His powerful image prevailing over all the favorites from lane 8, in a pool deserted by the pandemic and with only 18 years, will not be repeated this summer. He Olympic 400 meter freestyle champion in Tokyo 2020, Ahmed Hafnaouirenounces participating in the Paris 2024 Gamesas revealed by the president of the Tunisia Olympic Committee, Mehrez Bousyanin statements to a program on his country’s television channel El Hiwar Et Tounsi reflected by African Aquatics.
“By medical advice“, Bousyan limited himself to explaining the reasons for this momentous absence, both for world swimming and especially for the Tunisian delegation, although the specialized media Swim Channel points directly to a case of mental healtheven placing the downtime in six weeks.
This puts an end to Hafnaoui’s greatest aspirations in a 2024 that already began with bad omens, since in the World Cups last February in Doha was not able to get past the seventeenth position in the 400 and in the 1,500 freestyle, and from the eighteenth in the 800distances the three in which he came to amaze the planet in the previous appointment, in July 2023 in Fukuokawith two golds in 800 and 1,500, and silver in the 400 freein addition to two African records and one from the championship.
After the Tokyo Games, Hafnaoui had given the jump to the United Statesto train at the university of Indiana while studying Sport management. But he never quite combined it well, hence his absence from competitions for practically a year, in 2022, and after his departure to California last fall. In it orange county He had been training until shortly before the Doha World Championships in the elite program of Mark Schubertfocused only on swimming and without studying in parallel.
But already in February the Tunisian warned that I had to renew the VISA to return to North American territory, and according to Swim Channel in recent months had moved to France to place themselves at the command of Philippe Lucaswho had been a coach among other swimming stars of Federica Pellegrini, Sharon van Rouwendaal or Laure Manadou. This new bet would not have had any effect either.
Without Hafnaoui, the range of candidates to become the new Olympic champion in the 400 meters freestyle opens, from a Sam Short who had already snatched the gold in this world event from the Tunisian in Fukuoka 2023 from the also Australian Elijah Winningtonpassing through German Lukas Martens, which has been going very strong in recent weeks. Likewise, the 800 and 1,500 also have candidates of the stature of Bobby Fink or the pop-up Daniel Wiffen.
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