/li>\n
Memories of Moscow 1980 \u2013 40 Years Since Boycott Buried The Chances Of Cheryl Gibson & Maple Mates<\/a><\/li>\n
Moscow Olympic Flagbearers Max Metzker And Denise Boyd Linked Forever In Australia\u2019s Proud Olympic History\u00a0<\/a><\/li>\n
USOPC CEO Sarah Hirshland to 1980 Olympic Team: \u2018You Deserved Better\u2019<\/a><\/li>\n
The Moscow Boycott: A Toxic Mix of Sports and Politics Proved Costly for Hard-Working Athletes<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
How things might have panned out in the men’s 100m butterfly at the Moscow 1980 Olympic Games had boycott not thrown the deck in the air, we will never know. Some things we do know, including the result on this day 40 years ago at the 22nd Olympic Games held in the Soviet Union at a time when that country had invaded Afghanistan and the political fallout stretched to sport in a way that impacted the lives of many athletes not just that year but for lifetimes since.<\/p>\n
On this day in 1980, P\u00e4r Arvidsson<\/strong>, of Sweden, Roger Pytell<\/strong>, of the German Democratic Republic, and David Lopez-Zubero<\/strong>, of Spain, became the first from their respective countries ever to make an Olympic butterfly podium. They rolled into the wall in 54.92, 54.94 and 55.13. A great race. A race, too, that was, in the context of Olympic swimming history, not where the pace would have been had the best in the world been there that day. The winning time was slower than the entire podium of Montreal 1976; slower than Mark Spitz when he claimed the fourth of his seven golds at Munich 1972; slower than the biggest guns that summer who were not there that day in Moscow.<\/span><\/p>\n
On August 2, Americans William Paulus<\/strong> and Matt Gribble<\/strong> clocked 54.34 and 54.51 at U.S. Outdoor Nationals, where the times of the Moscow Games were posted on the scoreboard, to the chagrin of some of the athletes who felt, in the words of one multiple gold hope who missed her best shot at Olympic glory, “it was just ridiculous… we just weren’t where we ought to have been” (more on that later in our week of Moscow memories). None, however, got down to the April 1980 World-record speed of Arvidsson, 54.15.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
The dynamics of ‘What If’ included a speedy moment on July 22, a day before the Olympic final: on tour in Canada, a teenager called Michael Gross<\/strong> clocked 54.69. By Los Angeles 1984, he would be known as Michael “The Albatross” Gross<\/strong> and was good for West German gold in a World record of 53.06 \u00a0ahead of the man whose global standard he topped, American\u00a0Pablo Morales<\/strong>, whose own Olympic roller-coaster and gold was yet to come.<\/a>\u00a0Gross would also claim Olympic gold in the 200m freestyle and butterfly in 1984 and 1988, his sparkling arrival in international waters in 1980 often overlooked but a part of the longevity of his career that might have seen him take medals at three Games.<\/p>\n
Moscow was full of What Ifs but it remains forever full of What Was:<\/p>\n
Moscow 1980 \u00a0– Men 100m Butterfly –\u00a0Athletes: 34; Nations: 29 – Gold for P\u00e4r Arvidsson<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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54.92 P\u00e4r Arvidsson SWE\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n
54.94 Roger Pyttel GDR<\/strong><\/li>\n
55.13 David Lopez-Zubero ESP<\/strong>
\n55.25 Kees Vervoorn NED
\n55.35 Evgeni Seredin URS
\n55.42 Gary Abraham GBR
\n55.66 Xavier Savin FRA
\n55.70 Alexei Markovski URS<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
In April 1980, P\u00e4r Arvidsson<\/strong> had shaved 0.03sec off the world record that had stood to Joe Bottom<\/strong> (USA) at 54.18 since 1977. In Moscow this day 40 years ago, he retained his number one status by 0.02sec over Roger Pyttel<\/strong>, the first swimmer from his country to make an\u00a0Olympic\u00a0butterfly podium, eight years after backstroke superstar Roland Matthes<\/strong><\/a> had\u00a0fallen just 0.13sec shy of the podium in the Munich 1972 final won by Spitz. In June 1976, Pytell confined Spitz’s 200m butterfly record to history with a first global mark in heats at GDR Olympic trials before becoming the first man inside 2 minutes with his second pioneering moment of the day, a 1:59.63.<\/p>\n
Bronze in Moscow went to David Lopez-Zubero<\/strong> (ESP), who turned eighth at the 50m mark in 26.67, more than a second down on the leaders, before passing five rivals on the way home. David went down in history as the first Spanish swimmer ever to make an Olympic podium. Twelve years later, the US-based Spaniard\u2019s brother, Martin Lopez-Zubero<\/strong>, would become Spain\u2019s first Olympic swimming champion when he claimed 200m backstroke gold at Barcelona 1992.<\/p>\n
If P\u00e4r Arvidsson was Sweden’s first Olympic butterfly champion (he remains one of three, with Lars Fr\u00f6lander, 100m, 2000; and Sarah Sj\u00f6strom, the first Swedish woman to claim gold in the Olympic pool, 100m, 2016), he represented a crumb of comfort for absent Americans.<\/p>\n
Like teammate and 100m backstroke champion in Moscow, Bengt Baron – later the President and CEO of Absolut Vodka – Arvidsson was from Finsp\u00e5ng. Between 1976 and 1983, the ‘fly ace claimed 22 Swedish titles but he trained for a good part of his career in the United States, where he\u00a0graduated from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in economics. He swam for Cal Bears<\/a> and after his racing days were done, he attended and graduated from Harvard Business School.<\/p>\n
In 2017, P\u00e4r Arvidsson returned to his alma mater on a visit and was snapped with fellow Cal graduate and Olympic swim champion (though not over 100 ‘fly, Anthony Nesty having got to the wall 0.01sec sooner at Seoul 1988):<\/p>\n
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How about this pair of Golden Bear swim dads? Welcome back to Berkeley to two of the all-time best, Par Arvidsson and Matt Biondi! #GoBears<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/yPwePelVhi<\/a><\/p>\n
— Cal Men's Swim & Dive (@calmenswim) October 22, 2017<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Moscow 1980 \u00a0– Men 100m Butterfly –\u00a0Athletes: 34; Nations: 29 – Gold for P\u00e4r Arvidsson<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n54.92 P\u00e4r Arvidsson SWE\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n54.94 Roger Pyttel GDR<\/strong><\/li>\n