At the
2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia he finished 43rd in the
400 IM.
2001 Mellouli won 1 silver medal in the 400m IM at the
2001 Mediterranean Games, in
Tunis,
Tunisia.
2003 Mellouli first established himself on the world scene at the
2003 World Championships in
Barcelona, Spain, where he won a bronze in the 400m Individual Medley finishing behind
László Cseh and a world record performance from
Michael Phelps.
2004 At the
2004 Olympics, he finished 5th in the 400 IM, setting the
African Record in the process. He further distinguished himself at the
2004 FINA Short Course World Championships in
Indianapolis, USA, where he won the first international-level gold medal in swimming for
Tunisia, in the 400m IM, finishing over a second ahead of second and third-place finishers Robin Francis and
Eric Shanteau. Later, at the meet, he would win bronze in the 200m IM.
2005 He was able to better his Athens mark with his bronze medal swim in the 400 IM event at the
2005 World Aquatics Championships in
Montreal, Canada. He also won the bronze medal in the 400 freestyle at that same event. He also won three gold medals (800 m freestyle, 400m medley, 200m medley) at the XVth Mediterranean Games in Almería, Spain.
2006 On 1 December 2006, Oussama Mellouli beat Michael Phelps in the 400m IM at the U.S. Open in West Lafayette: Mellouli clocked 4:15.61, ahead of Phelps with 4:18.32. This swim was subsequently placed within Mellouli's 18-month doping ban, and the results nullified, as the drug test where the banned substance was found occurred at this meet (see the section below for further information).
2007 On 19 February 2007, he broke his own African Record in the 200m individual medley for the fourth time since 2003 at the
USA Swimming Grand Prix meet, held at the Mizzou Aquatic Center at the
University of Missouri. He also set a new African record in the 400 meter individual medley. On 25 March 2007, he won the silver in the
400 m freestyle (3:45.12) at the
2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Australia. Three days later, on 28 March, he swam to the first Tunisian World Championship in swimming, winning the
800m freestyle in a then
African Record of 7:46.95 — one of the top 10 fastest times ever. However, due to his positive drug-testing result from an in-competition test from December 2006 and the 18-month competition ban imposed on him on 11 September 2007 by the
Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), retroactive from 30 November 2006 forward, his 2007 World Championships results have been nullified. He was also a finalist in the
400 m individual medley, where he originally finished fourth in 4:11.68. Following the 11 September 2007 ruling by CAS, Mellouli was not allowed to compete again until mid-2008. Mellouli's results from 2007 have been nullified, per his September 2007 doping suspension, related to his positive test from December 2006 (see the section below). ==2008 Beijing Olympics==