Omar Andrés Pinzón García (born June 17, 1989) is a competitive

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who represented

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

at the

2004 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), ...

in Athens, Greece and

2008 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 Nati ...

in Beijing, China. Pinzón attended college in the United States, where he swam for the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

. 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), ...

in Athens, Pinzón finished in thirty-fifth place in the men's 200-meter

backstroke Backstroke or back crawl is one of the four Swimming (sport), swimming styles used in competitive events regulated by FINA, and the only one of these styles swum on the back. This swimming style has the advantage of easy breathing, but the disa ...

. Pinzón competed 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 ...

in Beijing in the 100 and 200-meter backstroke, the 200 and 400-meter individual medley, and the 200-meter butterfly. His best 2008 Olympic performance was in the 200-meter backstroke, where he placed seventeenth with a time of 1:59.11.Sports-Reference.com, Olympic Sports
Omar Pinzón
Retrieved August 5, 2010. Pinzón was born in

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

Distrito Capital A capital district, capital region or capital territory is normally a specially designated administrative division where a country's seat of government is located. As such, in a federal model of government, no state or territory has any politica ...

, Colombia. He attended the

Bolles School The Bolles School is an American private college preparatory day and boarding school in Jacksonville, Florida. It has a lower school (including pre-kindergarten), a middle school, and a high school, spread across four campuses around the Jackson ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

, and graduated from Gimnasio Britanico high school in Chía in 2005. Pinzón received an athletic scholarship to attend the

in Gainesville, Florida, where he swam for coach

Gregg Troy Gregg Troy (born December 19, 1950) is an American professional and Olympic swimming coach. As of April 2021, he is the head coach for the Cali Condors, which is part of the International Swimming League. Until 2018, he was the head coach of the ...

Florida Gators swimming and diving The Florida Gators swimming and diving program represents the University of Florida in the aquatics sports of swimming and diving. The program includes separate men's and women's teams, both of which compete in Division I of the National Colle ...

team in

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

(NCAA) competition from 2006 to 2010. In his four-year Gator swimming career, Pinzón received twelve All-American honors. Pinzón won his first gold medal at a Swimming World Cup in Singapore in 2011 in the 200-meter backstroke. Pinzón then won gold medals in Shanghai and Tokyo in the 200-meter

. Pinzón tested positive for

cocaine Cocaine (from , from , ultimately from Quechuan languages, Quechua: ''kúka'') is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant mainly recreational drug use, used recreationally for its euphoria, euphoric effects. It is primarily obtained from t ...

in November 2012 and was subsequently banned from competing for two years. In 2014, however, after an appeal to the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its co ...

, the suspension was overturned due to several inconsistencies in the testing process. He returned to the competition in 2014 to represent his country at the

Central American and Caribbean Games The Central American and Caribbean Games (CAC or CACGs) are a multi-sport regional championship event, held quadrennial (once every four years), typically in the middle (even) year between Summer Olympics. The games are for countries in Cent ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pinzon, Omar 1989 births Living people Florida Gators men's swimmers Male backstroke swimmers Male butterfly swimmers Male medley swimmers Olympic swimmers for Colombia Sportspeople from Bogotá Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2011 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Colombian sportspeople in doping cases Swimmers at the 2015 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for Colombia Pan American Games medalists in swimming Central American and Caribbean Games gold medalists for Colombia Central American and Caribbean Games silver medalists for Colombia Central American and Caribbean Games bronze medalists for Colombia Competitors at the 2006 Central American and Caribbean Games Competitors at the 2010 Central American and Caribbean Games Competitors at the 2014 Central American and Caribbean Games South American Games gold medalists for Colombia South American Games silver medalists for Colombia South American Games bronze medalists for Colombia South American Games medalists in swimming Competitors at the 2018 South American Games Competitors at the 2022 South American Games Swimmers at the 2019 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 2023 Pan American Games Central American and Caribbean Games medalists in swimming Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games 20th-century Colombian people 21st-century Colombian people

See also

References