Worst Swimming Trial Ever

[PhilDernerJr]

Starts off somewhat slow, but it gets good.

Keep in mind the world record is 47 seconds.

[Matt Molnar]

Keep in mind the world record is 47 seconds.

His time was actually slower than the 200M record as well. :)

It's actually a pretty amazing story, though. I saw this clip a few days ago and did some research...and after reading it I was actually pretty annoyed that those comedian play-by-play guys (this clip is from a British comedy show, not the original) made a joke out of it. Anyway, this guy Eric Moussambani had taken up swimming only 8 months before the 2000 Olympics, and practiced in a 20M hotel swimming pool because there are no 50M Olympic-length pools in all of Equitoreal Guinea, and the first time he had seen one was when he got to the Olympics. He got there via a wildcard lottery that allows poor countries without training facilities and resources to compete. A female swimmer from Equitorial Guinea who trained with Moussambani also swam at Sydney, setting the Olympic record for the slowest time recorded in the women's 50M. Moussambani has since improved his best time by almost a minute to 57 seconds, and was meant to compete at the 2004 Athens games, but was denied entry to Greece due to a visa problem.

[moose135]

I loved the commentator: "He's got a chance to get the Equatorial Guinea record..."

I have to give the guy credit, he did compete and finish the race!