Rafael Escalas

Rafael Bestard

Personal information
Full name	Rafael Escalas Bestard
National team	Spain
Born	(1961-02-24) February 24, 1961 (age 64) Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Height	1.78 m (5 ft 10 in)
Weight	72 kg (159 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle
Club	Club Natación Palma
College team	University of California, Los Angeles
Medal record Men's swimming Representing Spain European Championships (LC) 1981 Split 1500 m freestyle Mediterranean Games 1983 Casablanca 1500 m freestyle

Rafael Escalas Bestard ^[a] (born February 24, 1961) is a Spanish former competitive swimmer. Escalas competed in the 1980 and 1984 Olympics. He also swam competitively in the United States for the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).^{[ citation needed ]}

Swimming career

Escalas received an athletic scholarship to attend UCLA, where he competed for coach Ron Ballatore's UCLA Bruins swimming and diving team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition.^{[ citation needed ]} In 1981, he set the NCAA record in the men's 1,650-yard freestyle (time: 14:53.90). scalas is the only swimmer to win an NCAA championship after being seeded last. He was also a member of the UCLA's NCAA national championship team in 1982.^{[ citation needed ]}

Escalas competed in two Olympic Games: 1980 in Moscow, where he placed 6th in the 1500-meter freestyle event, and 1984 in Los Angeles, where he placed 11th in the 1500-meter freestyle. Escalas was also part of Spain's 4x200-meter freestyle relay in Los Angeles. In terms of world rankings, Escalas was ranked third in the world in the 1,500-meter freestyle in 1981, with a time of 15:17.93, which was a Spanish national record for over 19 years. ^{[1] [2]}

Post swimming career

In recent Summer Olympics, Escalas served as Technical Director of the Swimming Competition (Barcelona 1992) and Competition Manager of Swimming (Atlanta 1996). A sports center in Palma de Mallorca is named after Rafa and his brother, Juan Enrique: Germans Escalas. ^[3] Rafa is currently President and CEO of competitive swimwear manufacturer AgonSwim.^{[ citation needed ]}

Experience as an athlete and as a swimwear manufacturer lead Escalas to be the athlete's representative on the FINA Scientific Commission for Suits (he has since stepped down from the committee).^{[ citation needed ]} The commission was established to maintain the standards of swimwear and limit the impact that advanced technology might have on performance.^{[ citation needed ]}

Personal life

Rafa is married to Jennifer Edson Escalas, ^[4] a professor at Vanderbilt University, and has two daughters: Elena Escalas, who also swims at UCLA, ^[5] and Marina Escalas.

Notes

1. In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Escalasand the second or maternal family name is Bestard.

References

1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on December 7, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2016.
2. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Rafael Escalas". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020.
3. "Wikimapia - Let's describe the whole world!".
4. Faculty profile vanderbilt.edu ^{[ dead link ]}
5. "2021-22 Swimming & Diving Roster".