Kaio Márcio Ferreira Costa de Almeida (born 19 October 1984) is a Brazilian swimmer who specializes in the

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

. He is also known by the reduced versions of his name: ''Kaio Márcio'', ''Kaio Márcio de Almeida'', ''Kaio Almeida'', or ''Kaio de Almeida''. Almeida was nine years old when he began swimming in Esporte Clube Cabo Branco in João Pessoa. He suffered from

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

attacks and began swimming for medical reasons, and under the influence of his father, José Márcio. At the time, Almeida was nicknamed "Gordo" (fat), a nickname he lost at age 15 when he lost weight and began to train and compete regularly. As of February 2015, he competes for the swimming team of

Minas Tênis Clube Minas Tênis Clube (short, just ''Minas'') is a social, recreational and sports club from Belo Horizonte, Brazil. By 2013, it has more than 73,000 members. Its patrimony comprises two urban units, the Minas I and Minas II, and two country units, ...

International career

2003

At the age of 18, Almeida competed in the 200-meter butterfly semifinal at the

2003 World Aquatics Championships The 10th FINA World Aquatics Championships were held July 12–27, 2003 in Barcelona, Spain. The championships featured competition in all 5 of FINA's disciplines: Swimming, Diving, Synchronised swimming, Water Polo, and Open Water Swimming. ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, where he ranked 13th. He also swam the 100-meter butterfly, ranking 22nd. In the 100-meter butterfly, he broke the Brazilian record with a time of 53.98 seconds. In the 200-meter butterfly, he broke a 20-year South American record set by

Ricardo Prado Ricardo Prado (born 3 January 1965 in Andradina, São Paulo, Brazil) is an Olympic and former World Record holding medley swimmer from Brazil. He was one of the greatest swimmers in the history of Brazil and the best Brazilian swimmer in the 1 ...

in 1983. Almeida's time was 1:58.83 and the record was 1:59.00. In August, Almeida competed at the

2003 Pan American Games The 2003 Pan American Games, officially the XIV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Santo Domingo 2003, were held in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, from August 1 to 17, 2003. The successful bid for the Games was made in the mid-1990 ...

Santo Domingo Santo Domingo, formerly known as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city of the Dominican Republic and the List of metropolitan areas in the Caribbean, largest metropolitan area in the Caribbean by population. the Distrito Na ...

, where he won silver medals in the 200-meter butterfly and 4×100-meter medley, and a bronze in the 100-meter butterfly. He broke his Brazilian records in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 53.44 seconds, and in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:58.10, both getting the Olympic index. In the 4×100-meter medley, he broke the South American record with a time of 3:40.02.

2004

In June 2004, participating in the second stage of the Circuit

Mare Nostrum In the Roman Empire, () was a term that referred to the Mediterranean Sea. Meaning "Our Sea" in Latin, it denoted the body of water in the context of borders and policy; Ancient Rome, Rome remains the only state in history to have controlled th ...

in Canet, France, Almeida broke the long-course South American record in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:57.38, which was set by the Venezuelan Rafael Vidal since 1984 (1:57.51). Almeida participated in

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

, where he finished 17th in the 100-meter butterfly, 19th in 200-meter butterfly and 15th in 4×100-meter medley. On 10 September 2004, Almeida broke the South American record in the 50-meter butterfly with a time of 23.33 seconds. The previous record of 23.41 seconds was set in 2001 by

Nicholas Santos Nicholas Araújo Dias dos Santos (born 14 February 1980) is a former Brazilian competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer who specializes in freestyle swimming, freestyle and Butterfly stroke, butterfly sprint events. He swam the 50-metre freestyle at ...

,. Almeida competed at the

2004 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) 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. This was the only edition of the Short Course World Championships that Michael Phel ...

held in

Indianapolis Indianapolis ( ), colloquially known as Indy, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Indiana, most populous city of the U.S. state of Indiana and the county seat of Marion County, Indiana, Marion ...

in October. He finished fourth in the 4×100-meter medley, breaking the South American record with a time of 3:33.02, along with

César Cielo César Augusto Cielo Filho (, born 10 January 1987) is a Brazilian former competitive swimmer who specialized in sprint events. He is the most successful Brazilian swimmer in history, having obtained three Olympic medals, winning six individu ...

Guilherme Guido Guilherme Augusto Guido (born 12 February 1987) is a Brazilian backstroke swimming, backstroke swimmer who specializes in sprint events. He was twice a finalist in the 100 metre backstroke at World Championships When Guido was young, he was a bi ...

and

Eduardo Fischer Eduardo Aquiles Fischer (born March 25, 1980, in Joinville, Santa Catarina, Brazil) is an Olympic breaststroke swimmer from Brazil. He swam for Brazil at the 2000 and 2004 Olympics. Early years Eduardo began swimming at the age of seven, b ...

