
#OlympicFirsts: 19-year-old girl carries Botswana’s medal hopes Rio Olympics swimming
Botswana will for the first time be represented in the Olympics swimming event in the upcoming Summer Games to be held in Rio de Janeiro.
19-year-old Naomi Ruele will make history in Brazil by being the first swimmer from Botswana to participate in an Olympics event.
The teenager who currently swims for Florida International University in the U.S. qualifies for the Rio games in March this year, setting a personal best time of 26.07 seconds in the 50m freestyle qualifier.
Ruele is no stranger to winning, having won seven gold medals at the most recent C-USA Championships the country’s top collegiate swimming competition. She set two records and was the top swimmer of the event.
She was recently named the Junior Female Sportsperson of the Year by the Botswana National Sports Council, which also noted her remarkable achievements in the pool as well as inspiring young Batswana to take an interest in the sport.
All Batswana have a reason to anticipate the Rio Games highly, and will definitely be very excited in watching the performances of Ruele, hoping she makes them proud.