Anthony Nesty

Anthony Nesty ( born November 25, 1967 in Trinidad and Tobago ) is a former swimmer from Suriname. He went on to three Olympic Games and won the only previous Medals Suriname at the Olympics at all.

Anthony Nesty was born as the youngest of five children of a family of black African origin. The family moved to Suriname, as Anthony was still a toddler. He came early for swimming and trained soon in the country and Caribbean -wide competitions. Just only 16 years old he already took part in the Olympic Games in 1984 partly in Los Angeles and reached the 21th Place. He then enrolled in the Belles Prep School in Jacksonville, Florida, which specializes in the training of world-class swimmers. When he was at school in the second year, he broke the hitherto held by Pablo Morales school record in the 100 yard butterfly discipline. At the Pan American Games 1987 in Indianapolis, he won the gold medal in the 100 m butterfly and bronze in the 200m butterfly.

At the 1988 Olympic Games Nesty came again in his specialist discipline. In the 100 - meter final, he beat with a time of 53.00 seconds the big favorite Matt Biondi by a hundredth of a second, but benefited from the misjudgment Biondi, who missed the last arm pull in the face of a supposedly safe projection and the last few meters of sliding put back. With this victory, Anthony Nesty was the second black athlete after Enith Brigitha ( bronze), which was able to win an Olympic medal in a swimming competition and the first black gold medalist this competition category. This was particularly the self- consciousness of his African-American compatriots an enormous upswing. In Suriname, postage stamps, and gold and silver coins were produced with his portrait. In addition, the largest multi-purpose hall of the country was named after him in the capital Paramaribo.

After his Olympic victory in 1988 Nesty stayed for three years on his special draw unbeaten. During this time he won gold at the 1990 Goodwill Games and a year later the World Champion title. In the next Olympic Games in Barcelona in 1992, he was over 100 m butterfly of his victory Seoul not repeat, but managed at least with 53.41 seconds still the bronze medal behind Pablo Morales ( 53.32 seconds ) and Rafal Szukala ( 53.35 seconds ).

In 1998, he was inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Currently, Anthony Nesty has worked as an assistant coach at the University of Florida. In 2008 he was allowed to participate for Suriname as a standard-bearer and swimming coach at the Olympic Games in Beijing.