Gustavo Borges

He also finished 28th in the 200-meter freestyle.

Gustavo França Borges (born December 2, 1972) is a Brazilian former competitive swimmer.

In 1981, at the age of nine, he represented his school, coming third place in a race of 50-meter freestyle, his first podium finish.

Before this, he had participated in swimming lessons at Associação Atlética Ituveravense.

In 1984, in São João da Boa Vista, Gustavo won his first medal in official competitions in a 100-meter breaststroke race.

Borges was a runner-up of the São Paulo state, and runner-up of the Teto Olímpico at breaststroke, category 11/12 years.

In 1987, Borges was 15 years old and swimming for the Associação Atlética Francana.

He won the bronze medal in the 100-meter freestyle and silver in the 50-meter freestyle at the São Paulo Swimming Championship, Youth category A / B. In this year, Borges left Ituverava, moved to São Carlos and defended the São Carlos Clube.

In 1988, at the São Paulo's Summer Youth Championship, he was a champion in the 50-meter freestyle and silver in the 100-meter freestyle.

Borges' times were already good enough to participate in the Brazilian Championship, Júlio Delamare Trophy.

In 1989, after joining the Esporte Clube Pinheiros, Gustavo Borges began to gain national fame; when he was only 17 years old, he began beating the swimmer Cristiano Michelena, which held hegemony in the 100-meter and 200-meter in Brazil.

He won the Brazil Trophy, the biggest tournament in the country, winning two gold medals in the 50-meter and 100-meter freestyle.

He attended university at the University of Michigan in the mid-1990s, where he swam for the university's team, coached by Jon Urbanchek and graduated with a degree in Economics.

His teammates at Michigan included Eric Namesnik and Marcel Wouda in the mid-1990s.

Borges was born in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, but lived in Ituverava throughout his childhood.

In 1990, Borges began to succeed in international competitions.

In the South American championship held in Rosario, Argentina, he won gold in all three events he competed in; the 50-meter freestyle, the 4×100-meter freestyle and the 4×200-meter freestyle.

In 1991, Borges joined The Bolles School in Jacksonville and instantly became one of the top prep swimmers in the United States.

He was the primary swimmer on Bolles' 1991 400 Freestyle Relay team that set a national high-school record with a 2:59.98.

That relay, which broke the old national record by 1.70 seconds, would go on to be met with controversy in the coming years regarding its claim as the national mark.

This was due to the fact that the Florida high-school season takes place in the fall, but the meet in which the record was set occurred at a prep school invitational in Philadelphia in February 1991.

In July, at the Jose Finkel Trophy—the Brazilian short course championship—he became the first Brazilian to make the 100-meter freestyle under 49 seconds with a time of 48.59 seconds, and was summoned to swim in the 1991 World Aquatics Championships in Perth, Australia.

The same year, indicated by Maria Lenk, Borges went to the United States to study at Bolles School in Jacksonville, Florida.

At the 1991 World Aquatics Championships, Borges finished in 12th in the 100-meter freestyle, breaking the South American record with a time of 50.77 seconds, and also in the 50-meter freestyle (23.15 seconds).

Borges won his first important international medals in the 1991 Pan American Games in Havana.

He won the 100-meter freestyle where he set a Pan Am Games record, and was silver medalist in 200-meter freestyle and bronze in the 50-meter freestyle, breaking the South American record.

He also won gold in the 4×100-meter freestyle, and silver in the 4×200-meter freestyle.

He swam for Brazil in the Summer Olympic Games in: 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004.

Borges has won the second-most Olympic medals of any Brazilian, with four—one in 1992, two in 1996 and one in 2000—behind sailors Robert Scheidt and Torben Grael.

He also has the third-most Pan American Games gold medals of any Brazilian, with eight—behind swimmer Thiago Pereira and table tennis player Hugo Hoyama.

Borges' first medal was silver, which he won in the 100-meter freestyle at the 1992 Olympics, which he received after a delay because his lane's timer was not working, and the judges had to review video recordings of the race to verify his place.

Borges even overcame his idol, Matt Biondi, to win the silver medal.

Borges lives in São Paulo, where he runs his own swimming school.

He used to live in the United States in Jacksonville, Florida and in Ann Arbor, Michigan while he was still a student.

In 1992, Gustavo Borges broke the Brazilian Olympic medals fasting in swimming, which was set at the 1984 Summer Olympics when Ricardo Prado won the silver in the 400-meter individual medley.

Participating in his first Olympics the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Borges won the silver medal in the 100-meter freestyle with a time of 49.43 seconds, a South American record, losing the gold to Alexander Popov.

In 1993, Borges broke three world records on the short course.

Borges was Brazil's flagbearer for the Closing Ceremony at the 2004 Summer Olympics.

Borges was ranked sixth in the 4×100-meter freestyle, seventh in the 4×200-meter freestyle, 13th in the 50-meter freestyle and 22nd in the 200-meter freestyle.

The relay would stand as the fastest-ever swam by a high-school team until 2012.