Richard Weinberger
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| Full name | Richard Weinberger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| National team |
 Canada
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| Born |
June 7, 1990 Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan |
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| Height | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 81 kg (179 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Pacific Coast Swimming | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| College team | University of Victoria | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Richard Weinberger (born June 7, 1990) is a Canadian long-distance swimmer. Weinberger won a bronze medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London in the 10-kilometre open water marathon. He is the 2011 Pan American Games champion and also has a bronze medal from the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.
Open water swimming at major international competitions started early for Weinberger. He started making a name for himself at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships where he won bronze as a twenty-year-old, then he went on to win the gold at the 2011 Pan American Championships in Guadalajara in the marathon 10 km event. 2012 proved to be a breakthrough year for Weinberger. In the lead up to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, he won bronze and silver medals in the 10 km swim at various World Cup events. Weinberger qualified for the Olympics after he won silver at the FINA Olympic Marathon Swimming Qualifier in June 2012.
At the 2012 Games, he won a bronze medal in the 10 km marathon, finishing behind Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia and Thomas Lurz of Germany. He became the first Canadian to win a medal in the event. After his win some media outlets such as the CBC were touting him as the future of Canadian Olympian swimmers. Weinberger himself said of his accomplishments that he was happy but "I want to be the Olympic champion in Rio in 2016."
During the 2013 World Aquatics Championships Weinberger was unable to repeat his Olympic success in the 10 km event and committed "a fatal mistake" when he missed a buoy and had to retreat from the front of the pack to swim around it again. He did however come within seven tenths of a second of a medal despite this, but only finished fifth. He himself noted his mistake and frustration, stating "I'm one of the strongest guys out there and I know I could have come first. It's just so disappointing that I made such an amateur mistake and I didn't notice the turning buoy pass on my right." Weinberger was looking for redemption in his next event the 25 km but was unable to regain the success where he finished 22nd, finishing fifteen minutes behind the winner Thomas Lurz.
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