Eric the Eel

Hi all ,

When I was taking my Singapore swimming instructor certification back in 2003/4 , the lecturer then, (think his name is Wong Sooi Kut ) told us a true story about an African guy who participated in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Since my lecturer then happened to be the starter of that particular 100m freestyle heats , he has first hand encounter of what happened then.

The African dude, Eric Moussambani apparently just learnt how to swim 8 months prior to the Olympics and expectedly , didnt perform up to Olympic standard and my then lecturer almost wanted to stop the race , fearing that he could not even swim.

He did finished the race at the end through sheer determination and he was well received with standing ovation albeit his 100m time was 1:52 (worst in Olympic history, I guess) , which is slower than the current 200m (100m X 2 ) world record of 1:42:00

Subsequently, he was given a swimming scholarship to refine his stroke and after some years of training , he managed to do a 57 secs !, according to wikipedia :)


Moral of the story ? you got to have determination ! If Eric can do it , so can you !

Enjoy the video .