Eric Moussambani

Eric Moussambani Malonga (born 31 May 1978) is an Equatoguinean swimmer. Nicknamed Eric the Eel by the media, Moussambani gained brief international fame at the 2000 Summer Olympics for an extremely unlikely victory. Moussambani, who had never seen an Olympic-sized (50-metre [160 ft]) swimming pool before, swam his heat of the 100 metre freestyle on 19 September in a time of 1:52.72. This was the slowest time in Olympic history by far, and Moussambani had trouble finishing the race, but he won his heat after both his competitors were disqualified due to false starts. Although Moussambani's time was still too slow to advance to the next round, he set a new personal best and an Equatoguinean national record. Moussambani eventually lowered his national record to 57 seconds , almost halving the time of his Olympic performance. He later became the coach of the national swimming squad of Equatorial Guinea.

In 2006, Moussambani achieved his personal best for the 100 metre of 52.18 at a meet in Germany, more than 60 seconds faster than his 2000 Olympic race and 5.78 seconds behind the current world record of 46.40, set by Pan Zhanle at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Career

Moussambani gained entry to the Olympics without meeting the minimum qualification requirements via a wildcard draw designed to encourage participation by developing countries lacking full training facilities. Pieter van den Hoogenband won in a time of 48.30 seconds (setting a world record of 47.84 in the semi-finals); Moussambani took more than twice that time to finish (1:52.72). "The last 15 metres were very difficult", Moussambani said. Because the other two swimmers in his heat made false starts and were thus disqualified, he won the heat unopposed.