2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES
- When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
- Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
- Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
- Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
- Full aquatics schedule
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Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui orchestrated the first major upset of the swimming competition in Tokyo, winning Olympic gold in the men’s 400 freestyle from out in Lane 8 in what was a truly stunning result.
Hafnaoui, 18, had a strong showing in the prelims just to get into the final, lowering his best time from 3:46.16 to 3:45.68 to snag eighth place after coming in seeded 16th, but that was only the beginning.
Hafnaoui was an afterthought coming into the final—despite hitting a PB in the heats, he still had the slowest lifetime best among the eight finalists.
The 2018 Youth Olympian got off to a strong start, out of sight of the men in the center lanes, turning second at the halfway mark behind Australia’s Jack McLoughlin, who was also out on the outside in Lane 2.
Having created a bit of separation on the field, the two men duelled it out over the last 50 from opposite ends of the pool. As they crossed the flags over the final few meters, Hafnaoui inched in front. The gold was his.
The shock on his face, and the exuberance of his coach in the stands, said it all.
#swimming 400m Freestyle
18yr old 🇹🇳Ahmed Hafnaoui did it!!!!!!!!
Second Olympic Gold medal in history for Tunisia in the pool! pic.twitter.com/SRkpcIJXrm— FINA (@fina1908) July 25, 2021
His final time: 3:43.36. 2.32 seconds faster than the night before, and 2.80 better than his best time coming in. (McLoughlin was less than two tenths back for silver in 3:43.52, and American Kieran Smith won the bronze in 3:43.94.)
However, the time is not even a Tunisian Record, as Hafnaoui is the second freestyler from the North African nation of 11.6 million to have made an impact on the world stage.
Ous Mellouli is swimming royalty in Tunisia, winning the country’s first-ever gold in the sport in the men’s 1500 freestyle in 2008. Mellouli, now 37, won a second Olympic gold medal in the 10k open water event in 2012, and also picked up a bronze in the mile (he’s slated to compete in his sixth Olympics in the open water event here in Tokyo).
That gives Hafnaoui Tunisia’s third medal in history in the pool, and it’s also Africa’s first in the 400 freestyle, period.
Mellouli came close in Beijing, placing fifth in what was an African Record at the time (3:43.45), but Hafnaoui earns the distinction as the first African medalist in the 400 free.
As an aside, here’s a crazy little bit of information on Hafnaoui’s meteoric rise to the top. He was eighth at the 2018 Youth Olympics in the 400 free, 10th at the 2019 World Juniors, and now he’s the Olympic champion.
Mellouli would lower the African and Tunisian Records in the event down to 3:41.11 during the “super-suit era” in 2009, when records fell by the wayside at an astonishing rate. Now that’s just something new for Hafnaoui to shoot for.
Hafnaoui is far from done here in Tokyo. In fact, the best still may be yet to come.
Coming into the Games, on paper, his better event was the 800 free, which will be contested for the first time at the Olympics this year. Hafnaoui set a best time of 7:45.54 last month, seeding him eighth. And if the 400 is any indication, he may well finish much higher than that in a few days time.
Continental & National Records On Day 1
- Men’s 100 breaststroke: Sudan – Abobakr Abass, 1:04.46
African Medal Table Through Day 1
| SwimSwam News – 2020 Tokyo Olympics | ||||
| Pool Swimming Medal Table | ||||
| Nation | Total Medals | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Tunisia | 1 | 1 | ||
Would this qualify as a WJR? Seems to be listed as a 3:44 and everything I find on the kid says he’s 18, so it seems to fit on paper?
No. He turns 19 on December 4, and age for WJRs is based on age as of December 31 of the current year.
the raw emotion in that pop off hyped me way up. beautiful thing to witness. too bad not a lot of swimmers let go like that
He will take part in 800m too ? Nice. We will be talking about him too for that race.
It made me so happy to see him win. It’s wonderful for him and for Tunisia.
You are making our whole continent proud, thank you big man!!!!
Hey Gogo Bibi: Since you’re French, do you know anything about Ahmed Hafnaoui? I read somewhere he trains in France, but it’s probably not correct. If you do, let all of us Swimswammers know. I’m still in shock over Ahmed’s incredible winning performance.
I’m not french but Bobo gigi is lol, I just live there. He was beating constantly the top french swimmers at local competitions like open de france and french championship , and swam PB after PB. And you know what? I think 400 free is not even his best event, it’s the 800m!! Watch out for him latter this week!
The main story of the first day of finals. Hafnaoui was the youngest finalist and made a huge improvement when it counted most. Watching not only his age but also his swimming skills, I think we have a true Olympic champion indeed.
If anyone was watching, he wore his mask the LEAST. Proof that non-mask wearing optimizes performance. WADA will be sure to ban it soon.
I like wearing the mask when wet, feels like I’m getting waterboarded 😁
Satire people, satire
Huge upset, just huge! Anyone know where he trains or who is his coach? Honestly, I never heard of him until this morning, but give the young man credit. He was fantastic. Wow.
I did a little digging. He was 7:49 in the 800 at Junior World’s in 2019 at the age of 16 so was always a huge talent.
Coming into the meet the 800 was probably his better event. He was 7:45 and 3:46 at French Trials.
I tried to do some digging, but I’m unable to read French or Arabic…
You can find all that info on his swimrankings profile in English.
When I knew he made it to the final yesterday with good time record, I expected something interesting in the final, but not gold. I remembered how Ousamma Mellouli did big thing in 1500m at Beijing 2008, beating Grant Hackett. But I didn’t expect Ahmed Hafanoui would not go that huge.
It also reminds me of Salim Illes, the Algerian sprinter who reached the finals of both 50m free and 100m free at Athens 2004.
His coach Jobrane Touili is only 30 years old and has been training him since the age of 10. He trains in Ezzahra tunis