Two decades on and the swimmer who almost drowned attempting 100 metres is talking about going a hundred times further.
'Open water swimming is an event I would like to compete in,' is the surprising admission from the man known the world over as Eric the Eel. 'I would like to do the 10km. I know I can do it.'
Those who remember Sydney 2000 may struggle to believe him. Those familiar with the remarkable story of Eric Moussambani would know never to doubt him.
Eric Moussambani has given an exclusive interview to Sportsmail telling his remarkable story
Now aged 43, he is speaking to Sportsmail on Zoom from his home in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, and looks every bit as fit as the ripped 22-year-old who stood in those blue trunks on the blocks. 'I always have to be in good shape,' he smiles.
And there is no doubt he would also be able to swim much faster now than he did back then.
Indeed, since he clocked the slowest men's 100m freestyle ever recorded in the Olympics with a time of 1min 52.72sec, Moussambani claims to have knocked more than a minute off his personal best. So has he ever been tempted to try out for the Games again?
'To compete in an Olympic Games, I would have to spend a year of hard training and I don't have time for that. I am a family man now,' says the father of four, notably not ruling it out on age or ability, only on his schedule.
Still, that is not to say we will not see Moussambani back on the Olympic stage one day. In fact, it is his dream to return as a coach of his country, a job he does now alongside his work at an oil company. 'I am trying to improve swimming in my country,' he says.
'A week after Sydney, the president received me and said he was going to build pools for the future swimmers, so we now have swimming pools for people to swim wherever they want.
Moussambani (pictured) made waves with his performance at the Olympics in Sydney in 2000
'We have good swimmers, they are improving, but my dream is to have competitive swimmers in the Olympics. Maybe even the next one in Paris.
'I will go there as coach because when I am with them they have courage. I am like a symbol, I am an icon here in my country. When it comes to swimming, my name is always there.'
Moussambani's name is forever in Olympic folklore. But back in early 2000, the cult hero did not know even what the Games were, nor had he ever set foot in a pool.
The first time was at the Hotel Ureca in Malabo on May 6, 2000, when, having heard on the radio that the new national swimming federation were recruiting, he went along to a trial and was the only man to show up.
'I went in the pool, started moving my legs, my arms, and they said, "OK, that's enough, get out",' he recalls. 'They told me, "Start swimming because you will be going to the Olympics in three months".
'I didn't know what the Olympics was. I went to the national library and started looking up Olympic Games.'
The then-22-year-old from Equatorial Guinea was competing in the 100m freestyle event
Moussambani's spot in the 100m freestyle in Sydney was secure as Equatorial Guinea had been awarded a wildcard under an International Olympic Committee programme to promote developing nations.
So he set about training in that same hotel, the only pool in the country which was 12 metres long and open to him for just one hour a day from 5am, as well as a crocodile-infested river. He had never even seen a 50m pool until his arrival in Australia.
'I was very scared,' admits Moussambani. 'I said to myself I couldn't do this, I couldn't swim in this pool because it was very huge for me. At my training sessions at the Olympics, I couldn't even complete 50m. I would do half a length and then stop. I didn't know how to breathe properly in the pool.
'I was very shy to even get in because I thought maybe people would laugh at me. I watched the American and South African swimmers and how they did everything. Two days
