Personal information | |
---|---|
Full name | Eugene Botes |
National team | South Africa |
Born | Vanderbijlpark, South Africa | 9 June 1980
Height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
Weight | 101 kg (223 lb) |
Sport | |
Sport | Swimming |
Strokes | Butterfly |
Club | Suburban Swim Club (U.S.) [1] |
College team | Pennsylvania State University (U.S.) |
Coach | Charlie Kennedy (U.S.) [1] |
Eugene Botes (born 9 June 1980) is a South African former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. [2] He became the first swimmer to represent his country South Africa in international tournaments, while playing for the Penn State Nittany Lions in his senior season. He also holds a dual citizenship between South Africa and the United States. [1]
Botes qualified for two swimming events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He established a South African record and a FINA A-standard entry time of 53.20 (100 m butterfly) from the USA National Championships in College Park, Maryland. [3] [4] In the 100 m butterfly, Botes challenged seven other swimmers on the sixth heat, including top medal favorites Andriy Serdinov and Denys Sylantyev of Ukraine. He edged out Mexico's Joshua Ilika Brenner to notch a seventh spot and thirtieth overall by 0.15 of a second in 54.15. [5] [6]
Botes also teamed up with Gerhard Zandberg, Terence Parkin, and Karl Otto Thaning in the 4×100 m medley relay. Swimming the butterfly leg in heat two, Botes recorded a time of 54.57, but the South Africans rounded out the field to last place and thirteenth overall with a final time of 3:43.94. [7] [8]
Botes is also a graduate of computer science at the Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. He previously trained for the Suburban Swim Club under his long-time coach and mentor Charlie Kennedy. Botes trained at Media, Pennsylvania's Hidden Hollow Swim Club where he also served as head lifeguard. [1]
Ian Lowell Crocker is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. During his career, he set world records in the 50- and 100-meter butterfly and the 100-meter freestyle. He has won a total of twenty-one medals in major international competition, spanning the Olympics, the FINA World Aquatics Championships, and the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships. He coached for many years at the Western Hills Athletic Club and has helped coach the Longhorns swim camp in 2019 as well as other years. Since Spring of 2022 when the new facility opened, Crocker coaches at the Western Aquatics and Social Club at the Eanes Independent School District Aquatics center.
The men's 100 metre butterfly event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 14–16 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China.
Rimvydas Šalčius is a Lithuanian former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He is a multiple-time Lithuanian champion, and a two-time national record holder in both the men's butterfly and medley relay events. He also set a junior record time of 53.25 seconds by winning the gold medal in the men's 100 m butterfly at the 2003 European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland.
Sotirios Pastras is a Greek former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He is a multiple-time Greek champion and record holder in the butterfly. Pastras is a computer engineering graduate at University of Thessaly, and is currently a member of Nova Club in Volos, under the tutelage of his personal coach Nikolaos Prantzos.
Eduardo Germán Otero is an Argentine former swimmer, who specialized in backstroke and butterfly events. He is a three-time Olympian, a multiple-time national record holder, and a two-time champion for the 50 m backstroke at the South American Games. He is also a member of Club Nadadores del Rio Plata, and is coached and trained by Marcelo "Yuri" Quaglia.
Michal Rubáček is a Czech swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He is a two-time Olympian, and a multiple-time Czech national record holder for the butterfly events.
Jeong Doo-hee is a South Korean former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He represented his nation South Korea at the 2004 Summer Olympics, and shared silver medals with Park Seon-kwan, Choi Kyu-woong, and Park Tae-hwan in the 4×100 m medley relay at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.
Juan Pablo Valdivieso is a Peruvian former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. Valdivieso holds a dual citizenship between his parents' nation Peru and the United States, where he currently resides. He is also influenced by his grandfather Juan Valdivieso, who played for Peru's soccer team at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin.
Pavel Mikalayevich Lahun is a Belarusian former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and butterfly events. He is a two-time Olympian, and a three-time medalist at the FINA World Cup.
