{"id":493348,"date":"2021-12-26T07:22:12","date_gmt":"2021-12-26T14:22:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=493348"},"modified":"2021-12-26T07:22:12","modified_gmt":"2021-12-26T14:22:12","slug":"ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World&#8217;s African Male Swimmer of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em><strong>Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World&#8217;s African Male Swimmer of the Year<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>The reaction was more memorable than the race. How could it not be?<\/p>\n<p>Tunisia\u2019s star had just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/olympics-tunisian-tigers-tokyo-dream-ahmed-hafnaouis-wild-celebration-after-winning-shock-gold-from-lane-eight\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">stunned the world<\/a> to win Olympic gold in the 400 meter freestyle. As his fellow swimmers looked on in astonishment, <strong>Ahmed Hafnaoui<\/strong> erupted in pure joy and jubilation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just can\u2019t believe that\u2014it\u2019s amazing,\u201d he said after the race. \u201cI felt better in the water this morning than yesterday, and that\u2019s it. I\u2019m the Olympic champion now. I just put my head in the water. I just can\u2019t believe it. It\u2019s a dream come true.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>And it began inspiring dreams throughout Africa.<\/p>\n<p>That started with his family. A video went viral of his family screaming in encouragement and then celebration after he touched the wall first. They couldn\u2019t be on hand since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the Tokyo Olympic Committee to run the Games without spectators.<\/p>\n<p>It was a rare <a href=\"https:\/\/olympics.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Olympic<\/a> gold for Tunisia (third) that earned Hafnaoui the honor as Swimming World\u2019s Male African Swimmer of the Year. This gold medal, though, had to be the most unexpected: The 18-year-old was ranked No. 16 in the world in the event coming into the Games&#8230;plus he was the last swimmer to qualify for finals, putting him in Lane 8.<\/p>\n<p>But as history has shown, anything can happen in an Olympic final, and Hafnaoui proved it with a brilliant race that saw him hang with the leaders, then overtake them on the final leg to claim the gold medal in 3:43.36, holding off Australia\u2019s <strong>Jack McLoughlin<\/strong> and American <strong>Kieran Smith<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>For Hafnaoui, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/olympic-gold-medalist-ahmed-hafnaoui-verbally-commits-to-swim-in-ncaa-at-indiana-university\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">verbally committed last September to swim at Indiana University in the fall of 2022<\/a>, it\u2019s been an interesting rise to the top.<\/p>\n<p>Hafnaoui\u2019s father, Mohamed, was a professional basketball player with the Tunisian national team. The elder Hafnaoui put his son in a local swimming club, and from there, Hafnaoui began to hone his craft.<\/p>\n<p>At the age of 12, he joined Tunisia\u2019s national swimming program. One of Hafnaoui\u2019s biggest inspirations in swimming was <strong>Ous Mellouli<\/strong>, the only other Tunisian swimmer to win Olympic gold. Mellouli captured the 1500 freestyle at the 2008 Games and was the 10K open water champion in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a great relationship with him,\u201d Hafnaoui said of Mellouli. \u201cHe wished me good luck before the race. And I wished him well in the 10K open water. He is a legend. I want to be like him one day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The gold medal was a huge start. Even more so, the aftermath of his gold medal will have a lasting impact on his country and community.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Olympics, FINA president <strong>Hussain Al-Musallam<\/strong> announced an agreement to construct an international center for high performance in Tunisia that caters exclusively to athletes from North Africa. The project, Al-Musallam said, is a direct tribute to the achievement of Hafnaoui.<\/p>\n<p>In a release through Tunis Afrique Presse, the Tunisian National Olympic Committee considered the new facility \u201can asset that adds to the Tunisian swimming school, which will boost its visibility on the international scene and reinforce sports diplomacy through investment in success.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That is why Hafnaoui\u2019s performance is so much bigger than a gold medal. It was the start of many more Olympic dreams\u2014 including, perhaps, more of his own in 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World&#8217;s African Male Swimmer of the Year The reaction was more memorable than the race. How could it not be? Tunisia\u2019s star had just stunned the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3915,"featured_media":482683,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[128902],"class_list":["post-493348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-world","tag-ahmed-hafnaoui"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World&#039;s African Male Swimmer of Year<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World&#039;s African Male Swimmer of the Year. 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The surprise performer of the Olympics shined in and out of the pool.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Swimming World\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SwimmingWorld\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-12-26T14:22:12+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/XXX-ahmed-hafnaoui-400-im-tokyo-olympics.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"802\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan D&#039;Addona \u2014\u00a0Swimming World Managing Editor\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@swimmingworld\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan D&#039;Addona \u2014\u00a0Swimming World Managing Editor\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dan D'Addona \u2014\u00a0Swimming World Managing Editor\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/ef4e84c32e2bc4f10b0e5ed1fda25d04\"},\"headline\":\"Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World&#8217;s African Male Swimmer of the Year\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-26T14:22:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-26T14:22:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/\"},\"wordCount\":573,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/XXX-ahmed-hafnaoui-400-im-tokyo-olympics.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Ahmed Hafnaoui\"],\"articleSection\":[\"-Home Slider\",\"World\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/\",\"name\":\"Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World's African Male Swimmer of Year\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/ahmed-hafnaoui-named-swimming-worlds-african-male-swimmer-of-the-year\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vmrw8k5h.tinifycdn.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/XXX-ahmed-hafnaoui-400-im-tokyo-olympics.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-12-26T14:22:12+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-12-26T14:22:12+00:00\",\"description\":\"Ahmed Hafnaoui Named Swimming World's African Male Swimmer of the Year. 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