Though details are sparse of the results, according to Gabonese newspaper l’union, the Gabonese Swimming Federation has held its first-ever National Swimming Championship.
This is a significant step for Gabon’s swimming culture. The African country is not currently listed by FINA as a member federation, and in 9 Olympic appearances by the country have never entered a swimmer.
However, the country buoyed by oil revenues, continues to expand its national sports program. In 2012, Gabon entered its first team sport into the Olympics when they sent a soccer team. They also won their first ever Olympic medal when Anthony Obame earned a silver in the men’s heavyweight taekwondo competition. It’s those combat sports (boxing, taekwondo) and athletics where most of the country’s Olympic appearances have come.
But with so many universality spots available through FINA to the Olympic Games, if Gabon can get a swimmer qualified for the 2015 World Championships, then perhaps a swimmer through to the 2016 Olympic Games is within reach. There were over 100 swimmers present at the meet according to l’union
Among the best hopes is Mael Ambonguilat, who represented Gabon at the 2014 Youth African Games in Botswana. There, he finished a respectable 38th out of 53 entrants at 16-years old with a time of 29.64. That would not have been the slowest legal time at either the 2012 Summer Olympic Games nor that 2013 FINA World Aquatics Championships. It would have beat 5 legal swimmers from the 50 free at the World Championships: all from other African nations.
Increasing national participation in the Olympics, in line with the ideals of Pierre de Coubertin the father of the modern Olympics, has been emphasized by FINA ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. This is somewhat of a deviation from comments made by former IOC president Jacques Rogge from 2001 until last year when Thomas Bach was elected as the new president.
Rogge infamously vowed to get rid of so-called “wildcard” spots (also known as ‘universality’) because of his embarrassment over Eric ‘the Eel” Moussambani’s performance at the 2000 Olympic Games. Moussambani swam his 100 free in a 1:52.72: the slowest Olympic time ever recorded.
But Moussambani started a movement in his country: one where Gabon is already ahead of the curve. On May 6, 2000, Moussambani was in a pool for the first time in his life at the Hotel Ureca swimming pool. That pool was only 12-meters long, and just 4 months later he saw, and raced in, his first ever Olympic pool.
Now, 16 years later, at 36-years old, Moussambani has lowered his time to 55 seconds and is coming out of retirement to attempt qualification for the 2016 Olympic Games. He is the coach of the Equatorial Guinea National Team, which has over 30 members, and his performance led to the construction of a 50-meter pool in his home country.
Moussambani’s first travel stop on an epic three-day journey to Sydney for those 2000 Olympics was through the Gabon airport. Now, as Gabon begins to build their own swimming program, they already have an Olympic pool and have already held a National Championship and sent swimmers to compete at a continental championship (and admirably so).
And so to the organizers of the first Gabon National Swimming Championships, we extend a congratulations and hopes for many more in the future.