Wickus Nienaber

Wickus Nienaber (born June 24, 1981) is a former Swazi swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events.[1] He is a four-time College Swimmer of the Year, a 2004 Atlantic Coast Conference champion, and owns at least 40 national age group records for the same stroke in Swaziland.[2] He was a member of the swimming team for Florida State Seminoles under his coach Neil Harper, and a graduate with a Doctorate in computer science at the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida.[3]

Wickus Nienaber
Personal information
Full nameWickus Nienaber
National teamSwaziland
Born (1981-06-24) 24 June 1981
Manzini, Swaziland
Height1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)
Weight85 kg (187 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesBreaststroke
College teamFlorida State University (U.S.)
CoachNeil Harper (U.S.)

Nienaber made his first Swazi team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he competed in the men's 100 m breaststroke. Swimming in heat three, he touched out Namibia's Jorg Lindemeier to take a third spot and forty-seventh overall by 0.27 of a second in 1:04.98.[4]

At the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Nienaber qualified again for the men's 100 m breaststroke by eclipsing a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:04.22 from the FINA World Championships in Barcelona, Spain.[5][6] He challenged seven other swimmers on the fourth heat, including Olympic veterans Ratapong Sirisanont of Thailand, Malick Fall of Senegal, and Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson of Iceland. He raced to sixth place by 0.03 of a second behind Barbados' Bradley Ally in 1:04.74. Nienaber failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed forty-second overall on the first day of preliminaries.[7][8]

References
  1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Wickus Nienaber". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  2. "Florida State Excited to Send Four Swimmers to Athens". Swimming World Magazine. 12 August 2004. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  3. "Wickus Nienaber Balances Commitment Between FSU and Home Country of Swaziland". Swimming World Magazine. 18 October 2003. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  4. "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Men's 100m Breaststroke Heat 3" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. p. 240. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
  5. "Swimming – Men's 100m Breaststroke Startlist (Heat 4)" (PDF). Athens 2004. Omega Timing. Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  6. "2003 FINA World Championships (Barcelona, Spain) – Men's 100m Breaststroke Heats" (PDF). Omega Timing. Retrieved 11 February 2013.
  7. "Men's 100m Breaststroke Heat 4". Athens 2004. BBC Sport. 14 August 2004. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
  8. Whitten, Phillip (14 August 2004). "Prelims, Men's 100 Breaststroke: Kitajima, Hansen Qualify One-Two; Japanese Sets Olympic Record". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2013.
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