Eric Moussambani - Worst Olympic Swimming Performance Ever? - 8/6/2008

Eric Moussambani from Equatorial Guinea had never seen a regulation-length swimming pool before arriving at the Sydney 2000 Games. Moussambani had only been swimming competitively for nine months before his Olympic heat on Tuesday. His time of one minute, 52.72 seconds in his first 100-meter freestyle race–one of the slowest in Olympic history–saw him trailing the fastest qualifier, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands at 48.64 seconds. Moussambani is one of only two swimmers from Equatorial Guinea at the Sydney games. He was invited to the Olympics through a program designed to spread sports to non-traditional countries.