Swimming.
It's an incredibly important life skill.
Or at least it seems that way until you sit down and really think about it.
For the vast majority of people today, learning to drive is a much better investment than
learning to swim, and while it is nice to know how to swim, and it might even prove
lifesaving, a lot of people can comfortably go their whole lives without learning.
It may surprise you all to know that Qxir is not a strong swimmer.
I mean I can swim, just about - but not with enough confidence that I'd be getting into
any body of water I can't stand up in outside of an immediate emergency.
Once when I was a kid I almost drowned in the swimming pool.
For some reason the lifegaurd just watched for what felt like an eternity as I bobbed
up and down in the water.
Each moment submerged spent frantically fighting with my airways plugged with water, and when
I occasionally managed to surface, I had but a second to expel it, gasp for air and scream,
before my airways were flooded again.
And each time I surfaced, I was getting less and less air.
I was reduced to an unthinking, panicked animal, as I trashed around desparately trying to
escape - which only served to quicker exhaust my supply of air and make it harder to breath.
Eventually, in the agony of drowning, a strange feeling washed over me.
I knew I was going to die.
I realised the futility of my fighting, and how it was only intensifying my discomfort
and distress, and instead decided that if I were going to die, it would be best to make
my last moments as peaceful as possible.
I stopped fighting, and accepted my fate.
I felt calm.
With my newfound calmness, I quite easily managed to prevent my drowning.
That day I had learned a lesson that would save me in future emergencies - don't panic.
Still doesn't make me a good swimmer, but I share that in common with the subject of
today's video, Eric Moussambani, who swam in the Summer Olympics in 2000, despite never
having even seen a 50 metre swimming pool.
Eric Moussambani was born in Equatorial Guinea in 1978.
After school, he developed an interest in swimming, which was odd as he didn't know
how to swim.
Football was the big thing in Equatorial Guinea and Moussambani found it difficult to even
find a pool he could use to practice.
Regardless, he was determined to pursue swimming.
And so, in his early twenties, he went out to the lakes and rivers, and asked the fishermen
to teach him to swim.
And that's how Olympic athlete Eric Moussambani learned to swim - instructed by fishermen,
in a river, at the age of 22.
Moussambani continued practicing until five months later, when he heard some peculiar
news on the radio.
A national swimming federation had just been established, and they were recruiting at a
nearby hotel.
It was the perfect opportunity for Eric to receive professional training and swim competitively.
Except it wasn't.
When he arrived at the hotel's pool, he found he was the only person to show up for trials.
He was instructed to get in the water but after only a few minutes they told him to
get out.
They told him to start training, because in three months he'd be going to the Olympics
to swim in the 100 metre freestyle.
This came as a massive shock to Moussambani.
Not because his dream of becoming a top-level swimmer was basically realised in an instant,
but because he had never heard of the Olympics.
He went to the library and looked it up.
You may be wondering how someone who had never even heard of the Olympics was qualified to
go, when some people dedicate their entire lives to making their country's Olympic team
and never make it.
This was because the Olympic Committee awarded Equatorial Guinea a wildcard as part of a
program designed to encourage participation of developing countries.
This meant Eric Moussambani was guaranteed a spot, unlike most competitors who must hold
a qualifying rank that proves they are one of the best in the world.
With no dedicated training facilities in Equitorial Guinea, Moussambani continued his swimming
in the lakes and rivers, although he now also had access to the hotel pool the trials had
been held at.
This wasn't much help though as the pool was only about 13-metres long and he only had
access to it from 5am to 6am.
In September 2000, Eric Moussambani was off to Sydney, Australia for the 2000 Summer Olympics.
He had only learned to swim eight months beforehand.
The flight from Equitorial Guinea to Australia included many stopovers, and took three days.
When he arrived, Moussambani laid eyes on the Olympic swimming pool for the first time.
He was horrified.
At 50-metres, he had never seen such a long pool - and he would have to swim two lengths
of the thing.
This is where it became clear that Eric's training was not nearly good enough.
The olympics swimmers had technique, they co-ordinated their strokes with their breathing,
keeping their faces underwater except during small windows in their strokes in which they
inhaled.
Eric had none of this.
Eric just swam.
But he was really struggling in this 50-metre pool during practice.
He could only make it halfway.
He watched the other swimmers to observe what they did, and he often asked people around
the pool for help.
One South-African coach was suspicious of this- Moussambani clearly did not belong here.
After verifying that he was indeed competing in the games, he informed Moussambani of his
first mistake.
