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Disclaimer: Swim of the Week is not meant to be a conclusive selection of the best overall swim of the week, but rather one Featured Swim to be explored in deeper detail. The Swim of the Week is an opportunity to take a closer look at the context of one of the many fast swims this week, perhaps a swim that slipped through the cracks as others grabbed the headlines, or a race we didn’t get to examine as closely in the flood of weekly meets.
A Portuguese National Record that had been on the books since 2009 has now been dipped under three times in the last three weeks.
Diogo Matos Ribeiro, a rising star who made an impact at last year’s European Junior Championships by winning a silver medal in the 100 butterfly, knocked off the Portuguese Record in the 50 fly twice earlier this month and lowered it once again at the recently-concluded Danish Open.
Ribeiro won the event at the Danish Open in a time of 23.28, re-lowering the previous mark of 23.54 he set at the Portuguese Championships that wrapped up on April 3. The 17-year-old had also gone 23.69 in the prelims at that meet, which took down the 13-year-old record of 23.72 set by Simao Morgado in 2009.
Ribeiro now ranks fifth in the 2021-22 world rankings in the 50 fly, notably overtaking the likes of Florent Manaudou, who was 23.31 in March.
2021-2022 LCM Men 50 Fly
Dressel
22.57
| 2 | Oleg Kostin | RUS | 22.72 | 04/28 |
| 3 | Nicholas Santos | BRA | 22.73 | 04/05 |
| 4 | Benjamin Proud | GBR | 22.76 | 06/18 |
| 5 | Thomas Ceccon | ITA | 22.79 | 06/18 |
Prior to his performances at the Portuguese Championships, Ribeiro held a best time in the 50 fly of 24.02, set in December, and had finished sixth at the 2021 European Juniors in 24.09.
In addition to his 50 fly showing, he also set a new Portuguese Record in the 100 fly at the Danish Open, clocking 52.31 to erase another 2009 record, Diogo Carvalho‘s 52.42. Ribeiro added a third victory in the 100 free (49.16), having set a new National Record a few weeks prior in 48.72.
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He is not swimming worlds. He is not even swimming European juniors. The plan (at least until last week) was to swim only the European Championships in august and the world juniors in August. This kid is the real deal. Amazing talent. Probably the best ever talent from Portugal. He is currently training with former Brazilian National coach, and now, Portuguese National coach, Albertinho.
But prior to that he had already made a splash at European juniores last year with several finals (including some by Popovici side) and the silver medal in 100 Buttetfly as a 16 yr old!
The kid is good, really good. But has a lot to prove to be considered the best ever talent in Portugal.
He is fortunate that we are finally getting some maturity, although still very behind from other countries, in career management and training in general.
As you probably know, in Portugal we have a talent to waste and destroy athletes with bad training and poor career decisions, swimming wise.
Nuts