Priceless moment Eric the Eel became Sydney's hero

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It wasn't only breathtaking feats of athleticism such as Ian Thorpe mowing down Gary Hall Junior, Haile Gebrselassie's pulsating 10,000m victory over Paul Tergat and Cathy Freeman's golden lap that enthralled crowds at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

In the case of Eric Moussambani, who would become known as Eric the Eel, it was an extreme struggle that made him a hero of the Sydney Games.

After false starts involving a swimmer from Niger and a man from Tajikistan, Moussambani found himself staring down the pool as the only entrant in his 100m freestyle heat.

Watch the video at the top of the page to see the moment Cathy Freeman lit the Olympic cauldron at the Sydney 2000 Games!

Moussambani, who hailed from Equatorial Guinea in Central Africa, was at the Games as an International Olympic Committee (IOC) wildcard entrant. He hadn't qualified by the high-performance standards, but the inclusion of people like him was, and still is, important for the diversity of the Olympics.

As recently as eight months before the Games, Moussambani did not have the ability to swim, but after attaining his wildcard entry for the Olympics, he went about learning. He did so in a 20m hotel pool in his hometown of Malabo, toiling away in a pool with no lane ropes and with no coach to guide him.

He had also arrived in Sydney having never dipped a toe in a 50m pool.

In fact, he had been mistakenly informed that he would be swimming the 50m freestyle at the Sydney Games, rather than the 100m freestyle.

Most swimmers at the Sydney Olympics were fitted out in full-length or leg-length lycra suits of supreme quality. Moussambani, on the contrary, was on the blocks and ready to dive in a pair of blue budgies.

He leapt off the blocks and it quickly became glaringly obvious that he did not have the ability of a typical Olympic swimmer. His head was poking above the water like a periscope and his stroke was choppy. Then, several metres out from the end of the first lap, his pace slowed dramatically. He did some sort of a tumble turn, then began what would prove to be a long journey to the finish. Inching his way down the pool, he veered diagonally across his lane. In the final metres, he appeared to be swimming on the spot.

But to the claps, cheers and whistles of the 17,000-strong crowd, Eric the Eel gritted to the finish.

His time was one minute and 52.72 seconds (1:52.72). The time required to advance was one minute and 10 seconds, and the eventual winner of the 100m freestyle, Pieter Van den Hoogenband, took gold in 48.30 seconds.

"The first 50 metres were OK, but in the second 50 metres I got a bit worried and thought I wasn't going to make it," said an exhausted but elated Moussambani after dragging himself out the pool.

"Then something happened. I think it was all the people getting behind me. I was really, really proud. It's still a great feeling for me and I loved when everyone applauded me at the end. I felt like I had won a medal or something."