Daniel_Velez
Daniel Velez
Puerto Rican Olympic swimmer
Daniel Velez (born December 9, 1983) is a Puerto Rican former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events.[1] He represented his nation Puerto Rico at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and has won a career total of three medals (two golds and one bronze) at the 2005 Maccabiah Games in Netanya, Israel.[2][3] Velez was also a member of the NC State Wolfpack swimming and diving team under head coach Brooks Teal, while pursuing his degree in psychology at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina.[4]
Velez competed for the Puerto Rican squad in the men's 100 m breaststroke at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[4] Five months before the Games, he threw down a lifetime best of 1:03.63 to slip past the FINA B-cut (1:03.72) by almost a tenth of a second (0.1) at the All-American Championships in Austin, Texas, United States.[5][6] Velez slipped to the front from lane one to touch the wall first in heat three with a remarkable Puerto Rican record in 1:01.80, slashing 1.83 seconds off his own entry standard and beating India's Sandeep Sejwal, who finished behind him, in a close finish by only a small fraction of a second.[7] Despite his outstanding feat in the heats, Velez ended his Olympic campaign with a thirty-third place overall finish and did not advance to the semifinals.[8]
