Jonathan Massacand (born 26 February 1984 in

Morges Morges (; , Plurale tantum, plural, probably Ablative (Latin), ablative, else dative; ) is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the Switzerland, Swiss Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Vaud and the seat of the Morges District, distri ...

) is a Swiss swimmer, who specialized in backstroke events. He is a two-time current Swiss record holder for both 100 and 200 m backstroke. Massacand also won a gold medal, as a local favorite, in the same discipline at the 2012 Zurich International Meet, claiming a personal best of 56.49 seconds. Massacand qualified for two swimming events at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, by clearing FINA B-standard entry times of 55.24 (100 m backstroke) and 2:00.16 (200 m backstroke) from the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

Eindhoven, Netherlands Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also located in the Dutch part of the natural region the Campine. With a population ...

. In the 100 m backstroke, Massacand challenged seven other swimmers on the third heat, including Olympic veterans

Derya Büyükuncu Derya Büyükuncu (; born 2 July 1976) is a six-time Olympic backstroke and butterfly swimmer from Turkey. The tall athlete at is a member of Galatasaray Swimming. His coach is Zehra Büyükuncu. He participated in six consecutive Summer Olym ...

of Turkey and Sung Min of South Korea. He finished ahead of Buyukuncu in fifth place and twenty-seventh overall by 0.21 of a second, breaking a Swiss record of 55.21 seconds. In his second event, 200 m backstroke, Massacand knocked off Greece's Dimitrios Chasiotis to last place on the same heat by half a second (0.50) in 2:01.80. His Olympic time in the 200, however, was 1.64 seconds slower than his record set earlier at the European Championships. Massacand failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed thirty-second overall in the preliminary heats.

References

External links

NBC Olympics Profile
1984 births Living people Olympic swimmers for Switzerland Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swiss male backstroke swimmers Sportspeople from Morges 21st-century Swiss sportsmen {{Switzerland-swimming-bio-stub