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Olympic medal record
Men’s Swimming
	1980 Moscow	4x100 m medley relay

Mark Tonelli (born April 13 1957 in Ipswich, Queensland) was an Australian backstroke and freestyle swimmer of the 1970s and 1980s, who won a gold in the 4x100 m medley relay at the 1980 Moscow Olympics as a makeshift butterfly swimmer. This occurred after recovering from a previous expulsion from the Australian team for disciplinary problems. Throughout his career he won 11 individual Australian Championships in all three strokes.

Tonelli was born in Ipswich, Queensland to a working-class family. His father was a blue-collar worker of Dutch origin and his mother worked in the Queensland Department of Industrial Relations. Tonelli was effectively an only child, with a younger sister not being born until he was 14. His family moved around frequently before settling in Brisbane. Tonelli's family had no history of athletic success, and had little knowledge of swimming, but his mother encouraged him to take up the sport to ease his problems with asthma. In his first year, he came third in his age group at Western Districts Club, prompting his mother to send him at age nine to John Keating at the Centenary Pool in the hope that her son could improve to Olympic standards. By the age of ten, Tonelli was regularly winning at school carnivals and at eleven, came seventh in the 100 m freestyle in his division at the State Championships, before winning it in the following year.

In 1973, at the age of 15, Tonelli competed in his first ever Australian Age Championships in Hobart, winning the 100 m and 200 m freestyle and the 200 m backstroke. These results allowed him to swim at the preliminary qualifying trials for the 1973 World Aquatics Championships, where he managed four fourth placings. Upon returning to Brisbane, he was injured while participating in judo at high school, tearing some rib cartilage. This injury restricted him to swimming backstroke for four months due to pain, and his times dropped steadily during this period as be trained under John Rigby at the Valley Pool. At the final selection event, he came second in both the 100 m and 200 m backstroke, behind Olympic gold medallist Brad Cooper to qualify for his international debut. He came sixth in the World Championships in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in the 200 m backstroke, behind East Germany's Roland Matthes, who set a world record.

Tonelli won his first Australian titles in 1974, claiming both the 100 m backstroke and 200 m butterfly in his first attempt at the stroke at senior national level. He completed the victories in times of 59.55 s and 2 m 7.30 s. Tonelli also claimed victory with the Queensland team in the 4 × 200 m freestyle and the 4 100 m medley relay team. It was the first time that Queensland had won the former relay and Tonelli had claimed gold medals in three different strokes at his first Australian Championships.

Tonelli was selected for the 1974 Commonwealth Games in Christchurch, New Zealand, where he had his first success at international level. He won his first gold medal at international level in the 100 m backstroke, where he won his heat comfortably before winning in a Games record of 59.65 s. Tonelli was second to Cooper in the 200 m backstroke, finishing in a time of 2 m 9.47 s, more than three seconds in arrears. He also claimed a silver in the 4 × 100 m medley relay, being thwarted by Canada despite being part of an Australian record, but was eliminated in the heats of the 200 m butterfly.

In 1975, Tonelli won the 100 m backstroke and the 200 m backstroke and 200 m butterfly events at the Australian Championships. Although he won more titles than in the previous year, his times were slower, completing the distances in 59.70 s, 2 m 10.50 s and 2 m 10.00 s respectively. His Queensland team also successfully defended their medley relay title. Tonelli was selected for the team for the 1975, World Championships in Cali, Colombia. He qualified fastest for the 200 m backstroke final and had planned to pursue an aggressive, fast-start strategy. However, he was advised to swim conservatively in the first half of the race by Terry Gathercole. The strategy backfired and Tonelli ended with the silver medal.

After the World Championships, Tonelli accepted a swimming scholarship from the University of Alabama, after rejecting offers from Stanford University and Harvard University, to train under John Gambril. Tonelli eventually completed a BA in Communications and Film.