. He also finished fourth in the 50-meter butterflyonly three hundredths of a second away from winning a bronze medal, and seven hundredths of a second away from winning a silver medal. Almeida broke the South American record in the semifinals with a time of 23.22 seconds, and in the final with a time of 23.29 seconds. His semifinal time was the same as that of the silver medalist Mark Foster. Almeida finished fifth in the 100-meter butterflyonly 12 hundredths of a second away from winning a bronze medal. In this event, he broke the South American record twice with times of 52.18 seconds in the heats and 51.80 seconds in the final.

2005

Almeida competed in the

2005 World Aquatics Championships The 2005 World Aquatics Championships () or the XI FINA World Championships were held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada from July 16 to July 31, 2005. They took place in Parc Jean-Drapeau on Saint Helen's Island. Competition Medal standings :''o ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

, where he was a finalist in the 100-meter butterfly, finishing in seventh place. He also ranked 14th in the 200-meter butterfly and 17th in the 50-meter butterfly. In 2005, he twice broke the South American record in the 50-meter butterfly with times of 23.17 seconds on 9 September and 22.92 seconds on 21 November. On 17 December, he established a new world record in the short-course 50-meter butterfly with a time of 22.60 seconds. The former world record holder was

Ian Crocker Ian Lowell Crocker (born August 31, 1982) is an American former competition swimmer, five-time Olympic medalist, and former world record-holder. During his career, he set world records in the 50- and 100-meter butterfly (long course and short ...

of the US, with a time of 22.71 seconds in October 2004. Almeida's record was beaten in 2008 by Australian Matt Jaukovic, who improved the record to 22.50 seconds. On December, Almeida also broke the short-course South American record in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 50.62 seconds and in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:53.27. He finished among the top three in the world rankings of the butterfly races, became the world record holder in the 50-meter, and finished second in the 100-meter and third in the 200-meter.

2006

Almeida won the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly in the

2006 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) The 8th FINA World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA (; ), is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competitions in List of water sports, water sports. It is one o ...

held in

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

. It was his biggest title. In the same competition, he also won a bronze medal in the 50-meter butterfly and finished 10th in the 200-meter butterfly. Almeida swam at the

2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships The tenth edition of the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, a long course (50 m) event, was held in 2006 in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, from August 17–20. Six List of world records in swimming, worl ...

, where he finished eighth in the 100-meter butterfly and in the 200-meter butterfly.

2007

At the

2007 Pan American Games The 2007 Pan American Games, officially known as the XV Pan American Games () and commonly known as Rio 2007, were a major Americas, continental multi-sport event that took place in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from July 13 to 29, 2007. A total of ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Almeida won gold medals in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 52.05 secondsa Pan American Games record and the 200-meter butterfly in 1:55.45 secondsa Pan record and South American recordand a silver in the 4×100-meter medley in 3:35.81 secondsa South American record.

2008

In 2008, Almeida reached the final of the 200-meter butterfly in 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 ...

, finishing in seventh place. He finished 15th in the 100-meter butterfly and 14th in the 4×100-meter medley.

2009

On 8 May 2009, at

Maria Lenk Aquatic Center The Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre () is an aquatics centre that is part of the City of Sports Complex in the Barra da Tijuca district of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It is part of the investments made by the city to host the swimming, synchronized swimm ...

, Almeida swam the 200-meter butterfly in 1:53.92 seconds; the fifth-fastest time in the race's history and a South American record. The day before, he broke the South American record for the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 51.64 seconds, but he did not swam the final, in which

Gabriel Mangabeira Gabriel Semain Vasconcellos Mangabeira (born 31 January 1982) is a Brazilian competition swimmer who qualified for the men's 100-metre butterfly at both the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2008 Summer Olympics. Mangabeira also won a silver medal in ...

set a new record of 51.21 seconds. At the

2009 World Aquatics Championships The 2009 World Aquatics Championships () or the XIII FINA World Championships were held in Rome, Italy from 18 July to 2 August 2009. This was the second time the championships were held in the city after being previously hosted in 1994 World Aq ...

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, Almeida finished in fourth place in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:54.27. He ranked 20th in the 50-meter butterfly and 29th in the 100-meter butterfly. In the Stockholm stage of the FINA World Cup in November 2009, Almeida broke his South American record in the heats of the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:51.46 seconds. At the finals, he set a world record in the short-course 200-meter butterfly in 1:49.11 seconds. Almeida's record was beaten in 2013 by South African

Chad le Clos Chad Guy Bertrand le Clos, OIS (born 12 April 1992) is a South African competitive swimmer who is an Olympic, World and Commonwealth Games champion. He is the African record, Commonwealth record, and South African record holder in the short ...

