The Most Famous

SWIMMERS from Brazil

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This page contains a list of the greatest Brazilian Swimmers. The pantheon dataset contains 709 Swimmers, 29 of which were born in Brazil. This makes Brazil the birth place of the 13th most number of Swimmers behind Japan, and Netherlands.

Top 10

The following people are considered by Pantheon to be the top 10 most legendary Brazilian Swimmers of all time. This list of famous Brazilian Swimmers is sorted by HPI (Historical Popularity Index), a metric that aggregates information on a biography's online popularity. Visit the rankings page to view the entire list of Brazilian Swimmers.

Photo of Tetsuo Okamoto

1. Tetsuo Okamoto (1932 - 2007)

With an HPI of 56.13, Tetsuo Okamoto is the most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 18 different languages on wikipedia.

Tetsuo Okamoto (20 March 1932 – 1 October 2007) was a Brazilian Olympic swimmer.

Photo of César Cielo

2. César Cielo (b. 1987)

With an HPI of 48.03, César Cielo is the 2nd most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 32 different languages.

César Augusto Cielo Filho (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈsɛzɐʁ siˈelu ˈfiʎu], born 10 January 1987) is a Brazilian former competitive swimmer who specialized in sprint events. He is the most successful Brazilian swimmer in history, having obtained three Olympic medals, winning six individual World Championship gold medals and breaking two world records. Cielo is the current world record holder in the 50-metre freestyle (long course). He received induction into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in September 2023. César Cielo is the third Brazilian to enter the International Swimming Hall of Fame, after Maria Lenk and Gustavo Borges. His gold medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics, in the 50-metre freestyle competition, is Brazil's only Olympic gold in swimming to date. In 2008, he broke the NCAA record in the 50-yard (46 m) freestyle (18.47 seconds) and in the 100-yard (91 m) freestyle (40.92 seconds). Cielo became the fastest swimmer in the world in the two distances, and was named NCAA Swimmer of the Year for the second year in a row.

Photo of Ricardo Prado

3. Ricardo Prado (b. 1965)

With an HPI of 43.91, Ricardo Prado is the 3rd most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Ricardo Prado (born 3 January 1965 in Andradina, São Paulo, Brazil) is an Olympic and former World Record holding medley swimmer from Brazil. He was one of the greatest swimmers in the history of Brazil and the best Brazilian swimmer in the 1980s.

Photo of Gustavo Borges

4. Gustavo Borges (b. 1972)

With an HPI of 43.50, Gustavo Borges is the 4th most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 17 different languages.

Gustavo França Borges (born 2 December 1972) is a Brazilian former competitive swimmer. He swam for Brazil in four Summer Olympic Games: 1992, 1996, 2000 and 2004. With four medals in swimming, as of 2000 Borges had won the fourth-most Olympic medals of any Brazilian athlete, with one in 1992, two in 1996 and one in 2000. Sailors Robert Scheidt and Torben Grael and canoeist Isaquias Queiroz have won five, and gymnast Rebeca Andrade won six. As of 2000, he had won eight Pan American Games gold medals, the third-most of any Brazilian competitor. Borges was Brazil's flagbearer for the Closing Ceremony at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Borges lives in São Paulo, where he runs his own swimming school. He had formerly resided in the United States, first in Jacksonville, Florida and then in Ann Arbor, Michigan while he was a student at Michigan. He attended the University of Michigan in the mid-1990s, where he competed and trained for the university's swim team, managed by Hall of Fame Coach Jon Urbanchek and graduated with a degree in Economics. His teammates at Michigan included Eric Namesnik and Marcel Wouda in the mid-1990s.

Photo of Nicholas Santos

5. Nicholas Santos (b. 1980)

With an HPI of 42.76, Nicholas Santos is the 5th most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Nicholas Araújo Dias dos Santos (born 14 February 1980) is a former Brazilian competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle and butterfly sprint events. He swam the 50-metre freestyle at the 2008 Summer Olympics and was a member of the Brazilian 4×100-meter freestyle team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. At the 50-metre butterfly, he is the World Record holder in Short Course, and he was the Americas Record Holder in Long Course.

Photo of Fernando Scherer

6. Fernando Scherer (b. 1974)

With an HPI of 41.08, Fernando Scherer is the 6th most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 15 different languages.

