The Most Unlikely Victory in Olympic History🏆🥹

[latinsizer]

He actually came back on the next olympic and performed Olympian times. He is now the head director of his country's swimming team.

[matcole]

The crowd stood and applauded him like he won gold.
Awesome.
💪💯

[tiredtea]

His time is actually VERY good for someone without formal training. I’m a competitive swimmer and a swim coach and I can say from experience that a lot of inexperienced swimmers can take 2 or 3 minutes to do a 100, especially if they don’t understand pacing so I consider that a very nice time

[hilaryfrank]

The very one that was seeing an Olympic size swimming pool "for the first time" was the only one who knew how to obey the starting rule😂

[notleug]

He trained in a resort pool 🏊‍♂️ ! That man was gold ❤

[ferretfanrealnamelogan]

As a competitive swimmer, his dive is still better than mine lmao

[Bettytom]

Eric the eel…….. the man is a living example to the youth of today, you don’t need to be the best just keep moving forward 👏👏👏👏

[TWCobra]

Eric is revered here in Australia. He is what the Olympics are truly about.

[BackYardScience]

This is one of the most inspiring stories of all time. He trained in rivers and hotel swimming pools and had none of the right gear until a random coach gave him the gear after feeling sorry for him and helped train him for a day or two before the event. He never competed again and eventually became a trainer and coach, I think.

[tommo]

Absolute legend. Aussies would have been going nuts for him, we love the underdog

[BraulioHernandez-sjcv]

My man came in with close to zero training did his best to represent his country and under odd circumstances achieved something we could only dream

[MissEyesWideOpen]

Wow, this brought tears toy eyes. I can just imagine how high his heart was soaring in these moments. What memories he has made for himself, enough for a lifetime!

[raebean]

As an Aussie we loved this. We love an underdog. We love people that try regardless. People applauded and yelled so loudly for him. Good on him! We were so proud of him!! Xx

[gingerninja]

I remember watching this on TV. All of Australia was cheering him on.

[Johnmag]

❤ Olympic spirit !! One per nation.
Usually they compete when stadiums are almost empty . Nevertheless, in 1976, a marathon runner reached Olympic stadium when sprint finals were taking place. Crowd stood up, screamed an cheered...so that the amazed exhausted runner ran an extra 400 metres ❤

[pabloecklobar]

I remember watching this race as a ten year old kid and crying pretty hard at this moment and thinking about the crowd all giving him standing ovation and cheering him on. I still tear up whenever I think about it, and it’s the one sporting moment I still remember with such clarity. We called him Eddie the Eel.

[rianrushwood]

You should’ve included what he went on to do, he got his 100 time down to a 56 eventually which while still way outside of the normal Olympic time standard, is still an awesome time. He also was the coach for the Equatorial Guinea national team much later on

[user_angelmum]

Aussies love an underdog especially one who shows courage .
🇦🇺

[Em-szbh]

Aussies love an underdog. Research the phrase “chuck a Bradbury” and find out about the legend that is Steven

[sipibaby]

I remeber seeing this on TV, the commentator was just dying of laughter. A true golden moment of sport history😂