1955–1960 In 1955, Manoel dos Santos approached the national top. He swam backstroke, and his training was more focused in this style. In the 100-meter freestyle, Brazil was in a time of transition in national leadership. The top three sprinters in the country at the turn of the decade and early 1950s (
Aram Boghossian,
Sérgio Rodrigues and
Plauto Guimarães) had retired. Paulo Catunda and
Haroldo Lara were the fastest at this time. Lara was the best swimmer in the country until 1957, when he retired, moved to Italy and became an opera singer. The following year, on February 56, in Viña del Mar, Chile, was the thirteenth edition of the South American Swimming Championships. At the previous twelve, Brazil defeated Argentina only once, in the same Viña del Mar, in 1941. Manoel dos Santos ranked fifth in the final of the 100-metre freestyle, and Haroldo Lara took the fourth position. In the 200-metre backstroke, Manoel was fourth and the race was won by his compatriot João Gonçalves. In the 4x100-metre freestyle relay, the competition had a spectacular end. Peru team was the gold medalist, with a time of 3:59.7, a championship record. A tenth of a second ago, silver medalist, arrived Brazil. The Argentines came in third, nine-tenths of a second behind Brazil. The Brazilian relay team had Haroldo Lara, Manoel dos Santos, João Gonçalves and Aristarco de Oliveira. In partial takes, Manoel was the fastest of the four. He stated that, at that moment, he realized that his specialty and future were the 100-metre freestyle, and the backstroke was just a byproduct. This flare, this awareness of where his true talent lay resulted in a short time, a leap of improvement. As for the South American, as expected,
porteños took the title again. He also swam the
4 × 100-metre medley. In February 1960, Santos went to the South American Championship in Cali, Colombia. In the altitude, his times were not very good. But Manoel dos Santos fulfilled its role fairly, taking the gold in the 100m freestyle and leading the Brazilian relays to win two golds and a silver. The battle against the Argentines was very fierce, both the female and the male. In the end, Brazil won the first championship in history. He was put on antibiotics and had only a few days to recover before the heats of the 100-metre freestyle, the traditional opening race of the Olympic program at that time. In Rome, dos Santos won his heat with a time of 56.3, the third-equal best time overall. Twenty-four swimmers qualified for the semi-finals with the slowest qualifier at 58.2. dos Santos also won his semi-final, with his time of 56.3 being the fourth fastest, ranking behind Americans Lance Larson and Bruce Hunter and Australian John Devitt, whose times were 55.5, 55.7 and 55.8, respectively. The eighth and final qualifier for the final was Canadian
Dick Pound, later head of the
World Anti-Doping Agency. In the final the next day dos Santos led at the turn but eventually finished third in a time of 55.4, new South American record, to claim the bronze medal. The awarding of the gold medal to Devitt ahead of Larson remains one of the most troubled decisions in the history of Olympic swimming.
1961 and later career At the Brazilian Championship in 1961 dos Santos took silver in the 100-metre freestyle with a time of 57.8, a second behind the winner,
Athos de Oliveira. Later the same year, at the Japanese Championships in Tokyo, he won his heat, semi-final and final, with times of 55.1, 55.2 and 55.3, respectively. His time of 55.1 was a new South American record. He lowered the South American record by another tenth of a second, to 55.0, at a meeting in Nagoya. At the American championships in Los Angeles on 18 August 1961, dos Santos was fourth in the race which saw American Steve Clark break the world record with 54.4. On 21 September 1961, in
Rio de Janeiro, alone in the swimming pool of Club de Regatas Guanabara, dos Santos set a new world record for the 100-metre freestyle with a time of 53.6 seconds. dos Dantos was the South American champion for eleven years between 1958 and 1969. ==See also==