Allen Ong Hou Ming (born 2 November 1979) is a Malaysian former swimmer, who specialised in sprint freestyle events. He is a two-time Olympian (2000 and 2004), a double gold medalist in the 100 m freestyle at the Southeast Asian Games (2001 and 2003), and a varsity swimmer for the

Minnesota Golden Gophers The Minnesota Golden Gophers (commonly shortened to Gophers) are the college sports teams of the University of Minnesota. The university fields a total of 25 (12 men's, 13 women's) teams in both men's and women's sports and competes in the Big Te ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tw ...

Minneapolis Minneapolis () is the largest city in Minnesota, United States, and the county seat of Hennepin County. The city is abundant in water, with thirteen lakes, wetlands, the Mississippi River, creeks and waterfalls. Minneapolis has its origins ...

. Ong made his official debut at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

. He failed to advance into the semifinals in any of his individual events, finishing fortieth in the

100 m freestyle The 100 metre freestyle is often considered to be the highlight (Blue Ribbon event) of the sport of swimming, like 100 metres in the sport of Athletics. The first swimmer to break the one-minute barrier (long course) was Johnny Weissmuller, in 1 ...

(51.93), and thirty-seventh in the 200 m freestyle (1:54.53). He also placed twenty-second, as a member of the Malaysian team, in the 4 × 100 m medley relay (3:48.32). Two years later, Ong blasted a Malaysian record of 23.62 to pick up a seventh seed in the

50 m freestyle 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

at the

2002 Asian Games The 2002 Asian Games ( ko, 2002년 아시아 경기대회/2002년 아시안 게임, Icheoni-nyeon Asia gyeonggi daehoe/Icheoni-nyeon Asian Geim), officially known as the XIV Asian Games ( ko, 제14회 아시아 경기대회/제14회 아시안 � ...

Busan, South Korea Busan (), officially known as is South Korea's most populous city after Seoul, with a population of over 3.4 million inhabitants. Formerly romanized as Pusan, it is the economic, cultural and educational center of southeastern South Korea, w ...

. At the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, Ong shortened his program, swimming only in two individual events. He cleared FINA B-standard entry times of 23.49 (50 m freestyle) from the Malaysian Open Championships in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

, and 51.57 (100 m freestyle) from the Southeast Asian Games in

Hanoi, Vietnam Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi is ...

. In the

, Ong challenged seven other swimmers in heat four, including fellow two-time Olympians

Alexandros Aresti Alexandros Aresti ( gr, Αλέξανδρος Αρέστη; born 11 March 1983) is a Cypriot former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle events. He is a two-time Olympian (2000 and 2004), and a Cypriot record holder in the 100 and 200 m freesty ...

of Cyprus and George Gleason of the Virgin Islands. He edged out Bulgaria's Raichin Antonov to take a seventh spot and fiftieth overall by 0.29 of a second, outside his record time of 52.04. In his second event,

, Ong matched his forty-sixth place tie with SEA Games champion

Arwut Chinnapasaen Arwut Chinnapasaen ( th, อาวุธ ชินนภาแสน; born December 3, 1980; nickname: 'X') is a Thai former swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. He claimed two gold medals in the 50 m freestyle at the Southeast As ...

on the morning's preliminaries. Swimming in heat five, he managed to pull off a fifth-place effort in 23.52, just 0.03 of a second off his entry time.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ong, Allen 1979 births Living people Malaysian male freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Malaysia Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2002 Asian Games Sportspeople from Ipoh Minnesota Golden Gophers men's swimmers University of Minnesota alumni SEA Games medalists in swimming SEA Games gold medalists for Malaysia SEA Games silver medalists for Malaysia SEA Games bronze medalists for Malaysia Competitors at the 2001 SEA Games Competitors at the 2003 SEA Games Asian Games competitors for Malaysia