Chad Ho (born 21 June 1990) is a South African open water swimmer, who specialises in 10km and 5km marathon swimming. Educated at

Westville Boys' High School Westville Boys' High School, often referred to as WBHS or "boys high", is a semi-private high school for boys located in Westville, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Early history The year 2022 marks the 67th anniversary of WBHS as a high school. ...

, he is considered one of the fastest professional open water swimmers in the world, having won the overall series title at the 2010 FINA World Cup and attended the Olympic Game's twice - 2008 and 2016. He is also currently a seven-time titleholder of the

Midmar Mile The Midmar Mile is a swimming race held annually in February at the Midmar Dam north of Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Each year, it draws thousands of competitors, from serious international athletes and Olympic medallists to purely recreationa ...

Swimming career

2008 Summer Olympics

Ho qualified for the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in Beijing, after placing fourth in the 10 km Marathon Swimming Olympic test event at

Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park The Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park () was built for the Rowing at the 2008 Summer Olympics, rowing, Canoeing at the 2008 Summer Olympics, canoeing and Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics, 10 km open-water swimming events in the 2008 Summer O ...

. He swam in the first-ever men's 10 km open water marathon, against a field of 24 other competitors, including former pool swimmers

Petar Stoychev Petar Stoychev ( bg, Петър Стойчев; born 24 October 1976 in Momchilgrad) is a Bulgarian swimmer who is one of the most successful long distance marathon swimmers in history. He is one of the greatest marathon swimmers of all time an ...

of Bulgaria and Thomas Lurz of Germany. Ho finished the race in ninth place, with a time of 1:52:13.1, approximately twenty-one seconds behind winner

Maarten van der Weijden Maarten van der Weijden (born 31 March 1981) is a Dutch long distance and marathon swimmer born in Alkmaar., beijing2008.cn In 2019 Van der Weijden swam the Elfstedentocht for charity. He raised more than €6.1 million. Swimming career Van d ...

of the Netherlands.

Post-Olympics

At the

2009 FINA World Championships The 2009 World Aquatics Championships ( it, Campionati mondiali di nuoto 2009) or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines ...

Rome, Italy , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (Romulus and Remus, legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg ...

, Ho became the first South African to win a medal in open water swimming, taking the bronze in the 5 km marathon, for a fastest possible time of 56:41.9. He also finished twenty-third in the 10 km marathon, with a time of 1:53:13.1, exactly one second behind his record time from the Olympics. The following year, he reinforced his lead in the FINA 10 km Marathon Swimming World Cup circuit, by reaching the top position in all eight meets of the series. Although he only won the sixth meet in Hong Kong, Ho's victory margin of 27 seconds was the largest in the series, which declared him the overall titleholder. Because of his outstanding achievement in the World Cup, and his commitment to the sport, Ho was nominated as 2010 World Open Water Swimming Man of the Year. In 2011, Ho finished second in the 5 km marathon and shared his triumph with

Troyden Prinsloo Hercules Troyden Prinsloo (born November 16, 1985) is a freestyle swimmer from South Africa, who won three gold medals at the 2007 All-Africa Games. Previously he earned a silver medal in the men's 800m freestyle at the Pan Pacific Games, and ...

for the gold medal in 10 km at the Telkom SA National Aquatic Championships in

Jeffreys Bay Jeffreys Bay ( af, Jeffreysbaai, nicknamed J-bay) is a town of 27,107 inhabitants as of the 2011 census in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It Is the seat of the Kouga municipality and is famous amongst surfers as a surf capital due ...

. Following his further success from the national championships, Ho qualified for the men's 10 km marathon at the

FINA World Championships The FINA World Championships or World Aquatics Championships are the World Championships for aquatics sports: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. They are run by FINA, and all swimming events a ...

in Shanghai, China. Unfortunately, he finished the race farther from the medal podium in twentieth place, with a time of 1:54:58.6, three seconds behind Ukraine's

Igor Snitko Ihor Snitko (Ігор Снітко, also spelled Igor Snitko, born 13 August 1978) is a freestyle swimmer from Ukraine, who was a specialist in the long-distance events. He won the silver medal in the men's 1500 m freestyle event at the ...

. In 2012, Ho offered another shot for a bid to the

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

in London, by participating at the FINA Olympic Marathon Swim Qualifier, held in Setubal, Portugal. He competed against a field of 61 open water swimmers including Stoychev, David Davies of Great Britain, and

Oussama Mellouli Oussama "Ous" Mellouli ( ar, أسامة الملولي; born 16 February 1984) is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Tr ...

of Tunisia, who previously won an Olympic gold medal from the pool. Ho, however, failed to qualify for his supposedly second Olympics, after finishing in twelfth place, with a time of 1:46:29.4. In 2015, Ho won gold in the

2015 World Aquatics Championships The 16th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships (russian: Чемпионат мира по водным видам спорта 2015), also Aquatics 2015, were held in Kazan, Russia from 24 July to 9 August 2015. Russia host ...

men's 5km open water swim in a time of 55:17.6. Open water swimming was not sponsored in South Africa and Ho used

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

to raise the funds needed to compete.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ho, Chad 1990 births Living people South African male swimmers South African people of Chinese descent Olympic swimmers of South Africa Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Male long-distance swimmers Swimmers from Johannesburg World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming 20th-century South African people 21st-century South African people