Richard Weinberger of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan has won Canada’s 17th medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Considered a serious darkhorse for a medal, Weinberger posted a time of 1:50:00.3 to win an Olympic bronze medal in the men’s 10km marathon swim.
Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia won the Olympic gold medal with a time of one hour, forty-nine minutes, fifty-five seconds and one tenth of a second, 1:49:55.1 and Thomas Lurz of Germany won the Olympic silver medal with a time of 1:49:58.5.
Weinberger had won the Olympic test event, but was not considered a serious medal threat because he was only 22 years of age. However, Weinberger swam strong enough Friday to get on to the Olympic podium and beat the 2011 world champion Spyridon Gianniotis of Greece to the finish line.
Weinberger continues a strong tradition of marathon swimming in Canada. He’ll know join a list that includes Cliff Lumsdon, the 1949 Lou Marsh Trophy winner, Marilyn Bell, who became the first person to swim across Lake Ontario (1954) and Cindy Nicholas who swam the English Channel a record 19 times.
Mellouli’s story is also very interesting. His gold medal came as a surprise because he is known more as a 1500m freestyle swimmer, having won the Olympic gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the Olympic bronze medal at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
Team Canada now has one gold medal, five silver medals and eleven bronze medals at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Tags: 2012 olympics, cindy nicholas, cliff lumsdon, marilyn bell, oussama melloulli, richard weinberger, Swimming, thomas lurz
Loading ...
