The greatest ever Olympic moment?

After a four year wait since London, this week will see the commencement finally of the Rio Olympics. In honour of that, we here at Critic decided to take a look back at likely the finest moment in Olympic history: Eric Moussambani—“Eric the Eel”

Eric Moussambani produced quite possibly one of the greatest Olympic moments of all time when the little known swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, who had never been in a swimming pool until only two months prior, won his heat at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. 

Moussambani was the beneficiary of a new initiative from the IOC which looked to develop and foster athletes from developing countries by introducing a wildcard position. Following an advert on the radio encouraging athletes to tryout for the Equatorial Guinea Olympic team, Moussambani decided to put his hat in the ring for the country's swim team. Despite never having swum in a swimming pool, he was awarded a place on the team, given that he was the only one to show up to the trials.  

By Moussambani’s own admission his training was relatively poor. His training consisted of two hours during the weekend which he would spend swimming in either the sea or the river. The first time in fact Moussambani had ever swum in a swimming pool was two months prior to the Olympics when he was able to splash around in the 12m long well at the hotel he was staying at. 

Upon his arrival at the Sydney Olympic Pool he was apparently shocked at the size of the pool, which was a lot larger than he  first thought. Here at the Olympic pool, whilst training alongside other athletes, Moussambani first learnt how to properly dive and swim. 

However, against all odds, Moussambani managed to win his heat in the 100m freestyle. Although, this was mainly due to the fact that all others in his heat had been disqualified for a false start. Sadly, due to his very slow time, and the fact that he almost had to stop halfway and be rescued, he did not make it through to the next round. However, Moussambani can lay claim to a new record for the fastest 100m freestyle for Equatorial Guinea at the Olympics. Although he can also lay claim to the slowest ever time at the Olympics…

This article first appeared in Issue 17, 2016.
Posted 11:34am Sunday 31st July 2016 by Hugh Baird.