Youssef Ramadan

When he was 17 years old, Ramadan placed 11th in the semifinals of the 50 metre butterfly with a 24.13 and 16th in the semifinals of the 100 metre freestyle in 50.80 seconds at the 2019 World Junior Championships, held at Danube Arena in Budapest, Hungary in August 2019.[3]

At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, and postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, 19-year-old Ramadan set an Egyptian record in the prelims heats of the 100 metre butterfly with a time of 51.67 seconds, which qualified him for the semifinals tied in rank for fourteenth overall in the prelims heats with Szebasztián Szabó of Hungary.[4][5] In the semifinals, Ramadan placed sixteenth with a time of 52.27 seconds and did not qualify for the final.[6]

At the 2021 FINA World Short Course Swimming Championships in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Ramadan won his prelims heats of the 100 metre butterfly with a personal best time of 49.66 seconds and advanced to semifinals ranked third overall, six-hundredths of a second slower than second-ranked Andrei Minakov of Russia and seventeen-hundredths of a second slower than first-ranked Noè Ponti of Switzerland.[7][8] In the semifinals of the event later the same day, Ramadan qualified for the final ranking third with a time of 49.60 seconds.[9] One day earlier, Ramadan anchored the 4×100 metre freestyle relay with a 49.03, helping the Egypt relay team place thirteenth in an Egyptian record time of 3:18.49 and not qualifying the relay to the final.[10] On the third day of competition, Ramadan placed fourth in the final of the 100 metre butterfly with an Egyptian record time of 49.50 seconds, finishing less than three-tenths of a second behind bronze medalist Andrei Minakov.[11]

The fifth day of competition, Ramadan helped the 4×50 metre medley relay place second in the first prelims heat, splitting a 22.37 for the butterfly leg of the relay to help finish behind the Russia relay team and ahead of the United States relay team with an African record time of 1:33.19, which qualified the relay for the final ranking second overall.[12] In the same prelims session, Ramadan set a new Egyptian record in the 100 metre freestyle with a time of 46.98 seconds, which ranked him eighth overall and qualified him for the semifinals later in the day.[13] Later in the day Ramadan helped lower the African record to a 1:32.56 and achieve a fifth-place finish in the 4×50 metre medley relay, splitting a 22.12 for the butterfly leg of the relay.[14][15] For the semifinals of the 100 metre freestyle, Ramadan placed 13th with a 47.36 and did not advance to the final.[16] In the morning of the sixth and final day, Ramadan split a 50.89 for the butterfly leg of the 4×100 metre medley relay in the prelims, contributing to an African record time of 3:30.83 and a twelfth-place ranking across all heats.[17]

During a practice in January 2022 for the Virginia Tech Hokies his sophomore year, Ramadan took part in a virtual challenge of sprinting 75 yards in different strokes wearing fins, for his 75 yards Ramadan swam butterfly, starting from a push-start and performing flip turns on each wall to achieve a time of 28.4 seconds.[18] At a dual meet against Pennsylvania State University later in the month, Ramadan set two pool records at the Virginia Tech pool, one in the 100 yard butterfly, where he won in 45.34 seconds, and another as part of the 4×50 yard medley relay in 1:25.13, where he swam the backstroke leg of the relay in 21.93 seconds.[19] In the first week of February, Ramadan won the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 44.68 seconds and competed in the 200 yard butterfly, achieving a time of 1:43.00, at the Virginia Tech Invitational.[20]

At the 2022 Atlantic Coast Conference, ACC, Championships in February 2022, Ramadan ranked fifth in the prelims heats of the 50 yard freestyle with a 19.13.[21] For the final, Ramadan placed third in a time of 18.87 seconds, finishing 0.13 seconds behind first-place finisher David Curtiss.[22] Earlier in the same finals session, he led-off the 4×50 yard freestyle relay in 18.80 seconds to help achieve a fourth-place finish in the event in 1:16.29.[23] In the prelims heats of the 100 yard butterfly on day three, Ramadan ranked fourth with a 45.39 and qualified for the final.[24] Later in the day, Ramadan anchored the 4×50 yard medley relay in the final with a 18.53 to help achieve a second-place finish in 1:22.82.[25] For his second and final event of the evening, Ramadan won the 100 yard butterfly in a new ACC Championships and ACC record time of 44.08 seconds, which made him the fourth-fastest swimmer to race the event in the United States and was just 0.07 seconds off the pool record of 44.01 set by Joseph Schooling in 2016.[26][27] On day four, he split a 41.41 to anchor the 4×100 yard medley relay to a third-place finish in 3:02.71.[28] Finishing in a time of 41.83 seconds in the prelims heats of the 100 yard freestyle on the fifth and final day, Ramadan ranked first heading into the final.[29] He won the final with a personal best time of 41.76 seconds, then finished the Championships with a third-place finish in the 4×100 yard freestyle relay in a final relay time of 2:48.03.[30] His lead-off split time of 41.96 seconds was the second-fastest lead-off leg of all 11 finals relays.[23] With his accomplishments at the Championships, Ramadan received the "Men's Most Valuable Swimmer" honour.[31][32]

2022 NCAA Championships
	100 yd butterfly	43.90

In March 2022, at the 2022 NCAA Championships in Atlanta, United States, Ramadan helped achieve a tenth-place finish in the 4×50 yard medley relay on the first day of competition, splitting a 18.61 for the freestyle leg of the relay.[33] The second day, he advanced to the final of the 50 yard freestyle, ranking fifth overall in the prelims heats with a personal best time of 18.79 seconds.[34] Finishing in a time of 19.04 seconds in the final, he placed seventh less than half a second behind first-place finisher Brooks Curry.[35] For his second event of the evening, he swam a 19.11 leading-off the 4×50 yard freestyle relay to a tenth-place finish in 1:15.99.[36] On the third day, he ranked second in the prelims heats of the 100 yard butterfly with a time of 44.21 seconds and qualified for the evening final.[37][38] He placed third in the final with a personal best time of 43.90 seconds, finishing 0.19 seconds behind first-place finisher Andrei Minakov and 0.10 seconds behind second-place finisher Luca Urlando.[39] In the 4×100 yard medley relay final, he split a 41.99 for the freestyle leg of the relay to help achieve a 17th-place finish in 3:05.18.[36] The following day, the fourth and final day, he ranked fifteenth with a 41.80 in the prelims heats of the 100 yard freestyle, qualifying for the b-final in the evening.[40] In the b-final, he swam a personal best time of 41.72 seconds to place fourth, which was eleventh-place overall and three-tenths of a second behind b-final winner Dean Farris.[41] To conclude his competition, he led-off the 4×100 yard freestyle relay with a 42.32 to help place tenth in 2:48.61.[36]

Legend: NR – Egyptian record; h – prelims heat

Legend: NR – Egyptian record; h – prelims heat; † – en route to final mark

Legend: ACC – Atlantic Coast Conference record; h – prelims heat; b – b-final

Legend: h – prelims heat