Michael Williamson (born 5 February 1981) is an Irish former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. He won a bronze medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the

2003 Summer Universiade The 2003 Summer Universiade, also known as the XXII Summer Universiade, took place in Daegu, South Korea. Emblem * The alphabet letter "U" and five stars, which is FISU's emblem, make up the basis of the emblem for the Daegu Universiade. * It sy ...

Daegu, South Korea Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest metropolitan city in the n ...

with a time of 2:15.52. Williamson qualified for the men's 200 m breaststroke at the

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 ...

, by achieving a FINA A-standard entry time of 2:14.18 from the British Olympic trials in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city in South Yorkshire, England, situated south of Leeds and east of Manchester. The city is the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire and some of its so ...

. He challenged seven other swimmers on the sixth heat, including top medal favorites

Brendan Hansen Brendan Joseph Hansen (born August 15, 1981) is an American former competition swimmer who specialized in breaststroke events. Hansen is a six-time Olympic medalist, and is also a former world record-holder in both the 100-meter and 200-meter ...

of the United States and

Dániel Gyurta Dániel Gyurta (; born 4 May 1989) is a Hungarian former competitive swimmer who mainly competed in the 200-metre breaststroke. In 2016, Gyurta became a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), he is a member of the European Olympi ...

of Hungary. He raced to sixth place by more than a second behind Gyurta's teammate

Richárd Bodor Richárd Bodor (born 10 March 1979 in Pécs, Baranya) is a breaststroke swimmer from Hungary, who won three bronze medals at the 2004 European Championships in Madrid, Spain. He represented his native country at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Ath ...

, outside his entry time of 2:15.75. Williamson failed to advance into the semifinals, as he placed twenty-second overall in the preliminaries. Three months after the Games, Williamson announced his retirement from swimming to focus his efforts on his career.

References

1981 births Living people Male swimmers from Northern Ireland Olympic swimmers for Ireland Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Irish male breaststroke swimmers Summer World University Games medalists in swimming Sportspeople from Belfast FISU World University Games bronze medalists for Ireland Medalists at the 2003 Summer Universiade British male breaststroke swimmers 21st-century British sportsmen {{Ireland-swimming-bio-stub