FINA has moved to block the nomination of Guinea-Bissau swimmer Siphiwe Baleka to the Olympics via a universality spot.
The report was published by Claytown Productions, a production company that worked with Baleka on a documentary of his swimming journey to try to become the oldest male Olympic swimmer at age 50.
Baleka completed the process to become a Guinea-Bissau citizen in June, giving him dual citizenship with the United States. Baleka’s connection to the country is as an “Afrodescendant” from the Balanta tribe. He is the only male swimmer that Guinea-Bissau’s swimming federation has to put forward for the Olympics.
Baleka had believed that his citizenship paperwork was completed in time for the June 20 deadline for Guinea-Bissau to nominate him. But FINA has apparently moved to deny that.
Wednesday’s press release cites a June 27 email to the Guinea-Bissau Swim Federation that the federation had missed the June 20 deadline. Baleka contends that the application was submitted June 17, ahead of his participation in a national meet in Egypt, a FINA-approved qualifying event. His citizenship was processed on June 10.
“Siphiwe Baleka has met all the eligibility requirements,” Baleka’s business manager Mario Ceesay said in the release. “FINA rules say that Universality applications are due June 20 and that approval will be announced on July 1. This suggests that Mr. Baleka, like all other swimmers in the world, has until June 27th to qualify. FINA rules did not state that Mr. Baleka’s qualification period was limited to June 20th, only that his application was due at that time. Enforcing an arbitrary change to the published rules would be unfair and violate the spirit of the Olympic Charter.”
The Olympic berth was seen as the culmination of Baleka’s unorthodox swimming journey. Born Tony Blake in Illinois, he was an All-Ivy swimmer at Yale in the 1990s and swam in national-level meets in the U.S. He also was an accomplished U.S. Masters swimmer, winning two national championships and finishing with 23 top-10 national age-group times in events over the year. His career journey, which has led to the award-winning documentary and a cover feature in Sports Illustrated, included a stint as a truck driver and as a fitness advocate.
Baleka turned 50 on April 14. He would be the tiny West African nation’s first Olympic swimmer.