Aleksandar Miladinovski is a Macedonian former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly and individual medley events. He represented the Republic of Macedonia in two editions of the Olympic Games, and held five Macedonian records in the butterfly and individual medley.
Nicholas Rees is a Bahamian former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He is a two-time Olympian, a former Caribbean and Bahamian record holder in the 100 m butterfly, a varsity swimmer for the Ohio State Buckeyes, and a graduate of business administration at Ohio State University. Rees later obtained an MBA in International Business from the University of Miami. Nicholas Rees is also the grandson of Lionel Wilmot Brabazon Rees, VC, British war hero, Victoria Cross recipient and advisor to the Crown.
Daniel O'Keeffe is a Guamanian former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He is a two-time Olympian, and currently holds a Guamanian record in the 100-meter butterfly (55.05).
Conrad Anthony Francis is a Sri Lankan former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He is a two-time Olympian, a three-time swimmer at the Commonwealth Games, and a double gold medalist in the 50 and 100 m butterfly at the Asian Age Group Championships. Francis also became the first Sri Lankan to swim the same stroke under 56 seconds, when he competed at the 2004 FINA World Short Course Championships in Indianapolis, Indiana.
Aghiles Slimani is an Algerian former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. Slimani qualified for two swimming events at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by posting FINA B-standard entry times of 55.40 and 2:03.18 from the World Championships in Barcelona, Spain. In the 200 m butterfly, Slimani challenged seven other swimmers in heat two, including Olympic veteran Vladan Marković of Serbia. He raced to sixth place and thirty-first overall by 0.16 of a second behind Markovic in 2:04.93. In his second event, 100 m butterfly, Slimani placed forty-eighth on the morning's preliminaries. Swimming in heat three, he edged out Turkey's Onur Uras to take a seventh seed by fifteen hundredths of a second (0.15) in 56.22.
Andy Wibowo is an Indonesian former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. He won a bronze medal in the 100 m butterfly (55.59) at the 2007 Southeast Asian Games in Bangkok, Thailand.
Oleg Lyashko is an Uzbek former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. Lyashko qualified for the men's 100 m butterfly at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, by posting a FINA B-standard of 56.08 from the Kazakhstan Open Championships in Almaty. He challenged seven other swimmers in heat two, including 17-year-old Michal Rubáček of the Czech Republic. He raced to second place by a 1.03-second margin behind winner Rubacek in a personal best of 55.90. Lyashko failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed forty-sixth overall in the preliminaries.
Rad Aweisat is a Palestinian swimmer, who specialized in butterfly events. Aweisat qualified for the men's 100 m butterfly, as Palestine's youngest athlete, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. He received a Universality place from FINA as part of his Olympic Solidarity program, without meeting an entry time. He participated in heat one against two other swimmers Luis Matias of Angola and Fernando Medrano of Nicaragua. He rounded out a small field of three to last place with a slowest time of 1:01.60, nearly 11 seconds off the world record set by U.S. swimmer Ian Crocker. Aweisat failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed fifty-ninth overall in the preliminaries.
Karl Otto Thaning is a South African actor and former professional swimmer and water polo player. As a swimmer he most notably competed in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. As an actor, he has appeared in a number of films and television series.
Denys Viktorovych Syzonenko is a Ukrainian former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle events. He is a single-time Olympian (2004), and a two-time relay medalist at the Universiade. He also trains for Dynamo Kyiv swimming team, under his longtime coach Viktor Turchin.
Theophilus "Theo" Verster is a South African former swimmer, who specialised in butterfly and in individual medley events. He won three medals at the 1999 All-Africa Games, and later represented South Africa at the 2000 Summer Olympics. He also held an African record of 55.04 from the 2002 Telkom International Sprint Challenge that defeated Terence Parkin for a top finish and sliced off Brendon Dedekind's standard by 0.37 of a second. During his sporting career, Verster trained full-time under his personal coach Alisdair Hatfield.