Moe Thu Aung (born 10 June 1981) is a Burmese former swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle and butterfly events.[1] Aung represented Myanmar at the 2000 Summer Olympics, received a total of ten medals (one gold, six silver, and three bronze) from all editions of the Southeast Asian Games since 2001, and later became a top 8 finalist in a sprint freestyle double at the 2002 Asian Games. During her sporting career, she swam and trained for the MLC School's swimming club, also known as MLC Marlins, under an Australian-based coach John Bladon.[2]
Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Full name | Moe Thu Aung | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National team | Myanmar | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Yangon, Myanmar | 10 June 1981|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.71 m (5 ft 7 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 53 kg (117 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Freestyle, butterfly | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | MLC Marlins (AUS) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Coach | John Bladon (AUS) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Aung competed only in the women's 50 m freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.[3] She received a ticket from FINA, under a Universality program, without meeting an entry time.[4] She participated in heat one against two other swimmers, 12-year-old Fatema Hameed Gerashi of Bahrain and Paula Barila Bolopa of Equatorial Guinea. Aung pulled away from a small field to an unexpected triumph in a new Burmese record of 26.80, finishing farther ahead of Gerashi, who was later disqualified from the race for a no false-start rule attempt, and Bolopa, who posted the event's slowest time in Olympic history (1:03.97).[5][6] Aung's surprising reward was not enough to put her through to the semifinals, as she placed thirty-ninth overall out of 74 swimmers in the prelims.[7][8]
At the 2001 Southeast Asian Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Aung edged out Singapore's top favorite Joscelin Yeo by seven hundredths of a second (0.07) to capture the 50 m freestyle title in 26.34, adding it to two other silver medals from her hardware in the 100 m freestyle (57.61) and in the 100 m butterfly (1:01.76).[9][10]
At the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea, Aung failed to medal in any of her individual events, finishing seventh each in the 50 m freestyle (26.72) and in the 100 m freestyle (58.01).[11][12]
References
edit- ^ Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Moe Thu Aung". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Marlins' Head Coach John Bladon appointed Head Coach of the Union of Myanmar swimming team". MLC School. October 2003. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Myanmar's Olympic hope: women". News24. 29 August 2000. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ "Swimming – Women's 50m Freestyle Startlist (Heat 1)" (PDF). Sydney 2000. Omega Timing. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ^ Johnson, Martin (23 September 2000). "Swimming: Next to Paula Eric the Eel is electric". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Arab women make breakthrough at Games". Sports Illustrated. CNN. 23 September 2000. Archived from the original on 2 May 2001. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Women's 50m Freestyle Heat 1" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. p. 164. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
- ^ "Results from the Summer Olympics – Swimming (Women's 50m Freestyle)". Canoe.ca. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ^ "Malaysian, Filipino win big". Sports Illustrated. CNN. 13 September 2001. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "Indonesia suffers medals drought". Jakarta: The Jakarta Post. 14 September 2001. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- ^ "China and Japan Share the Gold on Day 5 of Asian Games; China's Wu and Xu Shine". Swimming World Magazine. 4 October 2002. Archived from the original on 28 December 2013. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
- ^ "Japan's Kitajima Breaks Barrowman's 200m Breaststroke World Record; Cracks 2:10 Barrier". Swimming World Magazine. 2 October 2002. Archived from the original on 13 February 2012. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
External links
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