UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

Olympic-museum.de has listed the world’s worst performances at the Olympics. These are athletes who did not drop out when they were down and out, but gritted their teeth and finished their event.

They include Raul Giraldo Mazorra Zamora of Cuba who in the 1952 Olympics clocked 31 seconds for the 200m. Heck, even my slowest ever time is better than that, notwithstanding the fact that he ran the event more than half a century ago. I mean, even during the first Olympics (1896), the men can already run about 12 seconds for the 100m.

Then there was Ralf Leberer of Germany who clocked 56.74 seconds for the 110m hurdles at the 2000 Olympiad. In an event where times below 14 seconds are expected, what more at Olympics level, he clocked a time more suited to a typical secondary school 400m event. This is not to say that Leberer is a substandard athlete. He regularly clocks world-class times, but on that particular day, he fell short of the finish line during his heat. Somehow, he managed to get up and cross the finish line.

And there was Eric “Eric The Eel” Moussambani (b. 1978) who swam 1:52.72 for the 100m freestyle during the 2000 Olympics. Video:

That is more than twice the time of his faster competitors. Compare that to the world record then of 47.84 seconds. His time is even slower by 7 seconds compared to the 200m world record then. He got to compete in the Olympics even though he didn’t meet the minimum qualifying times due to a wildcard draw for developing countries that didn’t have proper training facilities. Eric, who had only been swimming for 8 months and had never seen a 50m pool before, flailed and splashed wildly, attempting to keep his head above water at all times, plus doing an interesting turn at the midway point. That means merely finishing the event is already an achievement for him. His feat won him brief international fame.

Interestingly, after relentless practice, he managed to bring down his time to below 57 seconds and hoped to participate in the 2004 Olympics. Unfortunately, due to a visa problem, he could not make it.

But my personal favourite is Jean-Olivier Zirignon (b. 1971) of Ivory Coast who finished last in his heat in athletic’s blue riband event, the men’s 100m sprint during the 1996 Olympics. His time? 22.69 seconds. Don’t get me wrong - he’s a world-class athlete, with apparently a best time of 10.07 seconds which is the national record for Ivory Coast. I read that he was injured when he competed at the Olympics but decided to finish the race anyway.

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Hence, it can be concluded that success comes not just from talent, but sheer hard work, meticulous preparation and sometimes luck. This applies not just in sports, but also other areas like examinations. Speaking of preparation, an example is the Cisco exam, where the 350-030 is always the course of choice for individuals who have just done their 640-816 or 642-901. This is usually followed by S10-101 and less frequently, VCP-310. This is all included in he eligibility criteria of ccnp certification.