Arsenio Alexander López Rosario (born May 3, 1979), also known as Alex Lopez, is a Puerto Rican former swimmer and three-time Olympian who specialized in breaststroke and individual medley events.

Early life and education

Lopez was born in

Humacao, Puerto Rico Humacao () is a Humacao barrio-pueblo, city and Municipalities of Puerto Rico, municipality in Puerto Rico located in the eastern coast of the island, north of Yabucoa, Puerto Rico, Yabucoa; south of Naguabo, Puerto Rico, Naguabo; east of Las Pi ...

. He attended the Bolles School in

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, where he was a member of the Bolles School Swimming Club. Lopez accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preem ...

in Gainesville, Florida, where he competed for the Florida Gators swimming and diving team under coach Gregg Troy. He majored in civil engineering at the university.

Career

Lopez made his Olympic debut, as a 17-year-old teen, at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

in Atlanta. He failed to reach the top 16 final in any of his individual events, finishing twenty-seventh in the 200-meter individual medley (2:06.99) and twenty-fifth in the 400-meter individual medley (4:34.81). He also placed seventeenth, as a member of the Puerto Rican team (including finalist Ricardo Busquets), in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay (3:28.27). At the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, Lopez decided to drop two of his events from Atlanta and experiment with the 100-meter breaststroke. He finished in a first-place tie with Latvia's Valērijs Kalmikovs on the fourth heat with a time of 1:04.02. In the 200-meter individual medley, he raced to a fourth seed in heat three by 0.07 seconds behind South Korea's Han Kyu-Chul in 2:06.49. Lopez did not qualify for the semifinals, finishing thirty-fourth each in all of his events from the heats. Lopez shortened his program at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

in Athens, when he swam only for the 100-meter breaststroke. He cleared a FINA B-standard entry time of 1:04.01 from the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games, officially the XIV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santo Domingo 2003, were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the Games was made in the mid-1990 ...

in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. He challenged seven other swimmers in the same heat as Sydney, including four-time Olympian Ratapong Sirisanont (Thailand), who was later disqualified for a false start. Lopez posted a time of 1:03.99 to take a second seed by a 1.02-second margin behind winner Jakob Johann Sveinsson of Iceland. Lopez ended his third Olympic stint by sharing a thirty-fifth place tie with New Zealand's Ben Labowitch on the morning prelims. Lopez latterly moved into sportswear design. He was responsible for the

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

strip, worn at the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

held in

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

References

External links

Player Bio – Florida Gators
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lopez, Arsenio 1979 births Bolles School alumni Living people Sportspeople from Humacao, Puerto Rico Puerto Rican male swimmers Olympic swimmers for Puerto Rico Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 1999 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Male breaststroke swimmers Male medley swimmers Florida Gators men's swimmers University of Florida alumni Pan American Games competitors for Puerto Rico 21st-century American sportsmen 20th-century American sportsmen

Early life and education

Career

See also

References

External links