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The true spirit of the Olympics.

Do you remember "Eric the Eel" ??

Here's a thread from the site formerly (and to be honest, still) known as Twitter.

Here's the thread:

https://x.com/Aaronsmith333/status/1817431315916165475

Here's an "Unroll" of it:

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1817431315916165475.html

It's by Aaron Smith : @Aaronsmith333

Quoted here in full, sans images.

You probably know the start of this Olympic story, but do you know how it finished?

Eric Moussambani, aka 'Eric the Eel' from Equatorial Guinea, competed in the 100m Freestyle event at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, alone.

Why?

Eric's heat started with 2 other competitors; one from Niger and the other from Tajikistan. Eric's competitors however both broke, and were disqualified, leaving him to swim this event alone.

Eric hadn't completed a full length of a 50m pool before, but he dived in anyway.

It seemed like he wasn't going to make the distance. Touching a lane rope would've been automatic disqualification.

He completed in 1:52.72, the slowest time in Olympic History, and for comparison, 47 seconds slower than I did recently, in my late 40s. Remember these times.

Why was Eric there?

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