Virginia Tech has several former, current, and future athletes competing in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games this summer in multiple sports including track & field, swimming, and golf. Tech's most successful athlete to date is current freshman swimmer Youssef Ramadan.
Ramadan, representing Egypt, had an impressive showing today in the heats of the 100 meter butterfly in Tokyo.
This guy broke the Egyptian national record in the 100 fly this morning at 51.67😳 🇪🇬
— Virginia Tech Swimming & Diving (@HokiesSwimDive) July 29, 2021
Tune in at 9:30 p.m. ET to watch @yousseframadan02 compete in the 100 fly semi-finals 😤🔥#OlympicHokies 🦃 pic.twitter.com/UG8bOkN8tI
Ramadan finished tied for 14th among the 56 swimmers who competed this morning with a fast 51.67 earning himself one of the 16 spots in the semifinals.
In the process, Ramadan beat a host of talented swimmers including Italy's Federico Burdisso who won bronze in the 200 meter butterfly in these Tokyo Olympics, South Africa's Chad Le Clos who won the silver medal in this event in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics plus the 2012 Olympic gold in the 200 meter butterfly, and Hokie teammate Antani Ivanov.
Ramadan's success shouldn't come as too big of a surprise after he was named the ACC Male Freshman of the Year during an impressive debut season where he won the ACC 100 yard butterfly title, and finished in the top 10 at NCAAs in the 50 and 100 yard freestyle.
The talented Hokie will definitely be facing an uphill battle this evening to finish in the top 8 to reach the final, but he definitely has a chance as his 51.67 was less than .3 seconds behind the eighth fastest time in the heats which belonged to Australia's Matthew Temple.
Ramadan's semifinal will be at 9:30pm Eastern live on NBC thanks to the IOC's decision to have swimming semifinals and finals in the morning rather than the evening and the heats in the evening after a request by NBC so that they could be live in primetime in America.
