24-year-old Robel Kiros Habte, out of his love for swimming joined the Olympic team to represent his country, Ethiopia, at the Summer Olympics in Rio. Unfortunately for him, haters had a lot to say about his weight.
During the competition, Robel came 59th out of the 59 competitors and even got cut from the camera.
After this poor performance, he was badly body shamed for his 179 pound weight and was even given a horrible nickname, “Robel The Whale”.
People had so many horrid things to say about his weight and performance.
Although reports say he was only able to join the team with the influence of his father, who is the president of the Ethiopian Swimming Federation, Robel has decided to not give up on swimming.
He explained that he wanted to do something different for his country for the first time. In his words, “My country is famous for runners. I wanted to be famous for being a swimmer”.
Speaking to Daily Mail about his current body size, he shared how he gained a lot of weight after surviving a car accident.
While these negative comments have put him off from contesting in the next Olympics, Habte has sworn to shut all the haters down by working hard and placing his name in other international swimming competitions.
In spite of his poor performance, he’s proud to be an Olympian and that should be the most important thing.