After enrolling at Alabama, his parents paid for him to return to Australia for the 1976 National Championships, which were the selection trials for the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal, Canada. Tonelli won the 100 m backstroke in a time of 58.35 s but was relegated to silver in the 200 m event by Mark Kerry. Tonelli was selected in both backstroke events along with Kerry, as well as in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. Tonelli came second in his heat, before scraping into the 100 m final after finishing fourth in his semi-final. He came eighth in the final in a time of 58.42 s and did not threaten the medals, with John Baer of the United States winning in a time of 55.49 s. In the 200 m event, he came second in the heat, but missed the medals, which were swept by the Americans. He was 3.98 s behind Naber, who broke the world record and became the first swimmer to break two minutes in the event. Australia struggled in the relay, being eliminated in the preliminary round after finishing third in their heat.

Tonelli returned to Alabama after the Olympics and intensified his training regimen, He recollected that "The coach really supplied me with the environment to improve. I got used to pressure. You had to stand up and race in dual meets almost every other weekend, no matter how you felt. In Australia you are lucky if you get two top meets a year." He won the US Championship in the 100 m backstroke in 1977 at Mission Viejo, becoming one of the few Australians to win a US title.

Tonelli continued in the United States in 1978, recollecting "I really hit my straps", reporting that he had swum times in time trials during training that would have broken world records. Since he was in the United States, he was allowed to qualify for the 1978 Commonwealth Games inEdmonton, Canada by swimming in special events in North America. Tonelli raced in five events at the Canada Cup and won four. He returned to Mission Viejo and continued his build-up before flying to the Australian training camp in Hawaii. However his international career appeared to be in disarray when along with two teammates, Mark Kerry and Joe Dixon, he was expelled from the training camp for a disciplinary breach. He returned to the United States, while his team-mates competed for their country. In the meantime, Tonelli again won the 100 m backstroke title at the US Nationals in a time two seconds faster than Glenn Patching in claiming Commonwealth gold.

In 1979 Tonelli failed to defend his US title, but he still came third in the NCAA championships in his final year at university. In his four years at Alabama, he was an eight-time All-American in the 100 m and 200 m backstroke. Tonelli returned to Australia and won the 100 m freestyle, butterfly and backstroke events at the Australian Championships. He repeated the freestyle and butterfly victories in 1980 in times of 51.80 s and 56.64 s to gain selection for the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, as well as selection in the 100 m backstroke after finishing second to Kerry. However, another obstacle arose with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, which resulted in a boycott of the Games by a large part of the Western World, led by the United States. The Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser was also the patron of the Australian Olympic Committee, and significant political pressure came to bear on the athletes to boycott the Games. Tonelli however, realised that only the sportspeople would suffer from a boycott and that trade relations would continue unabated. He took a leadership role among the athletes to fight for their right to compete.

Tonelli arrived in Moscow facing a heavy schedule: he was nominated in the 100 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, 100 m butterfly, 200 m backstroke and the 4 &times 100 m medley relay and the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. Tonelli came third in his heat of the 100 m freestyle but swam slower in coming fifth in his semifinal in a time of 52.17 s to miss the final. Tonelli had another let-down in the 100&nbspm backstroke, coming second in his semifinal in a time of 57.89 s, before again swimming slower in the final and finishing seventh in 57.98 s. Tonelli rued "I fell apart. I had swum only one big race in the past twelve months and lacked the competitive edge." Tonelli came third in his heat of the 200 m backstroke and was eliminated, before withdrawing from the 100 m butterfly to concentrate ont eh 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, in which Australia came seventh.

