Joel Armas y Hernandez (born September 24, 1973 in
Santa Cruz del Norte,
Cuba) is the U.S. record holder in
finswimming
Finswimming is an underwater sport consisting of four techniques involving swimming with the use of fins either on the water's surface using a snorkel with either monofins or bifins or underwater with monofin either by holding one's breath or ...
.
Armas is the son of Ceren Armas and Maria Hernandez. His father, an athlete who once trained for the Cuban national basketball, successfully left Cuba on boat in 1979. A few months later, he and his mother (a teacher), unsuccessfully tried to leave Cuba. His mother lost her job and he was ostracized at school.
He later swam competitively at school meets. When he was 8 years old when he won the 25-meter backstroke at a regional competition. When he was 10 years old he was sent to train at the
Cuban National Aquatic School in Havana. In 1990, he joined the national team to train for the
1992 Olympics 1992 Olympics may refer to:
*1992 Summer Olympics, which were held in Barcelona, Spain
*1992 Winter Olympics
)
, nations = 64
, athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women)
, events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines)
, opening = 8 ...
in
Barcelona,
Spain. He later dropped out of the national team when he was told he would not be allowed to leave the country to compete. On August 21, 1994, he got on a raft and left Cuba. After 14 hours at sea he was picked up by the
U.S. Coast Guard
The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, multi ...
and taken to the U.S. Naval Base in
Guantanamo. He remained there for 18 months.
In 1996, Armas worked as a
lifeguard
A lifeguard is a rescuer who supervises the safety and rescue of swimmers, surfers, and other water sports participants such as in a swimming pool, water park, beach, spa, river and lake. Lifeguards are trained in swimming and CPR/ AED first a ...
and played baseball for
Miami-Dade Community College
Miami Dade College (Miami Dade, MDC or Dade) is a public college in Miami, Florida. Founded in 1959, it has a total of eight campuses and twenty-one outreach centers throughout Miami-Dade County. It is the largest college in the Florida College ...
. He later studied at
Florida Memorial College
Florida Memorial University is a private historically black university in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is a member of the United Negro College Fund and historically related to Baptists although it claims a focus on broader Christianity.
History ...
and at
Florida International University. In 2002, he appeared on the TV show
Sabado Gigante on
Univision and won a
Ford Focus. He then became a firefighter-paramedic for the Broward County Sheriff’s Department. He later met Cayetano Garcia (1958- ), the U.S. monofin champ, who gave him his first
monofin and later coached him.
He placed 17th in his first world competition at the 2nd
CMAS World Cup in
Ravenna,
Italy and broke Mr. Garcia’s U.S. finswimming record. In 2007, he placed 9th in
Hungary at the
Finswimming World Cup.
See also
*
*
*
References
Tamara Lush, Miami’’s Merman Is One of the Fastest Swimmers in the World: Miami News Times, October 4, 2007
Broward County Sheiff Dept articleSportsub article*
CMAS article
1973 births
Living people
People from Santa Cruz del Norte
Miami Dade College alumni
Cuban male swimmers
Male backstroke swimmers
Finswimmers
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