Pablo Martín Abal (born March 19, 1977) is an Argentine former swimmer, who specialized in butterfly and backstroke events. He is a 2000 Olympian, an Argentine record holder in both sprint backstroke and butterfly, and a three-time All-American honoree for the

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in t ...

swimming and diving team while studying in the United States. Abal accepted an

athletic scholarship An athletic scholarship is a form of scholarship to attend a college or university or a private high school awarded to an individual based predominantly on his or her ability to play in a sport. Athletic scholarships are common in the United Stat ...

to attend the

Tempe, Arizona , settlement_type = City , named_for = Vale of Tempe , image_skyline = Tempeskyline3.jpg , imagesize = 260px , image_caption = Tempe skyline as s ...

, where he played for the

Arizona State Sun Devils The Arizona State Sun Devils are the athletic teams that represent Arizona State University. ASU has nine men's and eleven women's varsity teams competing at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I level as a member of ...

swimming and diving team, under head coach Mike Chasson. While swimming for the Sun Devils, Abal received three All-American honors, and recorded the second-fastest time in school's history for the 100-yard backstroke (48.26) at the 1999

NCAA 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 and ...

Championships. At the end of his college career, Abal graduated from the university with a bachelor's degree in

Industrial Engineering Industrial engineering is an engineering profession that is concerned with the optimization of complex processes, systems, or organizations by developing, improving and implementing integrated systems of people, money, knowledge, information an ...

. Abal competed in two swimming events for

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, t ...

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 ...

in Sydney. He achieved a

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

B-cut of 54.67 (100 m butterfly) from the Argentine National Championships in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the Capital city, capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata ...

. On the sixth day of the Games, Abal placed twenty-eighth in the

100 m butterfly 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. ...

. Swimming in heat five, he posted a lifetime best of 54.45 to pick up a sixth seed, but missed the semifinals by 0.64 of a second with a twenty-eighth-place effort. Abal also teamed up with Eduardo Germán Otero,

Sergio Andres Ferreyra Sergio Andrés Ferreyra (born May 21, 1977) is an Argentine former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He is a multiple-time Argentine record holder, and a two-time medalist in the breaststroke (both 100 and 200 m) at the 2006 South ...

, and José Meolans in the 4 × 100 m medley relay. Swimming a butterfly leg in heat three, Abal recorded a split of 53.96, a national record, but the Argentines settled only for seventh place and eighteenth overall in a final time of 3:43.61. Pablo Abal started competing in Master swimming in 2016. He participated in the X South American championship in short course meters in Uruguay placing 1st in 50 butterfly with 25.83s, 1st in 100 IM with 1´00.68s and 1st in 50 backstroke breaking the World Record for the category 35–39 with 25.70s.

References

External links

Player Bio – Arizona State Sun DevilsSwimmer Bio Arizona State UniversityPablo Abal US Master SwimmingPablo Abal Master US RecordPablo Abal 2001 USA World Cup Article in Spanish
{{DEFAULTSORT:Abal, Pablo Martin 1977 births Living people People from Santa Rosa, La Pampa Sportspeople from La Pampa Province Argentine male swimmers Olympic swimmers for Argentina Swimmers at the 1999 Pan American Games Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Argentine male butterfly swimmers Arizona State Sun Devils men's swimmers Expatriate swimmers in the United States Argentine expatriates in the United States Pan American Games competitors for Argentina 20th-century Argentine people