As previously reported, the defending Olympic champ in the 400 free, Ahmed Hafnaoui, is forgoing the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
This was certainly a shock to me, but it does seem to align with how the last 6 months have gone for Hafnaoui. He’s had a lot of inconsistency, whether that’s who’s coaching him, who he’s training with in the pool, and even where he’s training (city, state, country, continent). After not competing very much in the winter, we saw him in the water at the 2024 Doha World Championships but he didn’t seem to have a very good meet there.
I summarized Hafnaoui’s last few years since his rise to fame via winning gold in Tokyo and you can see the ups and downs he’s had. As a swim fan, I’m disappointed that we won’t get to see him race the other distance studs in Paris. I hope we can see him bounce back and compete on the world stage again.
Just for fun, if you’re interested, here is the workout we filmed with Hafnaoui while he was at Indiana in the fall of 2022… it’s pretty crazy.
Nice job, Coleman, on summarizing the available information in your video.
All the best to Hafnaoui.
The BBC has released some other quotes from Hafanoui which indicate that he is “in doubt” rather than not competing definitely.
“I don’t know whether or not I will participate in the Olympics,” Hafnaoui told AFP, without specifying the nature of the injury.
His mother Amira said her son’s main focus is his on recovery.
“Ahmed’s absence from the Paris Olympics has not yet been confirmed,” she said.
There’s still hope!
Even if he goes to Paris, I don’t think we can expect anything from his results given the situation. But hope he could at least make it there.
He is no longer the defending World Champion.
Not fussed at all.
The 400m will be stacked anyway with Short,Elijah,Kim and Martens.
WR likely to go down sometime
800m
Short,Wiffen and Finke will be another amazing race,WR was never going down with or without Haf
1500m
Finke,Wiffen,Wellbrook,Romanchuk,Short and Martens
Finke could break the WR if pushed by Wiffen
But with Hafanoui, those 400-800-1500 will be all fireworks and probably become best 400-1500 races ever.
In the 400 Winnington is inconsistent and Kim is considerably slower than the others and in the 8 and 15 Wiffen hasn’t performed when racing the others, Wellbrock and Romanchuk are washed and Maartens isn’t competing in them and Finke won’t push the pace so there’s no threat of a world record. Hafnaoui changes everything.
But paltrinieri is not washed, and he will push the pace
3.42 will win it
There’s already three people faster this year.
In US trials.
I feel like this video did not explain at all why he dropped out
In terms of new information that would help us understand
Well, that is why this video is called “Giving Context” and not “New Information”.
As soon as we have new information, SwimSwam will report it.
The comments from his mother that mysteriously to “his recovery,” but I don’t understand what he is recovering from? Apologies if I’ve missed something.
I think the cultural context is what is missing.
I can’t say for sure that it’s the full issue, but people who have been around him say that he has been dealing with some mental health stuff, and because of where he’s from, they’re not going to come out and say that.
I’m a big Ahmed Hafnaoui fan. I was rooting for him to do the distance treble at the Olympics. But I’m an even bigger fan of him as a person for trying to make this work. Even though from the surface, IU seemed good for him, he might not have been happy there. Moving to California was I suppose a way of trying to find that spark. Sometimes swimming seems like the most important thing until it just can’t be anymore. All in all, I hope he is doing okay and taking care of himself.
This 100%.
People keep saying he should have stayed in IU when they all have zero idea about him and his personal life.
I got to see Ahmed train with Mark here in socal this last year. I had some interaction with him, but for the most part I got to see him training while I worked with the other studs Mark is training on stroke. I’ve seen a lot of strokes in 50 years. Hafnaoui has a feel for the water second to none I have seen. He can kick too. He can be in the middle of the pool and decide to “leap” forward to push a training partner back or extend his lead. His hands are huge and he really can dominate a practice. In my interviews with Ray Looze the last couple months Ray was obviously disappointed, but he… Read more »
When the world needed him most, he arrived.
Here comes the snake oil salesman.
Thank you for sharing your experience with Ahmed and your conversations with Ray Looze. I agree with most of what you said. It’s true that making a living as a pro swimmer adds stress to the sport because your standard of living is tied to your performance.
That being said, being able to make money though swimming is good for the sport and good for swimmers. People have to eat. And a viable path to a pro career in swimming should be available to athletes who aren’t independently wealthy.
W Steve comment
Lovely comments.
Awesome response. Thank you!
rare W from steve
Should have saved this topic for the breakdown