Wickus Nienaber (born June 24, 1981) is a former Swazi swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He is a four-time College Swimmer of the Year, a 2004 Atlantic Coast Conference champion, and owns at least 40 national age group records for the same stroke in

Swaziland Eswatini ( ; ss, eSwatini ), officially the Kingdom of Eswatini and formerly named Swaziland ( ; officially renamed in 2018), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Mozambique to its northeast and South Africa to its no ...

. He was a member of the swimming team for

Florida State Seminoles The Florida State Seminoles are the athletic teams representing Florida State University located in Tallahassee, Florida. They compete as a member of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level (Football Bowl Subdivis ...

under his coach Neil Harper, and a graduate with a Doctorate in computer science at the

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

Tallahassee, Florida Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County, Florida, Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In ...

. Nienaber made his first Swazi team at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

, where he competed in the men's 100 m breaststroke. Swimming in heat three, he touched out Namibia's Jorg Lindemeier to take a third spot and forty-seventh overall by 0.27 of a second in 1:04.98. 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 ...

, Nienaber qualified again for the men's 100 m breaststroke by eclipsing a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:04.22 from 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 ar ...

Barcelona, Spain Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

. He challenged seven other swimmers on the fourth heat, including Olympic veterans

Ratapong Sirisanont Ratapong "Nuk" Sirisanont ( th, รัฐพงศ์ ศิริสานนท์; born July 1, 1976) is a Thai former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke, but also competed in long-distance freestyle and individual medley. He is a four-t ...

of Thailand, Malick Fall of Senegal, and

Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson Jakob Jóhann Sveinsson (born 24 November 1982 in Reykjavík, Iceland) is a 4-time Olympic swimmer from Iceland who started swimming for S.C. Ægir in 1991. He swam for Iceland at the 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 2000 Olymp ...

of Iceland. He raced to sixth place by 0.03 of a second behind Barbados'

Bradley Ally Bradley Kevin Ally (born December 11, 1986) is a three-time Olympic swimmer from Barbados. He represented Barbados at the Barbados at the 2004 Summer Olympics, 2004, 2008 Summer Olympics, 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympics. He was the bronze medalist ...

in 1:04.74. Nienaber failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed forty-second overall on the first day of preliminaries.

References

External links

Player Bio – Florida State Seminoles
1981 births Living people Swazi male swimmers Olympic swimmers for Eswatini Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games competitors for Eswatini Swimmers at the 1998 Commonwealth Games Swimmers at the 2002 Commonwealth Games Male breaststroke swimmers People from Manzini Florida State Seminoles men's swimmers Florida State University alumni Swazi expatriate sportspeople in the United States {{Swaziland-swimming-bio-stub