Carlos Almeida (swimmer)
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PortugalLisbon, Portugal
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Carlos Fernandes Esteves de Almeida |
| National team | Portugal |
| Born | 4 August 1988 Lisbon, Portugal |
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) |
| Weight | 87 kg (192 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Breaststroke |
| Club | Clube de Natação da Amadora[1] |
| College team | University of Louisville (U.S.)[1] |
| Coach | Filipe Coelho (Amadora) Arthur Albiero (Louisville)[1] |
Carlos Fernandes Esteves de Almeida (also Carlos Almeida, born 4 August 1988) is a Portuguese swimmer, who specializes in breaststroke events.[1][2] He is a two-time Olympian, an NCAA Champion, a 2011 Big East Conference champion, and a current Portuguese record holder in the 50, 100 and 200 m breaststroke in the long and short course.[3][4] Almeida is a resident athlete for Amadora Swimming Club in Lisbon (Portuguese: Clube de Natação da Amadora), and is coached and trained by Filipe Coelho.[1]
Almeida made his official debut at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, where he competed in the men's 200 m breaststroke. He cleared a FINA B-cut of 2:15.00 from the Dutch Open in Eindhoven, Netherlands.[5][6] Almeida blasted a 2:15 barrier and a new Portuguese record of 2:13.34 to top the second heat, but he finished only in thirty-second overall from the preliminaries.[7]
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Almeida qualified for the men's 100 m breaststroke by establishing a Portuguese record and achieving a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:01.19 from the European Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.[8][9] He challenged seven other swimmers on the third heat, including fellow two-time Olympian Martin Liivamägi of Estonia. He raced to third place by two tenths of a second (0.20) behind Greece's Panagiotis Samilidis in 1:01.40. Almeida failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed twenty-fifth overall out of 44 swimmers on the first day of preliminaries.[10]