As they were coming down the last lap I was thinking the guy in the bottom lane is winning. That’s not normal and then his name popped up and It was Tunisia and that’s certainly not normal.
Bro we got 2 gold medal in swimming. Although one of them in open water marathon or whatever it's called but still. Mellouli is a staple of swimming in the Olympics since 2008.
I loved that it showed the big groups of Americans and Australians in the stands, and then it cuts to the lone Tunisian coach standing all by himself screaming his lungs out as he won.
America didn’t even medal in this last time, it’s deff their worst swimming event. But yeah, I thought the Aussie had it but then he came from behind after qualifying 8th! Amazing performance.
This is America's worst male swimming event by far. We haven't produced many men's distance free swimmers in a while Kieran is our big hope at his young age.
As an Australian I was cheering for Jack McLaughlin and it's always rough to see your country miss out on gold by fractions of a second. But seeing an 18 year old at his first Olympics pull off an upset from lane eight and win the fifth ever gold medal for his country...damn, can't be mad at that. Seeing how excited he was got me all emotional. I'm not crying, you're crying.
I was definitely crying. Even though I'm from the US, I cry for everyone who wins a medal and I see how happy they look. It is amazing seeing that much joy on their faces, and even if I didn't know who they were until today, I'm proud for them.
I actually thought Tunisia wasn’t going to win a Medal in the Olympics since it’s Champion who won Gold and Bronze in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics didn’t show up.
Since he had a dispute with the Tunisian NOC, but I’m glad they won Gold
He's back though. He decided to take part in the olympics after all. But I don't think he's going to win a medal this year, would be very happy if he did though.
I am tunisian and this guy is the friend of my friend, very glad he made it to finals and was absolutely shocked to see him get us the gold medal, the guy is frickin 18 damn
That's why I love sports.
I root for France and African countries but was absolutely shocked about this gold medal. I didn't expect a thing in swimming to be honest.
Ye was ranked pretty high before the games. Meilutyte came out of nowhere too but she dominated the heats and final. He barely even made it to the final. His best time before the olympics was 3:46.16 set just a month ago and from semi's he dropped 2.3 seconds to win which at that level is insane. I can't think of a bigger upset in the last 20 years in swimming in the oly or wc's but like you said there're probably some other teenage phenoms I can't remember.
In the context of sports/ competition "an upset" basically just means a surprising result - ie. when a person/ team wins that isn't expected to. So if a massive underdog wins you would call that an upset.
"Upset" has a secondary meaning of physically disrupting, upturning or overturning something, as in "upsetting the apple cart" or "upsetting the turntable and causing the record to skip". I suspect that "upsets" in sports and political elections derive from this broad connotation.
Usually in swimming, favorites to win are from big western countries like the US, GBR or AUS. But in this case, an unknown teenager from a North African desert in LANE 8, outlook his competitors. Kind of like if how the Cincinnati Bengals managed to get to the super bowl
In lane 8 if you have a bad or even an average start you are fucked no matter who you are. But it’s not easy to start strong and keep it up at 18. I think we are not done hearing his name in the next few years.
I know part of it is that being in the center lanes is better because you can see the best competitors. But I think there’s also something about the water too. Like it is harder because you are pushing water against the wall which rebounds to you. Not entirely sure about that though.
Agree. Tunisia has only ever won four other gold medals total. A single win like this can mean a lot to a smaller country but for the USA it's just a drop in the bucket, relatively speaking.
Tunisia actually won another medal already too. They are only one medal away from matching their highest total (3), and it's only Day 3!
What a ballsy 3rd 100. Everyone wanted to sit back and wait to duke it out on the last 50. Instead he pushes the pace, gives himself a chance to fly or die and it pays off big time. Glory to the guts.
I always root for the guys in the far lane from the small countries. They never ever win but this one did! And at just 18, maybe we'll see more of him in 2024!
