Pedro Pablo Morales Jr. (born December 5, 1964) is an American former competitiveswimmer. He setworld records in the 100-meterbutterfly in 1984 and 1986. He was the 100-meter butterfly gold medalist at the1992 Olympic Games, as well as winning 4 × 100 meter medley relay gold medals at both the1984 and 1992 Olympic Games. He also won 100-meter butterfly and 4 × 100 meter medley relay gold medals at the1986 World Championships.
Morales won a relay gold and two silver medals swimming butterfly at the 1984 Olympics inLos Angeles and set the world record in the 100-meter butterfly at the US Olympic Trials that year with a time of 53.38 seconds, breaking the former record of American Olympic teammateMatt Gribble, who finished second. At the trials, Morales also set relay records with teammatesRick Carey,Steve Lundquist andRowdy Gaines. After losing the 100-meter butterfly world record to German swimmerMichael Gross in 1984, he regained it in 1986 with a swim of 52.84 seconds. This record stood until 1995.
After briefly retiring from the sport to pursue aJD degree atCornell Law School inIthaca, New York, Morales returned to swimming and qualified for the 1992 Olympics inBarcelona, where he was the US team captain and captured gold in the 100-meter butterfly.
Since 2001, Morales is the current head women's swimming and diving coach at theUniversity of Nebraska. He was previously the head women's swimming and diving coach atSan Jose State from 1998 to July 2001.[1]
