By the time the chubby 24-year-old had emerged for air from his opening dive off the blocks in the 100m freestyle heats, he was already almost a body length behind and it did not get any better.
The only one of 59 entrants in the heats not to complete the distance in under a minute, Habte touched the wall with a time 17 seconds slower than Australian pacesetter Kyle Chalmers who clocked 47.90.




It makes sense now.

According to a number of unconfirmed reports, Habte’s father is in fact the President of the Ethiopian Swimming Federation.