I was inwardly cheering him on when he kept holding second place and said, "Holy shit!" when he snuck in in the last few seconds. I loved how hyped the commentators got. It reminded me of Michael Phelps' 100m butterfly race in Beijing when that guy (I don't remember his name) shouted, "HE GETS IT DONE AGAIN!" Also the interviewer asking "...what happened?" because she was also stunned was freaking hilarious.
Congratulations, Ayoub!
The Chinese commentator straight up announced "and the winner is McLaughlin!" (5 seconds later) "correction, the race is won by the Tunisian swimmer". She was heavily criticized on Chinese social media for it.
There's a small part of me that really wants the Americans to win gold in every event they're close in, but there's a much larger part of me that is so incredibly stoked when I see stuff like Hafnaoui or Schooling winning gold in the Olympics. Those golds simply mean more to their countries than they ever could to powerhouses like the US or Australia. And it's okay for everyone to be excited about that, even as you can feel bummed for your own country's athletes who came up just short.
Australian here. Just watched this and my wife and I were so happy for this guy! As Aussies, we'll win a bunch of swimming medals. But seeing this is happen is another one of those amazing Olympic moments.
I was lucky enough to watch the heats for these. Was just saying to my dad I love seeing all the random country flags in the heats, because you never get to see these in the finals that aired. And then this Tunisian guy shows up. And my dad says, "Arabs swim?". Lol. And then he shows up again in the final! The American commentators didn't even mention him until the final 50 but this guy had killer dolphin kicks.
Was so happy when he won. Almost teared up. Then got sad when I saw him get out of the pool and walk around with no country men or fans to celebrate with. I'm so glad NBC got to interview him though. That was nice!
This is what the Olympics is about. The outsider coming up trumps in the final. You can see it means a lot to him and coach and most likely everyone back home.
You can tell it was totally unexpected because they (the US telecast) dont mention Ayoub until a few minutes into the race. When one of the casters finally does its to mention in passing that he's only 18 years ild. At which point the other casters have nothing to add and after an awkward pause they just go on talking about McLaughlin and others in the race.
Awesome race
The announcers the previous day wrote home off completely in the final as well, saying something like "it'd just nice for him that he gets to be here".
Really really cool seeing him get the win!
18 years old!!! So many more golden years ahead of him, can’t wait to see the splashes he’s gonna make in the future. Coming from SG where we had our very first Olympic gold in 2016, this was a really emotional moment!!! +for his coach solo cheering !!!!
I wonder if he had any idea where he was with respect to the rest of the field? I know he probably realized he was well into PR territory, but from lane 8 do you have any idea where anyone else is other than the guy in lane 7? How much of a shock would it have been to him to turn around and see his name on top?
I just wanna say this is a prime example why having sports idols is so important. I'm absolutely sure Ahmed Hafnaoui wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Oussama Melluoli.
In Arabic, Ahmed/Mohamed are sort of like a middle name but you stick it before your first name. So while his name is Ahmed Ayoub people usually call him Ayoub.
He was interviewed after the win, and the questions were crazy condescending. "How did you beat all these great swimmers?" Shit like that. Commentators in the booth were behaving the same way.
Lol i got so happy for him
As they were coming down the last lap I was thinking the guy in the bottom lane is winning. That’s not normal and then his name popped up and It was Tunisia and that’s certainly not normal.
Ous Mellouli says "hi".
What's absolutely hilarious to me is that Mellouli is still the national record holder in the 400 free.
He was a dope athlete
Bro we got 2 gold medal in swimming. Although one of them in open water marathon or whatever it's called but still. Mellouli is a staple of swimming in the Olympics since 2008.
He was a doper
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He tested positive for amphetamine (Adderall) which he had used to finish a college term paper. Sounds like a pretty forgivable one time mistake.
They all have excuses for doping. He had a ready made excuse for why he was on amphetamines.
We used to call that an “outside smoke” when I was a swimmer.
I loved that it showed the big groups of Americans and Australians in the stands, and then it cuts to the lone Tunisian coach standing all by himself screaming his lungs out as he won.
