Oussama Mellouli

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2012 Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia, a 6-time Olympic pool and open water swimmer
2012 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim champion Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia at the London Olympic Games
Olympic champion Oussama Mellouli

Oussama "Ous" Mellouli (Arabic: أسامة الملولي‎; born 16 February 1984) is a 40-year-old Tunisian pool and open water swimmer and a three-time Olympic medalist who competed not only in the freestyle and individual medley races in the pool, but also in professional marathon swims and international open water swimming competitions. The world's most successful crossover swimmer trained with the Trojan Swim Club at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, California where he was coached by Dave Salo and Catherine Vogt.

Honors and Awards

  • He won a total of 66 World Aquatics and Olympic medals during his career: 37 gold +15 silver + 14 bronze.
  • He was nominated for the 2013 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year.
  • He was awarded the 2012 Swimming World Magazine Male Open Water Swimmer of the Year.
  • He was awarded the 2012 Swammy Award for the Open Water Swimmer of the Year.
  • He selected as the 2012 FINA Open Water Swimming Athlete of the Year.
  • He was inducted in the USC Athletic Hall of Fame.
  • He served as Tunisia's flag carrier in the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony and 2016 Olympic opening ceremony.

Pool Swimming Highlights

Pool Swimming Highlights

  • Mellouli became the 1500m freestyle world champion at the 2009 FINA World Championships with a winning time of 14:37:28, second best performance of all time.
  • Mellouli became the Olympic gold medalist in the 1500m freestyle with a dramatic victory over Grant Hackett and a star-studded field at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
  • Mellouli swam to a bronze-medal finish in the 1500m freestyle in the 2012 London Olympic Games as the first part of his Mellouli Double.
  • Mellouli was inducted in the USC Athletic Hall of Fame.
  • Mellouli won the 2005 NCAA 400-yard individual medley title and seven Pac-10 titles on the way to being a 16-time All-American.
  • Mellouli is a 5-time Olympian (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016) for Tunisia and became the first African male swimmer to win an Olympic gold medal in an individual event when he won the 1500-meter freestyle in 2008 (just his country's second gold medal ever).
  • Mellouli won four FINA World Championships gold medals.
  • Mellouli served as Tunisia's flag carrier in the 2012 Olympic closing ceremony and 2016 opening ceremony.
  • On 10 August 2012, he won the 10 km in 1:49:55.10 at the 2012 London Olympic Games in the Serpentine, London at the age of 28 five days after winning bronze in the 1500m freestyle in 14:40.31 to establish the Mellouli Double.

Open Water Swimming Highlights

2020 Tokyo Olympic 10K Marathon Swim Results

Gold: Florian Wellbrock (Germany, 23) 1:48:33.70
Silver: Kristóf Rasovszky (Hungary, 24) 1:48:59.00
Bronze: Gregorio Paltrinieri (Italy, 26) 1:49:01.10
4. Matan Roditi (Israel, 22) 1:49:24.90
5. Athanasios Kynigakis (Greece, 22) 1:49:29.20
6. Marc-Antoine Olivier (France, 25) 1:50:23.00
7. Ferry Weertman (Netherlands, 29) 1:51:30.80
8. Michael McGlynn (South Africa, 21) 1:51:32.70
9. Hau-Li Fan (Canada, 23) 1:51:37.00
10. Jordan Wilimovsky (USA, 27) 1:51:40.20
11. Rob Muffels (Germany, 26) 1:53:03.30
12. Kai Graeme Edwards (Australia, 22) 1:53:04.00
13. Taishin Minamide (Japan, 25) 1:53:07.50
14. Mario Sanzullo (Italy, 28) 1:53:08.60
15. David Farinango (Ecuador, 20) 1:53:09.80
16. Phillip Seidler (Namibia, 23) 1:53:14.10
17. Daniel Delgadillo (Mexico, 31) 1:53:14.40
18. Alberto Martinez (Spain, 23) 1:53:16.50
19. Kirill Abrosimov (Russian Olympic Committee, 29) 1:54:29.30
20. Ous Mellouli (Tunisia, 37) 1:56:33.30
21. Vitaliy Khudyakov (Kazakhstan, 26) 1:57:53.70
22. William Yan Thorley (Hong Kong, 18) 1:58:33.40
23. Tiago Campos (Portugal, 22) 1:59:42.00
24. Matej Kozubek (Czech Republic, 25) 2:01:52.10
DNF Hector Thomas Cheal Pardoe (Great Britain, 20)
DNF David Aubry (France, 24)

