Yanet Seyoum

Yanet Seyoum
Personal information
Full nameYanet Seyoum Gebremedhin
National team Ethiopia
Born (1994-07-09) July 9, 1994 (age 30)
Kombolcha, Ethiopia
Sport
SportSwimming
Strokesfreestyle

Yanet Seyoum Gebremedhin (born 9 July 1994 in Kombolcha, Ethiopia) is an Ethiopian swimmer. She is the first swimmer from Ethiopia to compete in the Olympics.[1] Yanet competed in the 50 meter freestyle at the 2012 Summer Olympics and was the flag bearer of the Ethiopian team at the 2012 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.[2][3]

Early life

Yanet was born and raised in Kombolcha, Ethiopia. She has an older brother Yemanebirhan Seyoum Gebremedhin.[4] Her mother, Tsigework Abebe, works for Ethiotelecom and her father is a driver for an aid agency.[1] Yanet's family frequently took leisure trips to the area's only pool. From the age of 12 Yanet was taught how to swim by her father and after winning a silver medal in a local competition she fell in love with the sport. She is studying engineering at Addis Ababa Science and Technology University.[1]

Career

Yanet has won 40 gold, five silver and two bronze medals while competing in Ethiopian swimming competitions. After completing two World Championships, a World Youth Olympics and an All-African Games event in the last three years Yanet qualified for the Olympics from the world short-course championships in Dubai.[5] She trained using the Olympic size swimming pool at the Ghion Hotel in Addis Ababa with the help of her mother and the advice of her coach who called her from Nazret.[5] At the 2012 Summer Olympics 50 meter freestyle Preliminary Rounds she ranked 65 out of 75 with a time of 32.41 s.[6] She did not participate in the 2016 Summer Olympics.

References

  1. ^ a b c Defait, Vincent (4 August 2012). "London 2012: Yanet Seyoum a champion despite coming last". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 11 Nov 2016.
  2. ^ London 2012 profile Archived 2013-01-28 at archive.today
  3. ^ Staff. "London 2012 Opening Ceremony - Flag Bearers" (PDF). Olympics. Archived (PDF) from the original on 12 August 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
  4. ^ Dorey, Greg (18 May 2012). "Freestyle Olympics". blogs.fco.gov.uk/. UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Archived from the original on 12 November 2016. Retrieved 11 November 2016.
  5. ^ a b "Olympics-Swimming-Ethiopian swimmer eyes personal best in London". Reuters. 2016-07-25. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
  6. ^ "London 2012 50m freestyle women - Olympic Swimming". International Olympic Committee. 2016-08-09. Archived from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2016-11-12.
Olympic Games
Preceded by Flagbearer for  Ethiopia
London 2012 		Succeeded by