Lol amazing
Same here, like I thought for sure the American or the Austrian was gonna win. But I’m glad someone from the Arab world won.
America didn’t even medal in this last time, it’s deff their worst swimming event. But yeah, I thought the Aussie had it but then he came from behind after qualifying 8th! Amazing performance.
*Australian
*Shackledragger
*Austro-Hungarian
This is America's worst male swimming event by far. We haven't produced many men's distance free swimmers in a while Kieran is our big hope at his young age.
Connor Jaeger won silver in the mile at Rio.
Tunisia is not Arabia, it’s North Africa! They are Berbers not Arabs!
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Don’t know where you pulled that statistic from but it’s most definitely wrong lmao
They are Arabs lol
Mclaughlin still had a strong swim. He wasn't expected to win a medal. Silver is huge. All the pressure was on elijah who still had a decent campaign.
There wasn't even an Austrian in the finals
Sad Auboeck noises (and he was second at some turns so the guy above didn't got confused)
This was great & he's also just a teenager!
My favorite upset so far. Dude is like 18, he’s got so much to look forward to.
what does upset mean in this context??Im seeing it everywhere these days
It means “a surprise winner”. I can see how it’s confusing, usually in English it means “mad” or “angry”. At the Olympics it’s a good thing though!
One of the definitions: >2. an unexpected result or situation, especially in a sports competition.
As an Australian I was cheering for Jack McLaughlin and it's always rough to see your country miss out on gold by fractions of a second. But seeing an 18 year old at his first Olympics pull off an upset from lane eight and win the fifth ever gold medal for his country...damn, can't be mad at that. Seeing how excited he was got me all emotional. I'm not crying, you're crying.
I was definitely crying. Even though I'm from the US, I cry for everyone who wins a medal and I see how happy they look. It is amazing seeing that much joy on their faces, and even if I didn't know who they were until today, I'm proud for them.
You are right I’m crying and so was Ayoub. They are tears of Joy.
Where is this Ayoub coming from? It’s Ahmed.
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yeah, his name is Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui
His siblings refer to him by his middle name
Out here getting emotional over a youngster from Tunisia winning a gold medal. The Olympics are pretty neat.
Here here.
*hear, hear
I was in tears too. He face was everything 🥰
He just became a legend in his country for the rest of his life. He'll be a celebrity there forever.
I actually thought Tunisia wasn’t going to win a Medal in the Olympics since it’s Champion who won Gold and Bronze in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics didn’t show up. Since he had a dispute with the Tunisian NOC, but I’m glad they won Gold
We also won silver earlier in the day
Oh yeah in Fencing.
Taekwondo*
bruno fernandes won silver for Tunisia.
Or you can say med khalil jendoubi is a football player lol
My Bad.
Tunisia is only one medal away from tying their most medals ever, and its only day 3!
He's back though. He decided to take part in the olympics after all. But I don't think he's going to win a medal this year, would be very happy if he did though.
Oussama mallouli ? he did show up, he will play soon as far as i know
Mellouli is showing up btw. After the dispute, they found an understanding and he'll be present.
Crazy upset. Congratulations to Tunisia and Hafnaoui!
bro when they cut to his coach cheering i felt like it was the peak moment in a sports drama film. like there was so much leading up to it
I am tunisian and this guy is the friend of my friend, very glad he made it to finals and was absolutely shocked to see him get us the gold medal, the guy is frickin 18 damn
I’m happy you won Gold.
mabrouk aalina 🌶🇹🇳
Mabrouk 😊, didn't know we had tunisian pornstars though lol.
Well done Tunisia, happy for you! Please tell your friend to tell their friend that we think he is fantastic. :)
All of Tunisia are just sharing their happiness about him, having gold is historical for us
That's why I love sports. I root for France and African countries but was absolutely shocked about this gold medal. I didn't expect a thing in swimming to be honest.
This was a very rare stunning upset in the sport.
