The story of Eric the Eel is one of the more inspiring and heartwarming Olympic stories out there
There was one small problem though – Eric didn’t know how to swim properly.
Not only that, but Equatorial Guinea didn’t have the facilities for him to train.
The athlete recalled how he became an unlikely Olympic swimmer, saying: “I started swimming when I left school. We didn’t have a swimming pool.”
In the end, the budding olympian had to train in a small hotel pool around 13 metres long.
As for coaches? Forget about it, Eric trained by himself in the pool.
Eric sets off on his swim. (Simon Bruty /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
He said: “I trained on my own and I had no swimming experience. The pool was only available from 5am to 6am and I was only able to train for three hours a week.”
Luckily, he was able to supplement this with swimming in rivers and the sea, assisted by some fishermen.
He recalled. “The fishermen would tell me how to use my legs and how to swim. There was nothing professional about it at all.”
So Eric turned up to the Sydney Olympics in 2000 having never even swam in a full-sized Olympic pool, which are 50 metres long.
He said: “I was scared by the sight of the first pool I’d be racing in.”
The swimmer also had to borrow a pair of trunks, given to him by the South African coach, as he had turned up in swimming shorts.
In a remarkable twist, the two other athletes in his heat were disqualified, meaning that Eric only had to complete the 100 metre swim to win his heat.
Eric celebrates after his 100m race. (Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty Images)
His subsequent race was cheered on by the surrounding crowd.
On his second length it looked like he might not make it and even had to grab the lane rope to avoid going under the water, but amid the cheers of spectators he finished the race.
He said: “I knew that the whole world was watching me – my family, my country, my mother, my sister and my friends. That’s why I was telling myself that I had to keep going, that I had to finish, even if I was alone in the pool. I wasn’t worried about the time. All I wanted to do was finish.”
In the end he clocked in a time of 1:52, but was not deterred.
After Sydney, Eric continued training and eventually got a personal best of 57 seconds – fast enough to have won him the gold in Helsinki in 1952.
Eric went on to become the coach for the Equatorial Guinea swimming team, and since his remarkable appearance the country has built two full sized Olympic swimming pools.
