SWIMMERS from Tunisia

Top 2

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the most legendary Tunisian Swimmers of all time. This list of famous Tunisian Swimmers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography’s online popularity.

1. Oussama Mellouli (b. 1984)

With an HPI of 37.87, Oussama Mellouli is the most famous Tunisian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 25 different languages on wikipedia.

Oussama "Ous" Mellouli (Arabic: أسامة الملولي; born 16 February 1984) is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Trojans team based at the University of Southern California, where he studied as a computer science undergraduate and swam collegiately. Since returning from an Adderall-related drugs ban, Oussama Mellouli was the 1500 m freestyle World champion at the 2009 World Aquatics Championships with a winning time of 14:37.28, then the second-best performance of all time. Mellouli was the gold medalist in the 1500 freestyle at the 2008 Olympics, the bronze medalist in the 1500 freestyle at the 2012 Olympics, and the gold medalist in the 10 km marathon swim at the 2012 Olympics. He is the first Olympian to win medals in both the open water and the pool in a single Olympics.

2. Ahmed Hafnaoui (b. 2002)

With an HPI of 28.79, Ahmed Hafnaoui is the 2nd most famous Tunisian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 24 different languages.

Ahmed Ayoub Hafnaoui (Arabic: أحمد أيوب حفناوي; born 4 December 2002) is a Tunisian swimmer. He is the African record holder in the long course 400-metre and 1500-metre freestyle, and the short course 800-metre and 1500-metre freestyle events. He competed in the 2020 Summer Olympics, where he won a gold medal in the men's 400-metre freestyle. He ranked No. 16 in the world and was the slowest qualifier for the final race but won Olympic gold with a time of 3:43.36. Hafnaoui was the only Tunisian to win Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020. He finished 8th in the final of the 400 m freestyle at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires. Hafnaoui competed as a 16-year-old at the 2018 World Championships (SC) in the 400 meters, and the 1500 meters, but failed to make the final in either events. In 2021, Fina had him ranked as No. 3 in the men's 400 meter freestyle. At the age of 20, Hafnaoui competed at the 2023 World Championships in Fukuoka, and took gold in the 800 m freestyle, as well as also winning gold for the 1500 m freestyle with the second-fastest 1500 free time in history of 14:31.54.