The day before the start of the 2024 World Swimming Championships in Doha, Qatar, the reigning Olympic champion in men’s 400m freestyle, and Ahmed Hafnaoui spoke to the press. Hafnaoui is also the defending World Champion in the 800 and 1500 freestyles.
The Tunisian champion explained that he had moved from Indiana, where he was studying Sport Management, to California for training reasons.
“Mark Schubert is one of the best coaches in the world. I’m so motivated to swim with him and with pro athletes who focus only on swimming, not on education, too,” Hafnaoui said. “So I think that would help me. Mark also is a smart coach. And he’s motivating his athletes every time. That’s the thing I like most about him.”
At Indiana, Hafnaoui sat out a season of college competition to get on track academically before a brief stint with the varsity squad, though he was allowed to train with the team and compete in non-NCAA meets during that time.”
I actually swam like two dual meets. I didn’t like the pressure of doing school and swimming at the same time,” he said. “And I was so pressed because my schedule was so busy. So, I preferred to just move to California and focus only on swimming.”
Hafnoui explained that he has been training back in Tunisia for three weeks, awaiting a return to the United States. Because he is no longer a student, he needed a different visa to continue competing in the USA.
“I’m applying for another kind of visa. I’m waiting for it. And my intention is to go back and train with Mark (SChubert) in California for the rest of my time till Paris. But I don’t think I’m going to study this year.”
In Tunisia, he is not following Schubert’s training program but that of his local coach.
Entering this meet as the top seed in 400, he said:
“Of course, it is pressure and confidence at the same time because you’re responsible for what you’re doing in the pool, and everybody is just watching you. So you have to push yourself to do your best. And in my opinion, that’s some motivation for me that pushes me harder, like pushes me to go harder in workouts and practices.”
Hafnaoui faced public criticism over his support for Palestine and an emergency relief fund in the early stages of the war there, but says he feels more comfortable to be closer to home. About how it feels to be competing here in Doha, closer to his home:
“I’m around my people right here. A lot of Tunisians are right here. They’re going to support me and that gives me some confidence. I love it.”
Hafnaoui is entered as the meet’s top seed in the 400, 800, and 1500 freestyles, with challenges expected from swimmers like Daniel Wiffen of Ireland and Lukas Maertens of Germany.
GOAT. College isn’t for everyone
I picked Hafnaoui to sweep the distance events in Doha but I’m having second thoughts after reading this.
I hope he gets the visa approved but might take a while. He is probably getting an O visa like many athletes, actors, scientists, etc. The only issue is where he comes from. Some clueless officer might f*** this process over. I hope he retained good lawyers
college is hard
smokin’ hot mess
🇹🇳🥇💪🏼👍🏼
Bro he was a sports management major that’s 2 hours of work a week😭😭😭
I get the joke but this kind of reminds me of Regan Smith. She openly said multiple times that she did not enjoy being a STUDENT athlete, she just liked the athlete aspect. She said she has plans to go back to school, and he definitely could as well. I’ve seen a lot of people making jokes about how he couldn’t handle school, but he might just be in the same boat as Regan where school negatively impacts his swimming, which makes sense. However, I never saw Regan catching strays for being honest about not liking school, but I have seen a lot of hate towards him for the same thing. Just an observation I’ve made
Agreed… also, you can always go back to school. But being a professional athlete – that’s a relatively short window of opportunity.
And I am an academic. I preach the importance of a proper education every day. But it’s not like taking this route isn’t valuable and educational in and of itself.
And with Ahmed in particular – moving to a different country is an additional factor that adds to his life experience.
I have nothing but respect for him, or Regan for that matter, whether they swim in college, or go to college after they retire, or maybe never go to college at all. They wouldn’t be the first (looking at people like.. oh, I don’t… Read more »
Your point stands and 100% agree with it but didn’t Phelps still take classes while training with bowman at UMich? Granted I don’t think he wasn’t a full time student.
Do we really think he took “taking some classes” seriously?
He probably just did it for his mom… and maybe Bob was like “you need to do something that’s not swimming… for some balance.”
What classes did he take? Probably sports marketing or something. To give him an idea of how to properly manage his carreer and make smart decisions. But I’m sure Bob was fully prepared to say “if you want to be the greatest ever, you can’t waste your time and energy on all-nighters for final exams”.
And who can fault them? “Olympic Champion” much less “greatest Olympian of all time” on a CV is infinitely more impressive than a BA in “sitting on my butt… Read more »
I thought I read he took Mandarin because of the Beijing Olympics.
I’m not sure if Mandarin is spoken in Beijing.
No. He did not.
Also if I went to school in Tunisia and had to train, I would probably feel the same way honestly. I was always, & still am, impressed by the international swimmers in that regard.
I’m a little confused by your comment. He went to IU for a few months. Are you saying you’re impressed that he went to school in Tunisia as well? Like high school?
I undestood it differently… more like that if an American moved abroad to a culturally (including linguistically) different country, it’d be difficult to train to be and beat the best in the world AND to find your footing academically.
And yes, that is impressive.
However, it is MUCH easier to fit the two together in America than it is in e.g. many European countries, where swimming in college is not really a thing. You swim and you go to college and the two have NOTHING to do with each other. Professors don’t care that you’re also a world-class swimmer. There is no athletic department or whatever to work out schedules or scholarships or housing and all that stuff.… Read more »
It’s wise. The student athlete life isn’t for everybody. He can always finish out his education when he’s older. Props to him for acknowledging what he needs.
“We Ain’t Come to Play School”
-Cardale Jones & Ahmed Hafnaoui
This is SUPER FUNNY because most people reading this will have ZERO CLUE who Cardale Jones is!!!!
Tweeting about Cardale Jones got me blocked by Devin Gardner on Twitter even though I never tagged him in my tweet. Bonus points to anyone who knows who Devin Gardner is
A former QB at Ohio State….. I’m a football fan.
We Come to make career at Burger King