He may have looked like a marlin in comparison to Eric the Eel, but Ethiopia’s Robel Habte was still destined to join the pantheon of the Olympic Games’ lovable losers after his performance in the men’s 100 metres freestyle heats in Rio on Tuesday night.
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Habte’s only rivals in the three-man opening heat, Thibaut Danho of the Ivory Coast and Johnny Perez Urena of the Dominican Republic had removed their caps and were leaning on the lane markers as he trailed in more than 12 seconds behind. The crowd began cheering for Habte as he approached the finish, with his competition already resting, waiting for him.
Habte indeed is enjoying his time in the Olympics.
But he told Reuters he was delighted anyway.
People are being downright unkind to an Ethiopian swimmer, body-shaming him for having what, in one of the more charitable comments, is called a dad bod.
But compared to “Eric the Eel”, Eric Moussambani Malonga from Equatorial Guinea, Habte set a blazing pace.
According to Reuters, Habte has no plans on competing again, but he’ll always be an Olympian.
Moussambani shot to fame in 2000 when it took him 1 minute 52.72 seconds to finish the 100m freestyle.
“I wanted to do something different for my country, that’s why I chose swimming”, Habte said. “Everybody, every day you wake up in Ethiopia, you run. I just love swimming”.
Habte said: “I’m so happy because it’s the Olympics”.
However Habte’s appearance and performance in the pool posed the question as to how he actually qualified for the Games in the first place.
Another wrote: “How in the world did this Ethiopian swimmer qualify for the Olympics?”
And still others noted that Habte is the, ahem, son of the president of the country’s swimming federation.
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Robel Kiros Habte finished the 100m freestyle in one minute, 4.95 seconds.
