The Brazilian swimming team set a historic negative record at the Paris Olympics. The team failed to reach the podium even once, marking its worst Olympic performance in the last 36 years. This is the third time since the 1988 Seoul Games that Brazil has not won any medals in the sport, with the previous occurrences in Athens 2004 and Rio 2016. However, in 2024, the Brazilians only competed in four finals, a lower number compared to the five finals in Athens and eight in Rio. They only surpassed Seoul, where they participated in just one final.

The Brazilian swimming delegation in Paris was the smallest in 24 years, since Sydney 2000, consisting of 18 swimmers. This result can be attributed to the current underperformance in Brazilian male swimming and the lack of female swimmers qualifying in butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke, and individual medley events.

At the Paris Olympics, Brazil competed in only seven out of the 14 individual male events, including the 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, and 800m freestyle, as well as the 100m and 200m butterfly. Notably, Brazil did not have representatives in the individual backstroke, breaststroke, and medley events. In comparison, during the Tokyo Olympics, Brazilian men missed only three events.

The highlight for Brazil in Paris was Guilherme Costa's fifth-place finish in the men's 400m freestyle. The country also secured 7th place in three other finals: the women's 4x200m freestyle relay, Beatriz Dizotti in the women's 1500m freestyle, and Mafê Costa in the women's 400m freestyle.

Since the 1988 Seoul Games, Brazilian swimming has earned 11 medals, with Gustavo Borges leading with four (two silver and two bronze), followed by César Cielo with three (one gold and two bronze), and Fernando Sherer with two bronze medals. Other medalists include Thiago Pereira, Edvaldo Valério, Carlos Jayme, Fernando Scheffer, and Bruno Fratus, each winning one medal in individual or relay events.

Before Seoul, Brazil had won four swimming medals: Tetsuo Okamoto in Helsinki 1952, Manoel dos Santos in Rome 1960, Ricardo Prado in Los Angeles 1984, and the 4x100m relay team in Moscow 1980.

**Social Media Reactions:**

1. "Would be interesting for someone to deep dive into why this is happening. This generation of swimmers is really poor. Since the beginning of the century, we've always had swimmers winning some medals. It really needs a thorough diagnosis to change the athlete training policy in the country."
2. "Even with a poor generation, the issues must run deep for the entire team to be in this dire situation. It started with the Joel Jota incident and then during the Olympics, there was the case of the troubled swimmer who got expelled."
3. "I think there's also an element of undergoing a refresh cycle, and we didn't have many swimmers ready for this Olympics. We also have an issue where many athletes stop evolving after 16-17 years, for reasons unknown."
4. "Australia cleaned up. The US didn't win as much as expected."
5. "The worst part isn't just coming out empty-handed; it's realizing that there weren't even Brazilians competing in many finals... At the Pan in Santiago, Brazil did well... 27 medals, second only to the USA, meaning talent is there."

(Note: Comments have been paraphrased for brevity and clarity.)