Mathieu Fonteyn
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BelgiumLeuven, Belgium
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Mathieu Fonteyn |
| National team | Belgium |
| Born | 14 February 1985 Leuven, Belgium |
| Height | 1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) |
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Freestyle, butterfly |
| Club | Bruges ZK[1] |
| Coach | Rik Valcke[1] |
Mathieu Fonteyn (born 14 February 1985) is a Belgian former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and butterfly events.[1][2] He represented his nation Belgium at the 2008 Summer Olympics, placing himself among the top 20 swimmers with an illustrious Belgian record in the 200 m butterfly.[3] Fonteyn trained under the tutelage of the national team's assistant coach Rik Valcke at a local swimming club in Bruges until his abrupt retirement shortly before London 2012 due to sustained injuries.[4][5]
Fonteyn competed for the Belgian swimming squad in the men's 200 m butterfly at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to the Games, he placed fourth in the top-eight final at the European Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands with an Olympic A-cut time of 1:56.86.[6][7] Fonteyn blasted a new Belgian record of 1:56.65 to obtain the seventh spot and nineteenth overall in the last of six preliminary heats, narrowly missing out the top 16 semifinal by just sixth hundredths of a second (0.06) and trailing all-time Olympian and eventual world record holder Michael Phelps, who competed in the same race as Fonteyn, by nearly three seconds.[8][9]