, who improved the record to 1:49.04. A day later, he won another gold, beating the South American record for the 100-meter butterfly twice with times of 50.34 seconds in the heats and 49.44 seconds in the final.

2010

Almeida competed at the

2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships The eleventh edition of the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, also known as the 2010 Mutual of Omaha Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, a long course (50 m) event, was held in Irvine, California, United States, from August 18–22. M ...

Irvine, California Irvine () is a Planned community, planned city in central Orange County, California, United States, in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. It was named in 1888 for the landowner James Irvine. The Irvine Company started developing the area in the ...

, where he finished fifth in the 200-meter butterfly and 11th in the 100-meter butterfly. At the

2010 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) The 10th FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) was held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 15–19 December 2010. This swimming-only championships took place in the Dubai Sports Complex; all events were swum in a 25-meter ( short-course) ...

Dubai Dubai (Help:IPA/English, /duːˈbaɪ/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''doo-BYE''; Modern Standard Arabic, Modern Standard Arabic: ; Emirati Arabic, Emirati Arabic: , Romanization of Arabic, romanized: Help:IPA/English, /diˈbej/) is the Lis ...

, Almeida won bronze in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 50.33 seconds. In the 200-meter butterfly, he won silver with a time of 1:51.56 seconds. Along with teammates César Cielo,

Felipe França Felipe is the Spanish variant of the name Philip, which derives from the Greek adjective ''Philippos'' "friend of horses". Felipe is also widely used in Portuguese-speaking Brazil alongside Filipe, the form commonly used in Portugal. Noteworthy ...

and Guilherme Guido, Almeida broke the South American record for the 4×100-meter medley with a time of 3:23.12 seconds, winning the bronze medal.

2011

In the

2011 World Aquatics Championships The 14th FINA World Aquatics Championships, FINA World Championships () were held on 16–31 July 2011 in Shanghai, Shanghai, China at the Shanghai Oriental Sports Center. The 2011 World Championships featured five aquatics disciplines: swimming ...

held in

, Almeida finished 10th in the 200-meter butterfly, 25th in the 100-meter butterfly and 14th in the 4×100-meter medley. In the

2011 Pan American Games The 2011 Pan American Games, officially the XVI Pan American Games () and commonly known as Guadalajara 2011, were an international multi-sport event held from October 14–30, 2011, in Guadalajara, Mexico. Some events were held in the nearby c ...

Guadalajara Guadalajara ( ; ) is the capital and the most populous city in the western Mexican List of states of Mexico, state of Jalisco, as well as the most densely populated municipality in Jalisco. According to the 2020 census, the city has a population ...

, Almeida won the gold in the 4×100-meter medley and bronze in the 200-meter butterfly.

2012

At the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, Almeida finished 15th in the 4×100-meter medley, 17th in the 200-meter butterfly, and 28th in the 100-meter butterfly. At the

2012 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) The 11th FINA World Swimming Championships (25m) was held in Istanbul, Turkey on 12–16 December 2012. This swimming-only championships took place in the Sinan Erdem Dome; all events were swum in a 25-meter ( short-course) pool. The United S ...

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

, he finished fourth in the 4 × 100 meter medley, 11th in the 50-meter butterfly and 18th in the 100-meter butterfly.

Retirement and return

Kaio Almeida retired from swimming and tried to turn a politician, but returned to the pools.

2015

At the

2015 Pan American Games The 2015 Pan American Games (), officially the XVII Pan American Games () and commonly known as the Toronto 2015 Pan-Am Games (Toronto 2015), were a major international multi-sport event celebrated in the tradition of the Pan American Games, ...

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

, Canada, Almeida won a gold medal in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay, by participating at heats. He also finished 5th in the 200 metre butterfly.

2016

At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, he competed in the Men's 200-metre butterfly, going to the semifinals, finishing in 14th place.

2018

At the 2018 South American Swimming Championships in

Trujillo, Peru Trujillo (; ; Mochica language, Mochica: ''Cɥimor'') is a city in coastal northwestern Peru and the capital of the Department of La Libertad. It is the third most populous city and center of the List of metropolitan areas of Peru, third most po ...

, he won a silver medal in the 200 metre butterfly.

Records

Kaio de Almeida is the current holder of the following records: Almeida is a former holder of the following records:

References

External links

International career

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

2012

Retirement and return

2015

2016

2018

Records

See also

References

External links