Naomi Ruele Named Botswana’s Junior Female Sportsperson of the Year

30 January 2016: FIU's Naomi Ruele prepares to compete in the 100 yard freestyle as the FIU Golden Panthers faced the University of Miami Hurricanes at the Biscayne Bay Campus Aquatics Center in Miami, Florida.

Photo Courtesy: Sam Lewis

MIAMI (June 23, 2016) – FIU’s Naomi Ruele was named the Junior Female Sportsperson of the Year by the Botswana National Sports Council (the national governing body for all sports in Botswana), the organization announced on June 6.

Ruele has qualified to represent her home country of Botswana in the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. At the Georgia Tech Aquatic Center on March 20, Ruele swam a qualifying time of 26.07 in the 50 Free during the official FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) approved time trial. Ruele is just the second female and the first swimmer from Botswana to qualify for the Olympics.

During her 2015-16 season at FIU, Ruele finished either first or second in the 50 Free 12 times. She has posted times under 23 seconds five times, including a 22.33 in the prelims of the C-USA Championships and her record-setting time of 22.23 in the finals.

Ruele was perfect during the C-USA Championships, winning gold in each of the seven events she swam in (three individual, four relays). Named the C-USA Swimmer of the Meet, she also set two school records during the championships (100 Free and 200 Free Relay).

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Florida International University contributed this report.

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Bill Bell

7 years ago

Interesting that after both D1 NCAA meets thus year they held an lcm invitational in which swimmers if both sexes qualified for the Olympics. I was wondering why such meets had been held and now I know, I.e,, give foreign collegians an early shot at making The Big Dance, although in the case of European and Brazilian swimmers they would have another chance at their sprung nationals ( Brazil) or European Championshios stab later date.

In any event turned out holding the meets was a good idea and maybe they’ll donut again next year so swimmers nay qualify early for the World Championships.