Tokyo 2020 Day 6 Prelims All-Star: Egypt’s Youssef Ramadan Continues To Improve

2020 TOKYO SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES

• When: Pool swimming: Saturday, July 24 – Sunday, August 1, 2021
  • Open Water swimming: Wednesday, August 4 – Thursday, August 5, 2021
• Where: Olympic Aquatics Centre / Tokyo, Japan
• Heats: 7 PM / Semifinals & Finals: 10:30 AM (Local time)
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The day 6 Tokyo 2020 prelims all-star, which is awarded to a swimmer who had a standout heats swim, goes to Egyptian swimmer Youssef Ramadan. Ramadan delivered a national record-breaking time in the men’s 100 butterfly prelims of 51.67 to tie Hungary’s Szebasztian Szabo for 14th overall.

Ramadan’s swim was an improvement upon the 51.83 national record that he swam on June 27 at the 2021 Fran Crippen Swim Meet of Champions. That June swim for Ramadan was actually his first time under 52 seconds in the event and it was his first time hitting the FINA A standard of 51.96. That means that Ramadan went from not having the FINA A cut, to just barely dipping under the standard, to qualifying for the Olympic semi-final in a matter of weeks.

Olympic debutant Ramadan qualified for the Games at the 11th hour, following a successful freshman year at Virginia Tech. Ramadan began his collegiate career at VT and made an immediate impact on the school’s sprint free and fly division. He took gold in the 100 butterfly at the 2021 ACC Championships and nearly reached the podium in the men’s 50 and 100 freestyles, hitting a 19.33 and 42.27, respectively for 4th place in both. He followed those swims up with a 19.45 50 free for 8th place at NCAA Championships and a 42.25 100 free for 10th.

While he will likely need to faster during the semi-finals in order to get a spot in the Olympic final, Ramadan’s 51.67 doesn’t put him out of contention. Matt Temple of Australia was the 8th fastest man in the event with a 51.39 which is only 0.28 seconds better than Ramadan.

Should Ramadan qualify for the Olympic final in the event, it would represent Egypt’s first Olympic finalist since the 1948 Games in London. Egypt sent 2 men to finals that year in Ahmed Kandil who placed 7th overall in the 200 breaststroke (2:47.5) and Taha Youssef El-Gamal with who was 8th in the 100 free with a 1:00.5.

The continent of Africa has had a standout performance thus far at the Tokyo 2020 Games, beginning with Tunisia’s Ahmed Hafnaoui‘s 3:43.36 gold medal performance in the men’s 400 freestyle. Notably, Hafnaoui was actually the 1st recipient of the prelims all-star award after placing 8th in the 400 freestyle heats with a 3:45.68.

Tatjana Schoenmaker won the continent’s second medal of the Games when she placed 2nd in the 100 breaststroke to Lydia Jacoby as they both took out defending champion, Lilly King. Schoenmaker is well on her way to a second medal at the Games in the women’s 200 breaststroke for which she qualified in first place with a 2:19.33 in the semi-finals. Schoenmaker was even quicker during the heats with a 2:19.16 Olympic record, just 0.05 of Rikke Moller Pedersen‘s 2:19.11 world record.

Tokyo 2020 Prelims All-Stars

• Day 1: Ahmed Hafnaoui (TUN) – Men’s 400 freestyle
• Day 2 Tamsin Cook (AUS) – Women’s 400 freestyle
• Day 3: Tomoe Hvas (NOR) – Men’s 200 butterfly
• Day 4: Roman Mityukov (SUI) – Men’s 100 free / Men’s 4×200 free relay
• Day 5: Lee Juho (KOR) – Men’s 200 backstroke
• Day 6: Youssef Ramadan (EGY) – Men’s 100 butterfly