Brazilian Fernando Scheffer won the bronze medal in the 200-meter freestyle at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday morning in Japan (27), and remains on Monday evening (26) in Brazil, with a time of 1.44.66.
Thomas Dean (1m44s22) and Duncan Scott (1m44s26), both from the UK, were gold and silver respectively. Scheffer beat Romanian David Popovici, who is fourth, by just 200 seconds.
“I just wanted to do the test, try to get into the water everything I trained and swim happily, every stroke enjoying every meter. It feels so special, it seems like I’m dreaming,” he said after the win.
“We always prepare for this, we train thinking about the medal, but I try, when the competition comes, to give all the effort. […] I already managed to put this [a melhor performance] In time we are training for it.”
Scheffer was born in Canoas, Rio Grande do Sul. For Tokyo 2020, like other Brazilians, he had to go through an eclectic phase marked by tension a year after the novel coronavirus pandemic.
She was the first Brazilian medal in swimming at these Olympics and fourth nationwide among all forms of games. Prior to that, Risa Lyle and Kelvin Hoefler won the silver in street skating, while judoka Daniel Karnin took the bronze in the 66kg category.