'After the race I went to the changing room and I laid down because I still couldn’t feel my body. When I woke up, on the television I could see my pictures. I thought I did something wrong'
Ask an Australian what they recall about the Sydney Games and they'll rattle off the likes of Cathy Freeman and Ian Thorpe to begin.moments of the Games belonged to a no-namer in lane five on the morning of day four.
No one in Olympic history had ever recorded a slower time than his 1:52.72 but the 17,500 vociferous fans at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre could not have cared less. They cheered Moussambani home like he was Thorpe. And while it changes the picture to learn Moussambani was a genuine athlete the whole time, his against-the-odds performance in Sydney still defines him.
“That was a big experience for me because I used to be a very shy guy. People started to look for me in the village.”The fun had only just begun for Moussambani, who soaked all up all the perks. Moussambani is a celebrity in his home country yet barely recognisable elsewhere. However, if he were to say he hailed from Equatorial Guinea, it wouldn't take long for many Australians to join the dots and work out who he was.“People didn’t know about my country … and now everybody knows about Equatorial Guinea and I’m very proud,” Moussambani said. “I found people in Sydney were very kind. People invited me to many places.
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