Ringing in the Olympics: Eric the Eel

“It’s not the winning, but the taking part, that counts.” We get this well-intentioned advice drummed into us from an early age, but as life kicks into gear, with its school prizegivings endured from the back row and the press regaling us with ‘news’ of the world’s big players, it soon becomes evident that such guidance merits one response and one response only: “Aye, right then!”

The Olympics, for all their noble corinthian intentions, deliver much the same message every four years. Who, for example, could even hope to name even three of Michael Phelps’ fellow finalists in the 2008 100m butterfly? And why would you?

Step forward, then, Eric Moussambani. Gaining his ticket to Sydney via a wildcard system, which allowed developing countries without training facilities to send athletes who had fallen short of the times to compete in the Games, he found himself on the blocks alongside two other swimmers in his 100m freestyle heat. Both of them false-started (four years’ preparation for that!), leaving Moussambani as the sole competitor in his heat. And despite a bright start, the burden of an entire arena’s expectations soon took their toll on the Equatorial Guinean, who had never even seen a 50m pool before arriving in Australia. His time of 1:52.72 would fall outside the world record for even the 200m and he would later admit to reporters that his final 15 metres were a struggle just to stay afloat. Never knowingly deficient on the irony-quotient, the Aussies nonetheless cheered him to the rafters and the swimmer who would henceforth be nicknamed 'Eric the Eel' got more than his fair share of the Warholian fame allocation.

Have the Olympics, before or since, ever witnessed a display of such abject hopelessness? Probably not. But nor have the egalitarian principles that the Games strive for been so magnificently displayed.

Haven't been able to put the video here, but here's a link to it, with some comedy Aussie commentary.