Anthony Nesty

Anthony Nesty (born November 25, 1967 in Trinidad and Tobago ) is a former swimmer from Suriname . He competed in three Olympic Games and won the only medals Suriname ever won at the Olympic Games.

Anthony Nesty was born the youngest of five children to a family of black African descent. The family moved to Suriname when Anthony was a toddler. He got into swimming at an early age and soon trained in national and Caribbean-wide competitions. Only 16 years old, he took part in the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles and came in 21st. He then enrolled at Belles Prep School in Jacksonville , Florida , which specializes in training world-class swimmers. When he was in his sophomore year, he broke the school record previously held by Pablo Morales in the 100 yards butterfly discipline. At the Pan American Games in Indianapolis in 1987 , he won the gold medal in the 100 m butterfly and the bronze medal in the 200 m butterfly.

At the Olympic Games in 1988 Nesty returned to his specialty. In the 100 meter final, he beat the big favorite Matt Biondi by a hundredth of a second with a time of 53.00 seconds , but benefited from Biondi's misjudgment, who skipped the last arm stroke and glided the last meters in the face of a supposedly secure lead covered. With this victory, Anthony Nesty became the second black athlete after Enith Brigitha (bronze) to win an Olympic medal in a swimming competition and the first black gold medalist in this competition class. This gave the self-confidence of his Afro-American compatriots in particular an enormous boost. In Suriname, postage stamps and gold and silver coins were made with his portrait. In addition, the largest multi-purpose hall in the country was named after him in the capital Paramaribo .

After his Olympic victory in 1988 Nesty remained unbeaten on his special route for three years. During this time he won gold at the Goodwill Games in 1990 and the world title a year later. At the next Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992 he was unable to repeat his victory in Seoul over the 100 m butterfly, but still managed the bronze medal with 53.41 seconds behind Pablo Morales (53.32 seconds) and Rafał Szukała (53.35 seconds) .

In 1998 he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame . Anthony Nesty is currently an assistant trainer at the University of Florida . In 2008 he was allowed to take part in the Olympic Games in Beijing for Suriname as a flag bearer and swimming coach .

The aircraft that crashed on Surinam Airways flight 764 in 1989 was named after Anthony Nesty .

Web links

• Anthony Nesty in the International Swimming Hall of Fame (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ limited preview in the Google book search