Rio Olympics 2016: Robel ‘The Whale’ Habte is haunted by online abuse after belly flopping in swim sprint – but admits he is too fat and claims he has already lost SIX STONE dieting
THE tubby Ethiopian swimmer dubbed “Robel the Whale” after belly flopping at Rio 2016 admitted he was too fat - then claimed he had been on a diet.
Robel Habte’s paunch hung over his Speedos before he made a big splash at the Olympic pool.
But he claimed to have lost more than SIX STONES after finishing a whopping 17 seconds behind the winner in a swim sprint yesterday.
And he sighed that he may never swim again after being hurt by online jibes.
The 24-year-old chubster finished so far behind he was compared to legendary Olympics pool loser Eric “The Eel” Moussambani.
But he was roared home by fans on as he clocked a time of 64.95 seconds in the three-man heat - miles behind Australian pacesetter Kyle Chalmer who was kept waiting for his opponent to finish.
Hefty Habte - who tips the scales at 12st 7oz finished a distant last
out of the 59 swimmers in the heats.
Eric The Eel from Equatorial Guinea took an endless 1min 52.72sec to complete the same 100m freestyle at Sydney 2000 - 50 seconds LONGER than the Ethiopian.
Habte was branded “Robel the Whale” by online wags - and later admitted he was too fat for Rio.
But he blamed his flab on a car crash which had stopped him reaching peak condition for the games.
He crashed his Toyota Rav 4 in Addis Ababa which sidelined him for two months which he claimed caused him to pile on six stones.
He crash dieted but couldn’t lose his paunch before travelling to Brazil.
The portly furniture shop owner - at his first Olympics – finished half-a- lap behind his two rivals.
By the time he had emerged for air from his opening dive off the blocks in the 100 meters freestyle heats, he was already almost a body length behind.
Reacting to a flurry of jibes online he said: “It has been difficult. Too difficult, I don’t know how I feel, but many things.
“Some of the things people have said or written are not nice.
“I am a nice person, I would not say these things about others.
“They have used dirty language against me and called me fat and a big man and a whale.
“I don’t know these people, but maybe after one week I can go back to the internet.
“I know my body is fat, but I will lose the weight and when I go to Canada for the World Championships…I will show them.
“I was not surprised that I finished far behind and last. I was expecting that.
“Ethiopia is not a swimmers’ country and I have not trained in an Olympic size pool.
“My country is famous for runners. I wanted to be famous for being a swimmer. But now I am different - infamous - and it is difficult.”
The flabby swim flop showed his body scars he suffered when another vehicle collided with his, injuring him and forcing him to give up training for more than two months.
Habte - who swore he had never heard of Eric the Eel - added: “They call me the whale and him the eel, but I don’t know about him.
“My girlfriend Selam was telling me I had to lose weight, but I could not do it all.”
He said he loved Ethiopian food, particularly a chicken dish which he was looking forward to tucking into again.
And he revealed the mockery may stop him competing in Tokyo in 2020 at the next Olympics.
But of competing in Rio he said: “I am proud of that fact. I love sport. I love swimming and that is why I came here. I am very happy about that.
“I don’t have a professional swimming pool and I don’t have a coach.
“The water is clean, but it is too hot to swim in.”
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