The Central American nation of El Salvador will be sending three swimmers to compete at the Olympic Games in Rio this August. El Salvador, which only has 13 athletes on its Olympic roster to begin with, has chosen to send more swimmers than athletes of any other sport.
Leading the trifecta of swimmers from El Salvador is Marcelo Acosta. Acosta, already the country’s national record-holder in the 1500, is the only El Salvadorian swimmer to have gotten a FINA ‘A’ cut for these games. Acosta registered his 15:13.09 at the Orlando stop of the Arena Pro Swim Series in March of this year.
Acosta, who swam at the University of Louisville for the 2014-2015 season, has more recently been training with Azure Aquatics, based out of Davie, FL (near Fort Lauderdale). Though young, Acosta has swam on the international stage a number of times, including in 2013 at the FINA World Junior Championships and at the Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Championships, where he picked up medals of every color. In 2014 at the Youth Olympics Acosta took home the silver in the 800 meter free, en route to setting the national record in the event.
Following Acosta is NCAA veteran and 2012 Olympian Rafael Alfaro. Now 24-years-old, Alfaro graduated from Brigham Young University in 2015 with a degree in business. In London, Alfaro represented El Salvador by swimming the 400 IM, in which he finished 35th. In 2015 at the Pan American Games Alfaro finished 9th in the 200 IM with a time of 2:02.55. He also swam the 400 IM and the 100 and 200 breaststrokes in Toronto.
The third and only female member of El Salvador’s Olympic swim team is Rebeca Quinteros. Quinteros, at 18-years-old, has also garnered some international experience through the Youth Olympics that took place in 2014 in Nanjing, as well as at the Pan American Games held last summer in Toronto, CA. In Toronto, Quinteros placed in top 16 in each of her events, the 200, 400, and 800 meter freestyles. Quinteros also picked up a pair of bronze medals at the 2015 Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Championships in the 800 free and the 4 x 200 freestyle relay.
The Olympic Games begin on August 5th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and will be broadcast live on NBC.
Sorry, Rafi!
Congrats Ravi!