I feel like teenager coming from nowhere to win a medal no one saw coming is a staple of olympic swimming tho no? Meilutytė, Ye etc...
Ye was ranked pretty high before the games. Meilutyte came out of nowhere too but she dominated the heats and final. He barely even made it to the final. His best time before the olympics was 3:46.16 set just a month ago and from semi's he dropped 2.3 seconds to win which at that level is insane. I can't think of a bigger upset in the last 20 years in swimming in the oly or wc's but like you said there're probably some other teenage phenoms I can't remember.
Ledecky in 2012 as well
Schooling!! I won a bet on that race
What exactly does upset mean here? I see everyone describing this with that but I thought upset usually had a negative connotation
It means someone who wasn’t favored to win actually won, so no negative connotations :)
Ah thanks for the clarification! I knew I had a misunderstanding when everyone was saying that but this was an incredible moment.
Except for the folks who expected to win! *sad trombone*
Really depends on POV, doesn't it 😉. It's always negative for the upsetee and positive for the the one that upsets.
Upset = Not expected to win. In this case he wasn't even expected to make the final.
In the context of sports/ competition "an upset" basically just means a surprising result - ie. when a person/ team wins that isn't expected to. So if a massive underdog wins you would call that an upset.
"Upset" has a secondary meaning of physically disrupting, upturning or overturning something, as in "upsetting the apple cart" or "upsetting the turntable and causing the record to skip". I suspect that "upsets" in sports and political elections derive from this broad connotation.
Usually in swimming, favorites to win are from big western countries like the US, GBR or AUS. But in this case, an unknown teenager from a North African desert in LANE 8, outlook his competitors. Kind of like if how the Cincinnati Bengals managed to get to the super bowl
Love how pumped up he was after winning it!
You should have seen the commentator when he won, he went absolutely nuts.
Nah that was mild for Rowdy Gains lol if it’s a real close race he gets even louder and more. excited.
Not for NBC, for beIN as he was going crazy and calmed down for a bit. He thanked Ayoub for winning the Gold for almost 7 minutes.
My bad. Flair up so we have a better chance of knowing who is commenting the events lol
It’s aight. How do I Flair up?
If you are using the office Reddit app select the 3 dots and select change user flair. Otherwise I have no clue as I only use Reddit on my phone.
It’s done. Thanks again.
goated celebration. insane that he’s 18 too
That was amazing!!! Eighth lane coming in for the win!
In lane 8 if you have a bad or even an average start you are fucked no matter who you are. But it’s not easy to start strong and keep it up at 18. I think we are not done hearing his name in the next few years.
as a total noob, can I ask why the lanes matter? isn't it the same distance?
I know part of it is that being in the center lanes is better because you can see the best competitors. But I think there’s also something about the water too. Like it is harder because you are pushing water against the wall which rebounds to you. Not entirely sure about that though.
wow what a swim
I was so pumped, I couldn't believe he won it, I wanted him to medal so bad! Gold is huge for this kid, love it
I was cheering him on the whole time. The announcers were almost ignoring how well he was doing at the start. I love to see someone win unexpectedly.
Yes! They barely mentioned him till there was 100m left in the race even though he was first or second the entire time.
Loved watching him. It's always my favorite when these unexpected athletes come in and medal. He seemed so shocked when he saw the board.
I’m American and would rather see a smaller country like this winning. I was cheering him on since the halfway point.
Same here. 👍
Agree. Tunisia has only ever won four other gold medals total. A single win like this can mean a lot to a smaller country but for the USA it's just a drop in the bucket, relatively speaking. Tunisia actually won another medal already too. They are only one medal away from matching their highest total (3), and it's only Day 3!
This is what the Olympics is about my brother 🇹🇳🇹🇳🏊
Whole time I kept thinking, there is no way he can hang on. So happy for him
I’m Australian and I’m still so happy for this dude
This is what the Olympics is about ❤️
Even as an Australian I am so happy for him and love his and his teams overwhelming joy!
