Featured Image Credit: YouTube/Olympics
Topics: Olympics, Sport, World News
Niamh Spence
The Olympics is filled with medal wins, sporting legends and iconic moments.
But there's one moment may not be remembered today as vividly as some of Simone Biles' gravity defying gymnastics or even huge comebacks in cycling for Team GB - however, that doesn't make it any less impressive.
Eric Moussambani became an Olympic swimmer in the 2002 Sydney games, where he competed in the 100-metre freestyle.
What made his Olympic debut so great, however, was that he not only competed alone but it was also his first time in an Olympic 50-metre pool.
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Moussambani took part in the Sydney Games to represent Equatorial Guinea, a Central African nation with a population at the time of less than one million, and he joined as part of an initiative designed to encourage sport development.
As per France 24, Moussambani explained: "When I was young, I played basketball.
"I broke my arm, and I had a panicky fear of playing again. I became interested in swimming.
"When I was about 19, 20 years old, I started to learn with a fisherman because I couldn't swim."
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He continued: "The president of the Olympic Committee at the time, Fernando Minko, wanted to see how we swam, so I dived into the pool and started to move my feet.
"He told us we were going to the Olympics in Australia.
"It was two or three months away from the opening! There wasn't even a coach. I asked a man from the hotel to come and coach me.
"He said OK but from 5:00am to 6:00am in the morning because the pool was for the guests.
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"I didn't know what the Olympics were all about, I didn't even know where Australia was."
For Moussambani, his first ever event at the Olympics would see him competing alongside Tajikistan and Niger, who were then disqualified for false starts, leaving him to swim the 100m race alone.
Finishing the two laps of the pool length in 1min 52.72sec with a roaring crowd cheering him on, the Olympic swim saw him nicknamed 'Eric the Eel'.
Post event, Moussambani said: "Of course there was some mockery, but in the interviews I had afterwards, people explained to me that I was not prepared, not trained like the others, but that I had represented the strength of the Olympic spirit."
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However, the Sydney Olympics has seen his life change, as he ended up doing a lot of 'advertising in Japan and Australia', as well as travelling.
He shared: "I am a national coach in the swimming federation of Equatorial Guinea, my life has changed completely. I work to ensure that our country has good swimmers, teaching them the fundamentals of swimming.
"They, at least, have the opportunity to see and train in Olympic swimming pools. I divide my life between my work in an oil company and the swimming federation.
"I'm a different Eric than 20 years ago. I have a wife and four children, I'm not rich but I earn my living."