Oussama "Ous" Mellouli ( ar, أسامة الملولي; born 16 February 1984) is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Trojans team based at the

University of Southern California , mottoeng = "Let whoever earns the palm bear it" , religious_affiliation = Nonsectarian—historically Methodist , established = , accreditation = WSCUC , type = Private research university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $8.1 ...

, where he studied as a computer science undergraduate and swam collegiately. Since returning from an Adderall-related drugs ban, Oussama Mellouli has been the 1500 m freestyle World champion at the

2009 World Aquatics Championships The 2009 World Aquatics Championships ( it, Campionati mondiali di nuoto 2009) or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. The 2009 Championships featured competition in all 5 aquatics disciplines ...

with a winning time of 14:37.28, then the second-best performance of all time. Mellouli was the gold medalist in the 1500 freestyle at the 2008 Olympics, the bronze medalist in the 1500 freestyle at the 2012 Olympics, and the gold medalist in the 10 km marathon swim at the 2012 Olympics. He is the first Olympian to win medals in both the open water and the pool in a single Olympics.

Biography

Born in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

, Mellouli left Tunisia at the age of 15 to study and train in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. He enrolled in USC

Viterbi School of Engineering The USC Viterbi School of Engineering (formerly the USC School of Engineering) is the engineering school of the University of Southern California. It was renamed following a $52 million donation by Andrew J. Viterbi, co-founder of Qualcomm. ...

in 2003 after graduating from the Lycee Technologique du Rempart in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, France. He swam for the USC Trojans and graduated in 2007 with a computer science bachelor's degree. He is a scholarship holder with the

Olympic Solidarity Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

program.

Swimming Timeline

2000 Olympics

At the

2000 Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 ( Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from ...

he finished 43th in the 400 IM.

2001

Mellouli won 1 silver medal in the 400m IM at the 2001 Mediterranean Games, in

Tunis ''Tounsi'' french: Tunisois , population_note = , population_urban = , population_metro = 2658816 , population_density_km2 = , timezone1 = CET , utc_offset1 ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

2003

Mellouli first established himself on the world scene at the 2003 World Championships in Barcelona, Spain where he won a bronze in the 400m Individual Medley finishing behind

László Cseh László Cseh (; born 3 December 1985) is a retired Hungarian competitive swimmer and six-time Olympic medalist. He is a 33-time European Champion. His father, László Cseh Sr., also represented Hungary at the Olympics in swimming. In 2020 ...

and a world record performance from

Michael Phelps Michael Fred Phelps II (born June 30, 1985) is an American former competitive swimmer. He is the most successful and most decorated Olympian of all time with a total of 28 medals. Phelps also holds the all-time records for Olympic gold med ...

2004

At the 2004 Olympics he finished 5th in the 400 IM, setting the African Record in the process. He further distinguished himself at the

2004 FINA Short Course World Championships The 7th FINA Short Course World Championships were held at the Conseco Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, United States from October 7 through October 11, 2004. Results Freestyle Backstroke Breaststroke Butterfly Medley Medal table ...

Indianapolis, USA Indianapolis (), colloquially known as Indy, is the state capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the seat of Marion County. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the consolidated population of Indianapolis and Marion ...

where he won the first international-level gold medal in swimming for

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, in the 400m IM, finishing over a second ahead of second and third-place finishers Robin Francis and

Eric Shanteau Eric Lee Shanteau (born October 1, 1983) is an American former competition swimmer who won two gold medals as a member of winning United States relay teams at the World Championships. He was a member of the 2008 and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams, and ...

. Later on, at the meet, he would go on to win bronze in the 200m IM.

2005

He was able to better his Athens mark with his bronze medal swim in the 400 IM event at the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in

Montreal, Canada Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pe ...

. He also won the bronze medal in the 400 freestyle at that same event. He also won three gold medals (800 m freestyle, 400m medley, 200m medley) at th
XVth Mediterranean Games
in Almería, Spain.

2006

On 1 December 2006, Oussama Mellouli beat Michael Phelps in the 400m IM at the U.S. Open in West Lafayette: Mellouli clocked 4:15.61, ahead of Phelps with 4:18.32. This swim however was subsequently placed within Mellouli's 18-month doping ban, and the results nullified, as the drug test where the banned substance was found occurred at this meet (see the section below for further information).