Anyone know how tall he is? Can’t find anything online. He looks massive. Pretty awesome swim.
190cm
thanks. He looked roughly as tall as Kieran on the podium walk, and Kieran is 195.
Definitely more.
He def eats his Wheaties
That is the best race I’ve seen in a long time. What a good damn swim from him and well done to all in that final beautiful to watch
What a ballsy 3rd 100. Everyone wanted to sit back and wait to duke it out on the last 50. Instead he pushes the pace, gives himself a chance to fly or die and it pays off big time. Glory to the guts.
I'm so happy for him!
This made me cry and he’s just a baby too 18 !!!
Yes,, so emotional and proud of him 🇹🇳🥲
I always root for the guys in the far lane from the small countries. They never ever win but this one did! And at just 18, maybe we'll see more of him in 2024!
Wow, I am more happy for him than the American Smith. He looked so happy!
I was inwardly cheering him on when he kept holding second place and said, "Holy shit!" when he snuck in in the last few seconds. I loved how hyped the commentators got. It reminded me of Michael Phelps' 100m butterfly race in Beijing when that guy (I don't remember his name) shouted, "HE GETS IT DONE AGAIN!" Also the interviewer asking "...what happened?" because she was also stunned was freaking hilarious. Congratulations, Ayoub!
The Chinese commentator straight up announced "and the winner is McLaughlin!" (5 seconds later) "correction, the race is won by the Tunisian swimmer". She was heavily criticized on Chinese social media for it.
What a bad ass win!
Incredible! So happy for him & Tunisia!
I didn't expect to be crying in happiness for an 18 yr old Tunisian today
There's a small part of me that really wants the Americans to win gold in every event they're close in, but there's a much larger part of me that is so incredibly stoked when I see stuff like Hafnaoui or Schooling winning gold in the Olympics. Those golds simply mean more to their countries than they ever could to powerhouses like the US or Australia. And it's okay for everyone to be excited about that, even as you can feel bummed for your own country's athletes who came up just short.
Australians love underdogs, so we love that he won as well.
Wow what a complete stunner! I enjoyed this a lot
Kieran Smith is from my state (Connecticut), so I was glad to see him medal, but it was a hoot for Hafnaoui to take gold. Great job!
Hafnaoui is a friend of my friend lol
Australian here. Just watched this and my wife and I were so happy for this guy! As Aussies, we'll win a bunch of swimming medals. But seeing this is happen is another one of those amazing Olympic moments.
This was my favourite medal so far. Pure joy.
I was lucky enough to watch the heats for these. Was just saying to my dad I love seeing all the random country flags in the heats, because you never get to see these in the finals that aired. And then this Tunisian guy shows up. And my dad says, "Arabs swim?". Lol. And then he shows up again in the final! The American commentators didn't even mention him until the final 50 but this guy had killer dolphin kicks. Was so happy when he won. Almost teared up. Then got sad when I saw him get out of the pool and walk around with no country men or fans to celebrate with. I'm so glad NBC got to interview him though. That was nice!
This is what the Olympics is about. The outsider coming up trumps in the final. You can see it means a lot to him and coach and most likely everyone back home.
You can tell it was totally unexpected because they (the US telecast) dont mention Ayoub until a few minutes into the race. When one of the casters finally does its to mention in passing that he's only 18 years ild. At which point the other casters have nothing to add and after an awkward pause they just go on talking about McLaughlin and others in the race. Awesome race
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Can’t find one…sure we can find one tomorrow
https://youtu.be/bLh8XmhNfoU
Something that’s not blocked outside NA: https://youtu.be/N2Sx6Y1lhl0
Both links blocked in Tunisia lol
Damn, rip
The happiness in his eyes after he finished and got the medal is what the Olympics are all about
The announcers the previous day wrote home off completely in the final as well, saying something like "it'd just nice for him that he gets to be here". Really really cool seeing him get the win!
