| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Mercedes Farhat |
| Born | May 1, 1990 Strongsville, Ohio, USA |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
Asmahan Farhat (born Mercedes Farhat on May 1, 1990 [1] [2] ) is a Libyan-American swimmer.
Born in Strongsville, Ohio, [3] [4] a suburb of Cleveland, [5] she began training with the Lake Erie Silver Dolphins before moving down to Marco Island, Florida at age 11, where she began swimming with her father for the local swim team and with her sister at the YMCA. [6] She graduated from Lely High School in 2008, and broke numerous school and conference records while taking home district and regional titles during her time at the high school. [7] In 2005, Farhat's father, Kamal, convinced her to swim for Libya. As a result, she changed her name to Asmahan (in honor of her aunt) and applied for dual-citizenship. [2]
Farhat represented Libya at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She was the fourth woman ever to swim for Libya at the Olympic Games, following Amira Edrahi at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Nadia Fezzani and Soad Fezzani in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow. [7] She won her heat in the women's 100 metre breaststroke event, with a time of 1:21.68, but finished 47th overall and did not advance. [1] [8] Her time was a new personal best. [7]
She began studying at the University of Florida a few days after competing in Beijing, and became a sister of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. She is also a member of the Florida Cicerones. [7]
In Fall of 2012 she began the Doctor of Pharmacy Program at University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She graduated as a Doctor of Pharmacy in 2016 and continued her career at Walgreens.
Lely High School is a four-year public high school located in Lely Resort, Collier County, Florida, about 10 miles (16 km) southeast of Downtown Naples.
Yuliya Andreyevna Yefimova is a Russian competitive swimmer. She is the Russian record holder in the 200 metre individual medley, 50 metre breaststroke, 100 metre breaststroke, and 200 metre breaststroke. After making her Olympic debut in 2008, she went on to win the bronze medal in the 200 metre breaststroke in 2012, and silver medals in the 100 metre and 200 metre breaststroke in 2016. She is a six-time World Champion, winning the 50 metre breaststroke in 2009 and 2013, the 100 metre breaststroke in 2015, and the 200 metre breaststroke in 2013, 2017, and 2019. In 2019, she became the first woman to win the 200 metre breaststroke at a FINA World Aquatics Championships three times. She is a former world record holder in the long course 50 metre breaststroke. She has won 109 medals, including 48 gold medals, at Swimming World Cups.
Jeong Da-rae is a South Korean former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She is a gold medalist in the 200 m breaststroke at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
Inna Vitalievna Kapishina is a Belarusian former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She is a multiple-time Belarusian champion and three-time national record holder in her respective discipline.
Erika Layne Stewart is an American swimmer of Colombian origin, who specialized in the individual medley events. Born and raised in the United States, she acquired a dual citizenship to compete internationally and represent her father's homeland Colombia in swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics. While serving as a member of Marlins of Raleigh club in her home state North Carolina, Stewart also trained under head coach Mark Bernardino for the University of Virginia's Cavaliers swimming team.
Valeria Silva Merea is a Peruvian swimmer/surgeon, who specialized in breaststroke events. She is a three-time national record holder for the breaststroke events, a two-time Olympic swimmer, and a multiple-time gold medalist at the 2008 South American Swimming Championships in São Paulo, Brazil.
Anna-Liisa Põld is an Estonian-born American competition swimmer who has represented Estonia in international events. She competes in the backstroke, butterfly, and individual medley events. She is a two-time national record-holder at the FINA World Championships, and a multiple-time high school and collegiate record-holder. She also represented her birth nation Estonia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China.
Marina Kuč is a former German and Montenegrin swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She is a two-time Olympian and competed in several World- and European Championships. She was member of SG Essen until 2005. From 2005 she competed as a member of Düsseldorf SC 1898 club in Düsseldorf, Germany, under head coach Torsten Petsch. She was the first woman to represent Montenegro at the Olympics.
Shrone Austin is a Seychellois swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and breaststroke events. She first competed in the women's 100 m breaststroke at the 2004 Summer Olympics, before turning her sights on the long-distance freestyle at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Apart from her Olympic career, Austin had collected a career total of six medals in two editions of the All-Africa Games.
Erik Rajohnson is a Czech-Malagasy former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He represented his nation Madagascar at the 2008 Summer Olympics, placing among the top 60 swimmers in the men's 100 m breaststroke.
Mariam Pauline Keita is a three-time Olympic swimmer from Mali, specialized in breaststroke events. She made her first Malian team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and competed for the women's 100 m breaststroke. At age seventeen, Keita won the first heat of the event, where two of her swimmers were disqualified for a false start and for violating the technical rules of the sport, recording the slowest possible time in the prelims at 1:37.80. On her second Olympic appearance in Athens 2004, Keita swam swiftly and improved her personal best in the 100 m breaststroke event. She finished the same heat in sixth place and forty-sixth overall, with a time of 1:30.40, just seven seconds ahead of her mark from the previous Games.
Julianne Kirchner is an American and Marshallese swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. Having moved with her family to the Marshall Islands at a very young age because of her father's occupation, Kirchner acquired a dual citizenship to participate internationally for her new homeland in swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics.
Jared J. Heine is an American-Marshallese swimmer, who specialized in backstroke events. He acquired a dual citizenship to participate internationally for the Marshall Islands at the 2008 Summer Olympics, placing himself among the top 45 swimmers in the 100 m backstroke.
Erla Dögg Haraldsdóttir is an Icelandic swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke and individual medley events. She represented her nation Iceland at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and has claimed a total of twenty-four Icelandic championship titles and eleven national records in both the 50 and 100 m breaststroke.
Liliana Eugenia Guiscardo is an Argentine swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She represented her nation Argentina at the 2008 Summer Olympics, finishing among the top 40 swimmers in the 100 m breaststroke.
Anna Salnikova is a Georgian swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She represented her nation Georgia at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and held a Georgian national record in both the 50 and 100 m breaststroke until they were later broken by Teona Bostashvili in two separate editions of the World Championships.
Réka Pecz is a Hungarian swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. Pecz represented her nation Hungary at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and also trained as a member of the swimming team at Jövő Sports Club in Miskolc, under the tutelage of personal coach Balázs Fehérvári.
Diana Duarte Gomes is a Portuguese swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She is a two-time Olympian and a multiple-time Portuguese record holder for the long and short course breaststroke events. She also won three medals in the same category at the 2005 European Junior Swimming Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
Jaclyn Pangilinan is a Filipino-American former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She is a two-time Filipino record holder, a four-time Ivy League champion in the 100 and 200 m breaststroke, and a multiple-time medalist at the Southeast Asian Games. Born to a Filipino father, and an American mother, Pangilinan holds a dual citizenship to compete collegiately and internationally in swimming.
Annabelle Jane Carey was a New Zealand swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. As of 2006, she currently holds a New Zealand record of 1:09.26 in the 100 m breaststroke from the World Championship Trials in Auckland. In the same year she helped out the New Zealand team to pull off a fourth-place effort in the medley relay at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Australia, with a record-breaking time of 4:06.30.
Her father, Kamal, suggested she swim for his home country, Libya. She had to apply for dual citizenship, and she had to change her first name from Mercedes.
