Rowdy Gaines lived in Hawaii just seven years, working as general manager of The Oahu Club, a place he could train while pondering yet another return to the Olympic pool.

He and his amiable family thrived here, until a strange illness hit the swimmer who was the fastest man in the water — post-Mark Spitz and pre-Matt Biondi, as Gaines likes to say.

Gaines was favored to win four gold medals in 1980, at 21. He held the world record in the 100 and 200 freestyle and was the 1980 world swimmer of the year. A Wheaties box was calling his name.

Instead, the boycott came and Gaines had to work as a hotel desk clerk while he trained in obscurity, inspired by his father to give it one more shot.

He made the most of it, winning gold in the 100 and both relays. He will be the swimming commentator for NBC at the London Games, a role he has held since Barcelona in 1992.

A year before Barcelona, while living here, Gaines felt a tingling in his feet, legs and hands. Within two days he was in the hospital, barely able to breathe and paralyzed by Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare and incurable disorder that causes the immune system to attack the nerves and paralyze the body.

Two months later and 40 pounds lighter, he went back to his Hawaii home and learned to walk again, button a shirt and, ultimately, swim. Training 6 hours a day for much of his life saved his life.

A year later, Gaines set records at the World Masters Championships. Two years after that, at 35, he qualified for the 1996 Olympic Trials.

Gaines now lives in Florida, where he was born. He is executive director of the Rowdy’s Kidz charity and a motivational speaker.

With Matt Biondi now living and teaching on the Big Island, Hawaii can claim to have been "home" to six swimmers who held the world record in the 100 free — Duke Kahanamoku, Mariechen Wehselau Jackson, Richard Cleveland, Ken Walsh, Gaines and Biondi.

» When 14-year-old Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci earned seven perfect 10.0 scores in 1976, the scoreboard could hold only three digits. Her score was shown as 1.00.

» A boycott of the 1980 Games, led by U.S. President Jimmy Carter to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan the previous December, kept 65 nations and American TV out of Moscow.

» China’s team debuts in Los Angeles in 1984 and American track star Carl Lewis wins gold in the 100, 200, long jump and the 4×100 relay.