2007

On 19 February 2007 he broke his own African Record in the 200m individual medley for the fourth time since 2003 at the

USA Swimming USA Swimming is the national governing body for competitive swimming in the United States. It is charged with selecting the United States Olympic Swimming team and any other teams that officially represent the United States, as well as the overal ...

Grand Prix meet, held at the Mizzou Aquatic Center at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus University of Missouri System. MU was founded in ...

. He also set a new African record in the 400 meter individual medley. On 25 March 2007 he won the silver in the 400 m freestyle (3:45.12) at the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Three days later, on 28 March, he swam to the first Tunisian World Championship in swimming in winning the 800m freestyle in a then African Record of 7:46.95 — one of the top 10 fastest times ever. However, due to his positive drug-testing result from an in-competition test from December 2006 and the 18-month competition ban imposed on him on 11 September 2007 by the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; french: Tribunal arbitral du sport, ''TAS'') is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland and its c ...

(CAS), retroactive from 30 November 2006 forward, his 2007 World Championships results have been nullified. He was also a finalist in the 400 m individual medley, where he originally finished fourth in 4:11.68. Following the 11 September 2007 ruling by CAS, Mellouli was not allowed to compete again up mid-2008. All of Mellouli's results from 2007 have been nullified, per his September 2007 doping suspension, related to his positive test from December 2006 (see the section below).

2008 Olympics

Mellouli came into the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China entered in two events, the 400m and 1500m freestyle events. In his first event, the 400m free despite setting a new African record in the final, he could only manage fifth place in a time of 3:43.45. Mellouli would however go on to win the 1500m freestyle and set a new African record. In doing so, he became the first African male swimmer to ever win an Olympic gold medal in an individual swimming event (the South African men's 4 × 100 m Free Relay won the event at the 2004 Olympics).

2009

Mellouli won 5 gold medals (200m and 400m individual medley, and 200m, 400m, and 1500m freestyles) at the XVI Mediterranean Games in Pescara, Italy. In the

, held in Rome during the summer, Mellouli won a gold medal in the 1500 meter freestyle and 2 silver medals in the 400 meter freestyle and 800 meter freestyle.

2010

Mellouli won 4 medals ( 1 gold in the 1500 freestyle; 1 silver in the 400 medley and 2 bronzes in the 200 m freestyle and the 400 m freestyle) at the 2010 FINA Short Course World Championships (25m) in Dubai, UAE.

2011

Mellouli won 16 medals ( 15 gold and 1 silver ) at the

2011 Pan Arab Games The 2011 Pan Arab Games also known as the 12th Pan Arab Games took place in Doha, Qatar from 6 to 23 December 2011. This was the first time that the country had hosted the multi-sport event. Khalifa International Stadium was the main venue for th ...

in Doha, Qatar.

2012 Olympics

Mellouli won 2 medals (1 gold in the 10km marathon and 1 bronze in the 1500m freestyle) at the 2012 Summer Olympics held in London, UK. He became the first person to win medals in both pool and open-water swimming in the same Olympics.

2013

Mellouli won 1 gold medal in the 5km marathon at the 2013 World Championships, in Barcelona, Spain.

2016 Olympics

Mellouli participated in two competitions in

Rio 2016 Summer Olympics ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

but did not win any medals. In the 1500m freestyle he came first in his heat with 15:07.78 (considerably slower than his London 2012 Summer Olympics time of 14:40.31) but ranked 21st in the competition thus did not qualify for the final. He also competed in the 10km marathon finishing in the 12th place with 1:53:06 (+0:00:07 of the gold winner).

2020 Olympics

In July 2021, Mellouli had initially decided to withdraw from the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, due to a dispute with the Tunisian federation for alleged forgery since 2017. However, he later announced that he would compete at the Tokyo Games, as the Tunisian Olympic Committee President Mahrez Boussian had promised to settle the dispute.

2021 Olympics

On Wednesday, August 4, 2021, Tunisian swimmer Oussama Mellouli finished 20th in the 10 km open water marathon at the Tokyo Olympics. Mellouli was thus unable to earn another medal on his sixth appearance at the Olympic Games.

