Ahmed Hafnaoui

Background Hafnaoui's father, Mohamed Hafnaoui, was a Tunisian national team basketball player.

Hafnaoui began swimming at the age of six. He gravitated towards swimming rather than his father's sport of basketball in spite of the fact that there were just three 50-metre pools in all of Tunisia. When he was 12 years of age, Hafnaoui began training with the national swim program.

Career 2018

At the African Championships in Algiers, Algeria, Hafnaoui competed in the 800 meter and 1,500 meter freestyle events, as well as the 4x100 and 4x200 freestyle events. He is only the third swimmer in history to win an Olympic gold medal out of the 8th lane, the slowest qualifying lane. He also placed joint 10th in the 800 meter freestyle, missing qualification for the final.

In October, Hafnauoi announced he would be competing at Etihad Arena in December as part of the 2021 World Short Course Swimming Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. He entered to compete in the 400 metre freestyle and 1500 metre freestyle events. Starting his competition on day one of the championships, 16 December, Hafnaoui swum a 3:40.30 in the prelims heats of the 400 metre freestyle to rank tenth overall. On Day five, Hafnaoui ranked second in the 1500 metre freestyle prelims heats, qualifying for the final with a time of 14:25.77. He won the silver medal in the final of the 1500 metre freestyle on day six in an African record time of 14:10.94. His time at the 800 metre mark also set a new African record in the 800 metre freestyle at 7:33.69.

2023

On 11 January 2023, Hafnaoui won the gold medal in the 800-metre freestyle at the TYR Pro Swim Series in Knoxville, with a time of 7:53.10, which was over three full seconds faster than second-place finisher American Robert Finke. Two days later, he won the gold medal in the 400-metre freestyle with a time of 3:47.41. On the fourth day, he finished in a personal best time of 15:07.07 in the final of the 1500-metre freestyle, dropping 8.97 seconds from his previous personal best time, to win the silver medal. On 1 March, he lowered his personal best time by 6.83 seconds to a 15:00.24 and won the gold medal in the 1500-metre freestyle at the second stop of the Pro Swim Series, in Fort Lauderdale, United States. The following day he won the 400-metre freestyle in a time of 3:46.02. On day four of four, he finished in 7:48.50 in the 800-metre freestyle and won the gold medal.

At the 2023 World Aquatics Championships held in Fukuoka, Japan, Hafnaoui won gold in the 800-metre and 1500-metre freestyle events, and silver in the 400-metre freestyle. Hafnaoui will attend Indiana University in fall 2023 as a member of their men's swimming team.

2024-2025 In April 2025, Ahmed Hafnaoui was suspended for 21 months due to three missed doping tests within a 12-month period. The ban is backdated to start from 11 April 2024 and ends on 10 January 2026. As a result, he was ineligible for the 2024 Paris Olympics and all results from April 2024 onwards were disqualified.

Personal bests + Long Course Meters Event !! Time !! Meet Location!! Date !! Note(s) Ref

Olympics.com, Top 5 Moments: Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics (#4 for gold medal in the 400 metre freestyle) Grand officier of the National Order of Merit of Tunisia (Tunisia, 2021) Swimming World, African Swimmer of the Year (male): 2021 SwimSwam, Top 100 (Men's): 2022 (#16)

Decoration