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 meters) swimming pool before, swam his heat of the 100 m 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, half the time of his Olympic race. He later became the coach of the national swimming squad of Equatorial Guinea. In 2006, Moussambani achieved his personal best for the 100m of 52.18 at a meet in Germany, more than 60 seconds faster than his 2000 Olympic race and 4.34 seconds behind the world record of 47.84, unchanged at the time since Pieter van den Hoogenband set it at the same Olympics.