Eric Moussambani

Eric Moussambani (born May 31 1978) is a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea. Nicknamed "Eric The Eel" by the media after the name first appeared in an article by Craig Lord in The Times newspaper in London, Moussambani won brief international fame at the 2000 Summer Olympics when he swam his heat of the 100m freestyle in 1:52.72 and won, because the two other competitors Karim Bare and Farkhod Oripov were disqualified for taking a false start. His time was more than twice that of his faster competitors, and outside even the 200m world record. However he had set a new personal best and national record.

Career

Moussambani gained entry to the Olympics without meeting the minimum qualification requirements via a wildcard draw designed to encourage developing countries without expensive training facilities to participate. While Pieter van den Hoogenband set a world record of 47.84 seconds to win the gold medal, Moussambani splashed his way to the finish to the cheers of the crowd in slightly more than twice that time. "The last 15 meters were very difficult," Moussambani said.

Before coming to the Olympics, Moussambani had never seen a long Olympic-size swimming pool. He took up swimming only 8 months before the Olympics and had practiced in a pool at a hotel in Malabo.

His performance generated spectator and media interest in the only other Equatorial Guinean swimmer at the Sydney Olympics, Paula Barila Bolopa, who competed in the women's 50 metres freestyle event. Barila struggled to finish the race with a time of 01:03.97, setting a record for the slowest time in Olympic history for that event, and in turn achieved minor celebrity status.

Moussambani was denied entry into the 2004 Olympic Games due to a visa bungle, despite the vast improvement in his swimming over the previous four years, with his personal best down to under 57 seconds. He did not take part in the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Similarly-acclaimed athletes

In subsequent Olympic Games, international media occasionally referred to Moussambani's potential "successors" - athletes who might record spectacularly poor times. Prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics, media in several countries -including Argentina, Australia, Denmark, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom- suggested that Stany Kempompo Ngangola, a swimmer from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, would be the Olympic's next "Eric the Eel". Also prior to the Beijing Games, some media described ni-Vanuatu sprinter Elis Lapenmal and Palestinian swimmer Hamza Abdu as "potential successors to Moussambani". During the Games, Cook Islands swimmer Petero Okotai compared himself to "Eric the Eel" upon recording a disappointing time in his event.