The shorts he bought in the second-hand shop were non-regulation, and he would be automatically
disqualified wearing them.
Instead the coach gave gave him a pair of competition trunks and some goggles, and spent
some time with Eric instructing him and helping out with his technique.
On the 19th of September, the time had come for Eric Moussambani to compete in the 100
metre freestyle.
There were 70 other competitors.
In the opening heat, Eric would be swmming with two others - a swimmer from Nigeria and
a swimmer from Tajikistan.
The three men lined up at the blocks, and waited for the signal.
Well, actually no they didn't, the two other fellas jumped in prematurely, and were disqualified
for false starts.
An official informed Moussambani he would now do his laps alone.
This was an absolute nightmare for Moussambani.
The venue held 17,500 seats, and all eyes would be on him and him alone, in an event
he didn't even think he could finish.
He was going to humiliate himself and his country.
He told the official, "please, I can't do it".
But he had to.
Moussambani got up on the block again.
He was scared.
There was no way he would qualify for the semi-finals but that didn't even matter - all
that mattered to him now was the 50-metres ahead of him.
That would be a struggle, but then another 50 metres back?
Impossible.
Or was it?
He had learned a lot from his time here.
People had helped him.
He had gone from swimming in African rivers to training in the Olympic pool in a very
short time - so what did that say about Eric Moussambani?
It said he was a conquerer.
Everyone else had professional instuctors and full fledged training facilities - that's
what made them champions.
But Eric had something else - and that's what made him a conqueror.
So why shouldn't he make the 100 metres?
Why shouldn't he make the podium?
Why shouldn't he come back to his country with the gold he won for them draped around
his neck?
The champions have had their time, now it's time for a conqueror to show what he can do.
So, how do you like my swimming?
So yeah, he swam abysmally.
Incredibly slow, just about as slow as a human can swim before they sink.
After he made the first lap, he started to really struggle.
This guy was on the verge of drowning.
Officials watched him with eagle-eyes as it looked like someone was going to have to jump
in to save him.
He drifted by the lane rope as if to grab hold of it and save himself, which would disqualify
him.
But the crowd weren't laughing at Eric.
They were cheering.
They were completely behind him.
He wanted to give up, but he couldn't let the crowd down.
He couldn't let his country down.
He couldn't let himself down.
Eric Moussambani finished the race.
His time was 1:52:72 After the ordeal, Moussambani was completely
exhausted.
When he got back to the changing rooms he fainted.
After regaining consciousness, he asked "what am I doing here?".
He slept for the rest of the day.
Moussambani's time of 1:52:72 put him 71st out of 71 competitors.
The 70th place finisher was a whole 50 seconds faster.
The last place in the women's event was 33 seconds faster than Moussambani.
In fact, even some of the 200 metre competitors had faster times than Moussambani.
He has by far the slowest Olympic time in recorded history.
But that didn't really matter.
He completed the event through sheer determination - that's what the Olympic spirit is all about.
And the people loved him for it.
He became very popular at the Olympic village and earned the nickname 'Eric the Eel'.
But that wasn't the end of Equitorial Guinea's swimming efforts at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
No, the eyes of the world turned to Paula Barila Bolopa, who was competing for Equitorial
Guinea in the women's 50 metre freestyle.
She also clocked in the slowest time ever, earning her the nickname 'Paula the Crawler'.
This event garnered worldwide attention, and the two became beloved heroes, as brands rushed
to offer them promotional work.
On their return to Equitorial Guinea, the president announced that they would build
pools for the swimmers of the country's future.
And so they did.
Eric Moussambani continued swimming, and by the time the next Olympics rolled around in
2004, he had shaved a full minute off his time, which is quite impressive but you also
have to remember most of the competitors complete this race under a minute - if they shaved
a full minute off their times they would literally complete the race before it even begins.
Unfortunately, he was unable to compete in the 2004 games, due to an error with his application
form.
Lol.
Eric the Eel never competed in the Olympic games again, but in 2012 he was appointed
coach of the national swimming squad, so he still makes it to the Olympics.
What a great story.
It had everything.
Humour, emotion - it even had a happy ending.
Although, y'know, I'm not sure how happy I'd be if my coach for the Olympics was a guy
who literally held the slowest time ever.
A guy whose nickname is a joke about how he's a crappy swimmer.
That'd be like training for boxing and the coach is called "Punching Bag" Paddy.
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Simpler to understand, I suppose.
And here's something else for you to understand - thank you.