Mahrez Mebarek ( ar, محرز مبارك; born February 11, 1985) is an Algerian former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle events. He is a multiple-time Algerian record holder in long-distance freestyle (400, 800, and 1500 m). Mebarek made his official debut 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 ...

, where he qualified for two swimming events. In the

400 m freestyle 4 (four) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 3 and preceding 5. It is the smallest semiprime and composite number, and is considered unlucky in many East Asian cultures. In mathematics Four is the smallest c ...

, he challenged seven other swimmers on the third heat, where South Korea's

Park Tae-Hwan Park Tae-hwan (, ; born September 27, 1989) is a South Korean competitive swimmer who is an Olympic gold medalist and world champion. He has four Olympic medals, five world titles, and 20 Asian Games medals. He won a gold medal in the 400-m ...

was disqualified for a false start. Mebarek edged out Slovenia's

Bojan Zdešar Bojan Zdešar (born November 30, 1984 in Ljubljana) is a retired male freestyle swimmer from Slovenia, who competed for his native country at the 2004 Summer Olympics. He swam in the long-distance swimming Long-distance swimming is distinguish ...

to take a fourth spot and dip under a 4-minute barrier by 0.90 of a second in 3:59.10. In his second event, 200 m freestyle, Mebarek shared a thirty-fifth place tie with Macedonia's Aleksandar Malenko in the preliminaries with a time of 1:53.00. 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 ...

, Mebarek qualified for the second time in the men's 200 m freestyle by eclipsing a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:52.03 from the EDF Swimming Open in

Paris, France Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

. He challenged six other swimmers on the second heat, including four-time Olympian Andrei Zaharov of Moldova. He edged out Kazakhstan's

Artur Dilman Artur Valeryevich Dilman (russian: Артур Валерьевич Дильман; born August 29, 1990) is a Kazakh swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and individual medley events. He represented his nation Kazakhstan at the 2008 Summer Olymp ...

to take a third spot by 0.24 of a second, posting his lifetime best of 1:52.66. Mebarek failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed fifty-first overall in the preliminaries.

References

External links

NBC Olympics Profile
1985 births Living people Algerian male freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for Algeria Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics African Games bronze medalists for Algeria African Games medalists in swimming Competitors at the 2003 All-Africa Games 21st-century Algerian people {{Algeria-swimming-bio-stub