18-year-old swimmer from Tunisia Ahmed Hafnaoui became a real sensation of the Tokyo Olympics. He is the first representative of the African continent to take gold in these games. Hafnaoui won the 400m freestyle.
Despite the fact that he barely managed to make it to the final, and he got an uncomfortable eighth track, in the decisive heat he passed Australian Jack McLaughlin and American Kieran Smith, who took silver and bronze.
Hafnaoui had a good start and was able to keep pace with a brilliant swim in the last 50 meters and a time of 3 minutes and 43.36 seconds, 3 seconds better than his personal record.
“At first I was very surprised that I made it to the final, and now I am no less surprised that I got gold,” Hafnaoui admitted, “I only believed it when I touched the wall and saw that I was the first, but still I was very surprised, I didn’t expect this from myself. “
The athlete was so amazed by what had happened that he did not even think to bring his team uniform to the pool and received a medal, standing on the podium in a training jersey and shorts.