Fernando de Queiroz Scherer (born October 6, 1974) is a Brazilian former international swimmer. He won the bronze medal in the 50-meter freestyle at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and another bronze medal four years later in Sydney with the Brazilian relay team in the 4×100-meter freestyle. Scherer won his first major title at the inaugural 1993 FINA Short Course World Championships in Palma de Mallorca, where he won the 100-meter freestyle. He trained at The Race Club, a swimming club founded by Olympic swimmers Gary Hall, Jr. and his father, Gary Hall, Sr. as a training group for elite swimmers in preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games. Scherer is nicknamed Xuxa in his native country, and he became Brazil's Sportsman of The Year in 1995 after winning one gold and one silver medal at the 1995 FINA Short Course World Championships in Rio de Janeiro. Scherer was involved in the organization Cansei. In 2009, he took part in the second season of a reality television program called A Fazenda, where one of his fellow contestants was his future wife, the actress and dancer Sheila Mello. Scherer and Mello married on June 24, 2010, in São Paulo.

Photo of Bruno Fratus

7. Bruno Fratus (b. 1989)

With an HPI of 40.77, Bruno Fratus is the 7th most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 22 different languages.

Bruno Giuseppe Fratus (born 30 June 1989) is a Brazilian former competitive swimmer. He won a bronze medal in the 50-metre freestyle at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. In July 2021, Fratus became the first swimmer in history to swim the long course 50 metre freestyle race in less than 22 seconds 90 times. He surpassed this mark by swimming his 100th sub-22 second 50 metre freestyle at the 19th World Aquatics Championships in June 2022. In the 50 metre freestyle, he won 3 medals in a row at the World Championships in 2015, 2017 and 2019 (2 silver and 1 bronze), in addition to having won silver in the 4×100 metre freestyle relay in 2017. He is also the gold medalist in the 50 metre freestyle at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships and at the 2019 Pan American Games.

Photo of Poliana Okimoto

8. Poliana Okimoto (b. 1983)

With an HPI of 40.54, Poliana Okimoto is the 8th most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  Her biography has been translated into 21 different languages.

Poliana Okimoto Cintra (born 8 March 1983) is a Brazilian long-distance swimmer.

Photo of Thiago Pereira

9. Thiago Pereira (b. 1986)

With an HPI of 39.08, Thiago Pereira is the 9th most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 19 different languages.

Thiago Machado Vilela Pereira (born 26 January 1986) is a retired Brazilian international competition swimmer. One of the greatest swimmers in the history of Brazil, Pereira won the silver medal in the 400-meter individual medley at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, finishing ahead of defending Olympic champion Michael Phelps. He also broke the world record in the short course 200-meter individual medley, and broke several South American and Brazilian records. During his career, he competed with swimming legends Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. Pereira is a resident of Belo Horizonte, and became known as Ricardo Prado's successor in his native country after winning the silver medal in the 200-meter individual medley at the Pan American Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 2003. In 2004, he won the world title in the same event at the 2004 FINA Short Course World Championships. After that, Pereira won six gold medals at the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, breaking the record of five gold medals won in one Pan American Games, previously held by Mark Spitz. Pereira broke the short course 200-meter individual medley world record later that same year. He represented Brazil at three consecutive Summer Olympics, starting in 2004. As of July 2015, Pereira is the Brazilian athlete with most gold medals won in Pan American Games: 15 earned in four Pan American Games. In 2015, Pereira became the athlete with the most medals in the history of Pan American Games, surpassing the Cuban gymnast Eric López, who won 22 medals between 1991 and 2003. Pereira finished Toronto with 23 total medals.

Photo of Marcelo Chierighini

10. Marcelo Chierighini (b. 1991)

With an HPI of 38.06, Marcelo Chierighini is the 10th most famous Brazilian Swimmer.  His biography has been translated into 16 different languages.

Marcelo Chierighini (born 15 January 1991) is a Brazilian competitive swimmer. In the 100 metre freestyle, he was an Olympic finalist at the Rio 2016 Games, and four times in a row a finalist at the World Championships in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2019. In the 4 x 100 metre freestyle relay, he holds a silver medal at the 2017 World Championships.

People

Pantheon has 34 people classified as Brazilian swimmers born between 1932 and 2004. Of these 34, 33 (97.06%) of them are still alive today. The most famous living Brazilian swimmers include César Cielo, Ricardo Prado, and Gustavo Borges. The most famous deceased Brazilian swimmers include Tetsuo Okamoto. As of April 2024, 5 new Brazilian swimmers have been added to Pantheon including Ricardo Prado, Nicholas Santos, and Fernando Scherer.

Living Brazilian Swimmers

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Deceased Brazilian Swimmers

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Newly Added Brazilian Swimmers (2025)

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