1 . Twenty years ago, Eric Moussambani became a global star. He swam a 100-metre freestyle in the Sydney Olympic pool so _______ that it appeared he might drown.

Eric was the first swimmer from Equatorial Guinea to _______ in the Sydney Olympics, because of a programme designed to encourage sport _______ in poor regions. In the 100 meters, three swimmers from the programme competed with each other. The two other competitors were disqualified for false starts, leaving Eric to swim _______. He started well but in the second lap, his freestyle became a crawl. The 17,000 crowd in the Aquatic Centre _______ him home in 1’52”. On that day, Dutch swimmer Pieter set a world record of 47.84 seconds. Yet ‘Eric the Eel’ became the _______of the world.

Eric learned swimming from a fisherman. When he heard the country was _______ swimmers for the Olympics, he went along. There wasn’t even a _______. Eric can only train himself in an irregular-shaped hotel pool for one hour every day.

When Eric first saw the Olympic pool, he thought it was so _______that he could never finish one lap. “During my training in Sydney, I took the ________ to watch how other swimmers moved their feet.” He said. He also lacked ________until his first race. A coach from South Africa saw him wearing Bermuda shorts and gave him a swimming costume and goggles. And that swim ________ Eric’s life.

It made him a symbol for swimming in Equatorial Guinea, where there are now two ________ Olympic- size pools. Being a national swimming coach, Eric tells the young swimmers the ________ he took from his lonely swim in Sydney. “When you have goals, you have to ________ to achieve them.”