He was nicknamed Eric the Eel
Equatorial Guinea swimmer, Eric Moussambani shot to international fame at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 as he competed in the men’s 100m freestyle.
Moussambani had only taken up the sport eight months earlier and had been invited to the games through a wildcard.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) provides wildcards to athletes from countries which lack training facilities.
Moussambani had never seen an Olympic size pool before, he’d been training in a lake and a 12m hotel pool that he was only permitted to use between 5-6am.
But that wasn’t the most daunting part of the task for the swimmer.
His two rivals Nigeria’s Karin Bare and Tajikistan’s Farkhod Oripov who were supposed to take their place next to Moussambani were disqualified for false starts, leaving Moussambani to race alone.
A crowd of more than 17,000 people got behind the then 22-year-old as he struggled to complete the race.
He went out hard on the first 50m, leaving him utterly exhausted for the final 50m and finished the race with a time of 1:52.72 – the slowest time ever recorded in Olympic history.
Despite it being a personal best and a national record for Equatorial Guinea, he failed to advance out of his heat but he did gain international recognition and the media nicknamed him Eric the Eel.
A passport issue prevented him competing at the 2004 Olympics but he did manage to record a new personal best that year of 56.9s and further bettered this two years later when he swam 52.18.
Moussambani later became the coach of the national swimming squad of Equatorial Guinea.
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