The 4 × 100 m medley relay was the focal point of Tonelli's Moscow campaign. The event had always been won by the United States since its inception at the Olympics at the 1960 Games, and their boycott had opened up the field in the event. In the five times the event had been contested, Australia's best result had come in the inaugural race, where it out-touched Japan to claim silver. The only other time that it won a medal was in 1964, with a bronze. The previous outing in 1976 had seen Australia eliminated in the heats. Australia was regarded as a chance of a medal, but were not seen as the main threats, with Sweden, Great Britan and the Soviet Union being the most heavily fancied teams. The Soviet Union boasted the silver medallists in the 100 m backstroke and breaststroke, and their butterflyer and freestyler had come fifth and fourth respectively. The British boasted Duncan Goodhew, the breaststroke gold medallist, while Sweden's butterflyer and backstroker had won their respective events and their freestyle swimmer had come second in the 100 m. Australia's team paled in comparison on paper. Neil Brooks, the freestyler, had come seventh after having an asthma attack, and Peter Evans was the only individual medallist in the distance, claiming bronze in the 100 m breaststroke. Kerry has been eliminated in the backstroke semifinals, while Tonelli was swimming as a makeshift butterflyer.

Australia's prospects improved after the morning heats when Sweden was disqualified. Tonelli, the eldest swimmer in the quartet at the age of 23, convened the team as its de facto leader. He asked his team-mates to commit to swimming their legs in a certain time; Kerry vowed to swimthe backstroked in 57 s, Evans the breaststroke in 63 s flat, Tonelli the butterfly in 54 s and Brooks promised to anchor the team in 49.8 s, even though he had never gone faster than 51 s in his career. Tonelli named the foursome as the the Quietly Confident Quartet, and they exhibited a quiet confidence as they lined up for the race.Cite error: The opening <ref> tag is malformed or has a bad name (see the help page).

Kerry led off in a faster time than he had clocked in the individual event, but it was still two seconds slower than his personal best time of 57.87 s, leaving Australia in fourth place at the end of the first leg. Evans then swam a personal best of 63.01 s, leaving Australia almost level with the host nation at the halfway mark. Tonelli then swam his leg in 54.94 s, almost two seconds faster than he had done over the distance,. He did so with an uneven arm technique due to the uneven strength in his arms. He began to lose ground in the last 50 m and was a bodylength behind until a late surge brought him to within a metre by the end of his leg. Brooks then made a powerful, well-timed dive and surfaced almost even with his Soviet counterpart. At the turn, he had drawn level and made a superior turn to take the lead. The Soviet freestyler pulled level at the 25 m mark before Brooks sprinted away again to seal an Australian victory by 0.22 s. Brook shad finished his leg in 49.86 s as he had vowed to his team mates. The time of 3 m 45.70 s sealed Australia's first ever win in a medley relay at the Olympics, for men or women.

"I was totally stunned. After all the hassle, and my being the athletes' mouthpiece, we'd come through and done it".

Tonelli's butterfly leg was such that if he had swum the same time in the individual event, he would have claimed the silver medal.

Tonelli retired after the Games. Tonelli's aquatic success was not derived from any physical advantage, as he was relatively small for a swimmer. He was only 185 cm tall and weighed 70 kg, with relatively small hands and feet. Tonelli felt that his success was based around his ability to make fast starts from the blocks, and attributed his success to his mental approach and his ability to conver his energy into a fast swim in under one minute. He made it a deliberate strategy to make himself nervous before the race, feeling that he thrived on pressure.

Tonelli later did television commentary for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, before returning for the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. He also worked at a spastic centre for children in Brisbane before opening his own swimming school. He also completed a series for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on their Lifestyle TV program and produced movies on swimming and child development. Tonelli later set up his own computing business.

Notes

1. ^ Howell, p. 238.
2. ^ Howell, p. 240.
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9. Andrews, pp. 440–441.

References

• Andrews, Malcolm (2000). Australia at the Olympic Games. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ISBN 0-7333-0884-8.
• Howell, Max (1986). Aussie Gold. Brooks Waterloo. ISBN 0-86440-680-0.

• 1957 births
• Living people
• Olympic swimmers of Australia
• Australian backstroke swimmers
• Australian butterfly swimmers
• People from Queensland
• Swimmers at the 1976 Summer Olympics
• Swimmers at the 1980 Summer Olympics