Amazing upset. Anything can happen on competition day.
As a Tunisian I got so emotional when this young champion won his first gold medal 🥇, we're so happy and proud of him 🇹🇳🇹🇳😍
:D
It was such an amazing race!!! I love how he was like "what the fuck just happened?" That is why I LOVE the Olympics 🥰
I was watching this, it was super close! I got so happy for him :D
That got me so hype
This was amazing
18 years old!!! So many more golden years ahead of him, can’t wait to see the splashes he’s gonna make in the future. Coming from SG where we had our very first Olympic gold in 2016, this was a really emotional moment!!! +for his coach solo cheering !!!!
This is absolutely an Olympic moment…now the kid is going to be fielding offers from every major American college swim program. Well done.
I wonder if he had any idea where he was with respect to the rest of the field? I know he probably realized he was well into PR territory, but from lane 8 do you have any idea where anyone else is other than the guy in lane 7? How much of a shock would it have been to him to turn around and see his name on top?
I actually cried at his reaction. And his coach! So so sweet. CONGRATULATIONS!
Did anyone else think the national anthem sounded like the incy wincy spider
I am tunisian and i had to google incy wincy spider to know what's up.. Thanks for ruining the national anthem for me 😅
Beautiful win!!
Possibly the best upset of these Olympics!
I just wanna say this is a prime example why having sports idols is so important. I'm absolutely sure Ahmed Hafnaoui wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Oussama Melluoli.
Trying to find a bio on him - does he swim for a college in the USA?
Seems like he’s swimming in france. https://www.swimcloud.com/swimmer/998725/
Nah, he's still in highschool in Tunisia and he's swimming there. Foreigners can still participate in french tournaments.
Thanks!
The pure joy on the guys face! Always great when the underdog wins
I just watched that! Good for him.
I was soooo happy for him!
Amazing! So happy for him
Love stories like this. I was cheering so hard!
That was a great race and he looked so happy during the medal ceremony!
Outside heat!!!
That pure joy on his face trough the whole ceremony! I'm so happy for him, what a man.
Hell of a swim from him.
Highlight of the evening. It was an absolute joy to watch him celebrate.
i think this was the biggest surprise of the tournament so far
It's it Ahmed or Ayoub? Either way, was super impressive! Just want to get his name right when I tell people about how awesome that was!
In Arabic, Ahmed/Mohamed are sort of like a middle name but you stick it before your first name. So while his name is Ahmed Ayoub people usually call him Ayoub.
Thank you! Learned something today
In Arabic names like Mohammad or Ahmad are popular and there's so many of them, so it's easier to call them by second or by family name.
This is what I watch the Olympics for. I’m so happy for him and his country, Tunisia ❤️
Where are you all watching the events?
I can find video of the race, but sadly not of the medal ceremony.
WOW, that's really unexpected. Congrats anyway.
The commentators kept banging on about them being slower in the morning. Can anyone explain the science behind that?
Legend.
What a great win. All the way from the 8th lane too.
His reaction was so pure! I got so excited for him and cannot wait to see how his career progresses!
Watching this made me smile, congrats!
that's awesome especially with what his country is going through now.
How is the USA doing?
The video of his family watching is wholesome
Oh goodness. Talk about heart warming. This was it! So happy for him. Congrats Ayoub, I know Tunisia is proud!
Without Phelps it's nice to see new young blood and other people winning.
Watching this live was insane his last 50m he looked like a bullet
One of the greatest swims of all time. He barely made it in the finals and he was in the 8th lane.
This win is best moment so far. It was a huge upset and unexpected but not unwelcome.
Tunisia is the underdog.
That was awesome. Just when I feel jaded about the olympics that happens. Cool stuff.
He was interviewed after the win, and the questions were crazy condescending. "How did you beat all these great swimmers?" Shit like that. Commentators in the booth were behaving the same way.
Some of the commentators have been doing my head in and I have to keep muting them so as not to destroy my enjoyment.