2012 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year Nomination

Mellouli was nominated for the 2012 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year award. His World Open Water Swimming Association nomination reads,

Oussama Mellouli has proven himself to be one of the most versatile, powerful, graceful swimmers in the open water since Johnny Weissmuller in the 1920s. Similar to the famed Tarzan of yesteryear, Mellouli has demonstrated his speed, strength and stamina in both the pool and open water. A gold and bronze medalist in the 1500m in the pool in London and Beijing, the personable multi-lingual Tunisian was even more heroic in the Olympic 10K Marathon Swim in Hyde Park. Mellouli was not afraid to take control of the race in the Serpentine despite his relative inexperience. He had sufficient confident in his training and racing strategy to bolt into the lead at key points during the 10K. And when he accelerated towards the end, there was no one in the world who could keep up. For his impressively fast Olympic 10K marathon performance, for his willingness to step out of his comfort zone in the pool and try open water swimming, for his daily sacrifices that ultimately led to his Olympic medals, Oussama Mellouli is a worthy nominee for the 2012 WOWSA Open Water Swimming Man of the Year.

2012 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim

2012 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim Results

1. Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia - 1:49:55.1
2. Thomas Lurz of Germany - 1:49:58.5
3. Richard Weinberger of Canada - 1:50:00.3
4. Spyridon Gianniotis of Greece - 1:50:05.3
5. Daniel Fogg of Great Britain - 1:50:37.3
6. Sergey Bolshakov of Russia - 1:50:40.1
7. Vladimir Dyatchin of Russia - 1:50:42.8
8. Andreas Waschburger of Germany - 1:50:44.4
9. Petar Stoychev of Bulgaria - 1:50:46.2
10. Alex Meyer of the USA - 1:50:48.2
11. Julien Sauvage of France - 1:50:51.3
12. Troyden Prinsloo of South Africa - 1:50:52.9
13. Erwin Maldonado of Venezuela - 1:50:52.9
14. Igor Chervynskiy of Ukraine - 1:50:56.9
15. Yasunari Hirai of Japan - 1:51:20.1
16. Brian Ryckeman of Belgium - 1:51:27.1
17. Valerio Cleri of Italy - 1:51:29.5
18. Csaba Gercsak of Hungary - 1:51:30.9
19. Arseniy Lavrentyev of Portugal - 1:51:37.2
20. Ky Hurst of Australia - 1:51:41.3
21. Ivan Enderica Ochoa of Ecuador - 1:52:28.6
22. Yuriy Kudinov of Kazakhstan - 1:52:59.0
23. Francisco Jose Hervas of Spain - 1:53:27.8
24. Mazen Aziz Metwaly of Egypt - 1:54:33.2
25. Benjamin Schulte of Guam - 2:03:35.1

2013 FINA World Championships

2016 Olympic 10K Marathon Swim Results

1. Ferry Weertman, NED 1:52:59.8
2. Spyridon Gianniotis, GRE 1:52:59.8
3. Marc-Antoine Daniel Frede Olivier, FRA 1:53:02.0
4. Lijun Zu, CHN 1:53:02.0
5. Jordan Wilimovsky, USA 1:53:03.2
6. Simone Ruffini, ITA 1:53:03.5
7. Federico Vanelli, ITA 1:53:03.9
8. Yasunari Hirai, JPN 1:53:04.6
9. Christian Reichert, GER 1:53:04.7
10. Chad Ho, RSA 1:53:04.8
11. Evgenii Drattcev, RUS 1:53:04.8
12. Ous Mellouli, TUN 1:53:06.1
13. Mark Papp, HUN 1:53:11.7
14. Ventsislav Aydaski, BUL 1:53:16.1
15. Ivan Enderica Ochoa, ECU 1:53:16.2
16. Richard Weinberger, CAN 1:53:16.4
17. Allan Do Carmo, BRA 1:53:16.4
18. Kane Rae Francis Radford, NZL 1:53:18.7
19. Richard Nagy, SVK 1:53:35.4
20. Jarrod Poort, AUS 1:53:40.7
21. Erwin Maldonado, VEN 1:54:33.6
22. Marwan Ahmed Aly Morsy Elamrawy, EGY 1:59:17.2
DSQ Sean Ryan, USA
DSQ Vitaliy Khudyakov, KAZ (Asia)
DSQ Jack Burnell, GBR

FINA Ruling

He served an 18-month ban (ending 30 November 2006) following a positive test for Adderall, a banned performance enhancer.

External links

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