Jonathan Massacand (born 26 February 1984 in

Morges Morges (; la, Morgiis, plural, probably ablative, else dative; frp, Môrges) is a municipality in the Swiss canton of Vaud and the seat of the district of Morges. It is located on Lake Geneva. History Morges is first mentioned in 1288 as ' ...

) is a Swiss swimmer, who specialized in backstroke events. He is a two-time current Swiss record holder for both 100 and 200 m backstroke. Massacand also won a gold medal, as a local favorite, in the same discipline at the 2012 Zurich International Meet, claiming a personal best of 56.49 seconds. Massacand qualified for two swimming events at 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 ...

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

, by clearing FINA B-standard entry times of 55.24 (100 m backstroke) and 2:00.16 (200 m backstroke) from the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

in Eindhoven, Netherlands. In the

100 m backstroke 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

, Massacand challenged seven other swimmers on the third heat, including Olympic veterans Derya Büyükuncu of Turkey and Sung Min of South Korea. He finished ahead of Buyukuncu in fifth place and twenty-seventh overall by 0.21 of a second, breaking a Swiss record of 55.21 seconds. In his second event, 200 m backstroke, Massacand knocked off Greece's

Dimitrios Chasiotis Dimitrios Chasiotis ( gr, Δημήτρης Χασιώτης; born June 27, 1986) is a Greek former swimmer, who specialized in backstroke events. He represented his nation Greece at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and also swam for Olympiacos in Athen ...

to last place on the same heat by half a second (0.50) in 2:01.80. His Olympic time in the 200, however, was 1.64 seconds slower than his record set earlier at the European Championships. Massacand failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed thirty-second overall in the preliminary heats.

References

External links

NBC Olympics Profile
1984 births Living people Olympic swimmers of Switzerland Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swiss male backstroke swimmers People from Morges Sportspeople from the canton of Vaud {{Switzerland-swimming-bio-stub