Jesús David "Jesse" Vassallo Anadón (born August 9, 1961) is a former competition swimmer and world record-holder in the 200 and 400 individual medley, who participated in the 1984 Summer Olympics for the United States. In 1997, he became the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He was somewhat unique in the scale of his achievements as a swimmer, and in a tribute to his World Records in 1978 was voted Swimming World Magazine's "Male Swimmer of the Year". From 2004 to 2009, he served as the president of the Puerto Rican National Swimming Federation (Federación Puertorriqueña de Natación).
Early years
Vassallo Anadón is the third child of five siblings, born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, to the Vassallo Anadón family. He received his primary education at Academia Cristo Rey in Ponce. His sports-minded father, Victor Vassallo, who at one time played professional basketball, was the brother of the late Puerto Rican industrialist Salvador Vassallo, and encouraged his children to participate in sports. Vassallo Anadón's brothers are Marcos, swimmer, businessman, and politician Víctor (b. 1960), Vicente, and swimmer Salvador (b. 1968).
In 1971, at the age of 10, Vassallo's father moved his family to Miami, Florida, where he was to open a branch of the family business, Vassallo Industries. Jesse began swimming with the Miami Hurricanes, an age-group team, under gifted coach Bill Diaz, who also coached the University of Miami swim team, where Vassallo would later have an exceptional college swimming career.
Vassallo Anadón was unable to attend the 1980 Summer Olympics held in Moscow, Russia, because of the U.S. and multinational boycott imposed by U.S. President Jimmy Carter as a response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. He competed in another competition held in the United States, which were held at the same time as the Moscow Olympics.
Vassalo did some coaching after his competitive years and was the coach of the Pompano Piranhas Swim Club in 2020.
Honors and legacy
In 1997, Vassallo Anadón became the first Puerto Rican to be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. As of June 2011, Vassallo is Head Coach for the Pompano Beach Piranhas in Pompano Beach, Florida. Not surprisingly, after his World Records, he was Swimming World Magazine's "Male Swimmer of the Year" in 1978.
In Japan, the swimming style developed by Vassallo is called , based on a mispronunciation (va-sa-ro) of Vassallo's name.
In an interview for the Olympics Channel in 2018, Vassallo claims to have been a pioneer in the use of underwater dolphin kicks in backstroke events in 1976 when he was only 14 years old. The extensive use of this technique in the following decade completely transformed the sport.