Getting to know Olympian Ous Mellouli
Meet FORM athlete Ous Mellouli, a three-time Olympic medalist (2 gold, 1 bronze) and the first man to medal in both pool swimming and open water swimming events at the same Olympics.
Ous Mellouli made his Olympic debut in 2000 in the 400-meter individual medley, returning in 2004 to swim the 1500-meter freestyle, and 200 and 400-meter individual medley.
Ous then joined the University of Southern California Trojans for graduate school, where he still holds three school records, and won the 2005 NCAA title in the 400-meter individual medley, as well as winning seven Pac-12 titles.
Leading up to the 2008 Olympics, Mellouli was battling two herniated discs in his back, but he still won the 1500-meter freestyle, setting an African record and becoming the first African to win an individual swimming event at the Olympics.
He was the first swimmer in 11 years to defeat the reigning champion, Grant Hackett, in that event. In doing so, he also became the second Tunisian with an Olympic gold medal and the first in swimming.
In 2011, in one of the most impressive single meet performances ever, Mellouli won a staggering 16 medals at the Pan Arab Games in Doha, taking home 15 gold medals and 1 silver.
He rode that wave into the 2012 Olympics in London, taking gold in the open water 10-kilometer marathon, as well as a bronze in the 1500-meter freestyle. In the 2016 Olympics, Mellouli returned to the same two events, finishing 12th in the 10-kilometer marathon, and 21st in the 1500-meter freestyle.
After joining forces with FORM last summer, Mellouli has rapidly accumulated distance with the goggles, joining the 7 figure club by logging over 1 million yards in the pool.
Of the FORM goggles, Ous said, “[The goggles] helped take ownership of my goals and fine-tune them. It also opened a new discussion with my coaches. I just wish I had been using it for a much longer time so we’d have more data to fall back on and compare - something that a few coaches around the world are meticulous about, but now the goggles democratized this and everybody can afford to have the same wealth of data at the tip of their fingers.”
We're super excited to see what Ous accomplishes going forward into the 2021 Tokyo Olympic Games!
Follow Ous' journey on Instagram.
