"The only issue was, Eric couldn't swim."

August 8, 2024 2:02 PM

"You probably know the start of this Olympic story, but do you know how it finished?" Before coming to the Olympics, Equatorial Guinea's Eric Moussambani had never seen a 50m pool. Aaron Smith tells us an incredible story that starts with 'Eric the Eel' answering a call for volunteers, and ends in a way you might not expect.
posted by mhoye (7 comments total)

This is a great story. Real Olympic vibe.
posted by chavenet at 2:08 PM on August 8 [1 favorite]

Well how nice I did NOT know that and in fact just encountered him while watching the Kevin/Kenan "recap" show last night. Glad to know the rest of it, it just seemed like they were dogging on the guy for no reason but clearly many people knew at least some of his story.
posted by jessamyn at 2:23 PM on August 8 [1 favorite]

That's pretty wild, he went from slower than some non-olympiad swimmers to qualifying for historic golds in 2 years. So much of modern performance is crazy funding, tech, and insane training routines no normal person would ever be subjected to so it's really cool seeing someone improve that much without millions of superhuman industry bucksbehind him.
posted by GoblinHoney at 3:20 PM on August 8 [6 favorites]

Great story!
posted by dg at 7:51 PM on August 8

Totally faster than I could ever hope to swim.
posted by Big Al 8000 at 8:38 PM on August 8

He was like 5X faster than me even at his starting point - and also many times the endurance. (For some reason I am the world's slowest swimmer - when I was like 9 I came in dead last out of an entire swim class of kids, and I haven't gotten any faster.)
posted by flug at 8:55 PM on August 8

I remember watching that swim! I cried! The crowd was so great, cheering him on despite him being alone in the pool.

So glad to hear that he's continued swimming and developing the sport in Equatorial Guinea.
posted by suelac at 10:18 AM on August 9