A slew of Carribean, South, and Central American invites to the 2012 London Olympics have come to light, and are listed below. Many of these swimmers have ties to American colleges and universities, including a pair of BYU Cougars.
Rafael Alfaro from El Salvador follows in the footsteps of his uncle, who was on the 1976 El Salvador Olympic Team and also swam at BYU. Last season, he was the Cougars’ fastest swimmer in both the 200 and 400 IM’s in yards competition, and was 4th at the MPSF Championships in the 400 IM (with an NCAA B-Cut). His teammate, Andrew Rutherford, is a dual American and Bolivian citizen.
The biggest name in the latest addition is Vanessa Garcia from Puerto Rico, who in past year’s has been a standout fixture on the USA Swimming Grand Prix tour. She will swim the 50 free in 25.36 – which is actually a FINA B time.
Florida Gulf Coast’s Karen Vilorio is going to be a sophomore next season. No confirmation on exactly which event she’ll be swimming, but she’s a good 100 and 200 backstroker.
For Nicaragua, they will send the same two to the Olympics as they did in 2008: Dalia Torrez and Omar Nunez. Nunez’s race hasn’t been confirmed yet, but he is a versatile freestyler (as an example, at last year’s World Championships his two entries were the 100 and 1500 frees).
Honduras’ Allan Gutierrez swims for one of the top DII programs in the United States at Florida Southern (they placed 3rd at NCAA’s last year). He placed 22nd at that meet in the 400 free (4:35.10 – yards) and 11th in the 200 free (1:38.19 – yards). He was also on the 800 free relay that broke the Division II Natioanl Record.
The latest additions to the list are below, followed by other swimmers we’ve confirmed to have Universality invites.
Karen Vilorio – Honduras – Backstroke (FGCU)
Allan Gutierrez – Honduras – 400 Free (Southern Florida)
Vanessa Garcia – Puerto Rico – 50 Free – 25.36
Raul Martinez – Puerto Rico – 400 Free – 3:58.35
Pamela Benitez – El Salvador – 400 Free – 4:22.59 (Southern Illinois)
Rafael Alfaro – El Salvador – 200 IM – 2:05.95 (BYU)
Andrew Rutherford – Bolivia – 100 Free – 53.57 (BYU)
Karen Torrez – Bolivia – 100 Free – 58.05
Dallia Torrez – Nicaragua – 100 Fly – 1:05.71
Omar Nunez – Nicaragua – Freestyle
Esteban Enderica – Ecuador – 400 IM – 4:31.15
Samantha Arevalo – Ecuador – 800 Free – 8:51.31
Megan Fonteno – American Samoa – 100 free – 57.35 (Auburn)
Ching Maou Wei – American Samoa – 50 free – 27.64
Amini Fonua – Tonga – 100 breast – 1:04.02 (Texas A&M)
Marko Blazevski – Macedonia – 400 IM – 4:29.07 (Wingate)
Esau Simpson – Grenada – 100 Free – 53.85 (Nova Southeastern)
Andrew Chetcuti – Malta – 100 Free – 51.98 (Georgia Tech)