Positive drug test

A few weeks after the conclusion of the 2007 World Championships, reports began to surface that Mellouli had tested positive for a banned substance at the 2006 U.S. Open, 30 November – 2 December 2006. These reports surfaced because

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

, the international governing body of the sport, had discovered that Tunisian authorities had known about the positive test but had only given him a warning. FINA/WADA rules state that when an athlete tests positive for a banned substance, he or she must be given a 2-year ban from the sport. Accordingly, FINA took the case to the

(CAS), demanding stiffer sanctions. Mellouli has since admitted that he took the ADD medication

Adderall Adderall and Mydayis are trade names for a combination drug called mixed amphetamine salts containing four salts of amphetamine. The mixture is composed of equal parts racemic amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, which produces a (3:1) ratio ...

, a stimulant and a form of amphetamine. (Already in June 2006, an American sports commentator wrote: ''Various studies show rampant use of Adderall, Ritalin and other drugs normally used for attention deficit disorder instead applied toward all-night cramming sessions.'' ) Mellouli did not have a prescription for the drug, having claimed to have received it from another USC student shortly before the US Open. He argued that he took the pill in order to help himself with writing a

term paper A term paper is a research paper written by students over an academic term, accounting for a large part of a grade. Merriam-Webster defines it as "a major written assignment in a school or college course representative of a student's achievemen ...

(to sustain or enhance his academic performance) in the days leading up to the weekend US Open meet and that the drug was not intended as a performance-enhancing substance for competitive swimming. However, amphetamines are on the official banned substances list; and can/do help swimming performance.List of Drugs Prohibited by the WADA for year
2005
an
2006
( PDF) – relevant quote: ''The following stimulants are prohibited, including both their optical (D- and L-) isomers where relevant: ...amphetamine... and other substances with similar chemical structure or similar biological effect(s).'' (p. 7) This passage verbatim matches the content of article section Adderall#Chemistry. CAS ruled on Mellouli's case on 11 September 2007, ruling against him and issuing him an 18-month competition suspension, retroactively beginning on 30 November 2006. As a result of this sanction, all his results from the 2006 U.S. Open through the competitions he swam in 2007, including the 2007 World Championships, were nullified. His ban from competition covered most, but not all, of the qualification window for the 2008 Olympics. As the retroactive nullification of results wiped out all of his qualifying times for the 2008 Games, he ended up with just a week or two after the ban in order to qualify (which he did).

Achievements

* 2013 World Championships – 1 gold medal ( 5 km marathon) and 1 bronze medal ( 10 k marathon) * 2012 Summer Olympics – gold medal ( 10 km marathon) and bronze medal ( 1500 m freestyle). * 2009 World Championships – 1 gold medal (1500 m freestyle) and 2 silver medals (400 m freestyle, 800 m freestyle) * 2008 Summer Olympics – gold medal (1500 m freestyle) * 2007 World Championships — ''results nullified''. * 2005 World Championships – bronze medal (400m individual medley and 400m freestyle) *

2004 Olympic Games The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

– fifth place (400 m individual medley) *

– bronze medal (200 m individual medley) *

– gold medal (400 m individual medley) * 2003 World Championships – bronze medal (400 m individual medley)

References

External links

Personal webpage of Oussama Mellouli at the University of Southern California
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mellouli, Oussama 1984 births Living people Tunisian male freestyle swimmers Male medley swimmers Male long-distance swimmers Doping cases in swimming Olympic swimmers of Tunisia Olympic gold medalists for Tunisia Olympic bronze medalists for Tunisia Sportspeople from Tunis Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Tunisian expatriate sportspeople in the United States Tunisian male swimmers USC Trojans men's swimmers Olympic gold medalists in swimming Olympic bronze medalists in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming World Aquatics Championships medalists in open water swimming Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics Mediterranean Games gold medalists for Tunisia Mediterranean Games silver medalists for Tunisia Swimmers at the 2001 Mediterranean Games Swimmers at the 2005 Mediterranean Games Swimmers at the 2009 Mediterranean Games Swimmers at the 2013 Mediterranean Games African Games gold medalists for Tunisia African Games medalists in swimming Mediterranean Games medalists in swimming Competitors at the 2003 All-Africa Games 21st-century Tunisian people