Dubai: Did you know, Superman can swim? Clark Kent Apuada, aka ‘Superman’, is a 10-year old Filipino-American swimmer, who just broke Olympian Michael Phelps’ 100-meter butterfly record at a California swim meet.
Apuada is living up to his superhero name, and became a wave of a trend online, as tweeps congratulated him on this achievement.
But that’s not all. His hero, Michael Phelps @MichaelPhelps also took to twitter to congratulate him. He tweeted: “Big congrats to #clarkkent for smashing that meet record!!! Keep it up dude!!#dreambig.” His tweet was liked more than 2,000 times.
Big congrats to #clarkkent for smashing that meet record!!! Keep it up dude !!#dreambig
— Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps) August 1, 2018
According to reports, Apuada took part in the Far Western Swimming Championship, held at California, where he swam the 100-meter butterfly in 1:09:38. Phelps had set the record at the same championship in 1995, with a time of 1:10:48, in the under 10 boy’s category. Apuada beat his hero by just one second!
The fifth grader had been dreaming about accomplishing the feat since he started swimming, at the age of seven.
The 10-year-old has already garnered a fan following online and users were convinced that he was going to go far.
@SB_Shaggy tweeted: “Can’t wait to see you race in the Olympics. You know you want to.”
Can’t wait to see you race in the Olympics. You know you want to.
— Andrés Arvizo (@SB_Shaggy) August 1, 2018
Former competitive swimmer @fivesons2004 said: “I swam competitively for 8 years. Completely redefined mediocrity. This was great to see this young man’s success and terrific to have Michael acknowledge this milestone. Still making me happy to have been a swimmer. Well done Michael and more success to Superman!”
I swam competitively for 8 years. Completely redefined mediocrity. This was great to see this young man's success and terrific to have Michael acknowledge this milestone. Still making me happy to have been a swimmer. Well done Michael and more success to Superman!
— Mary (@fivesons2004) August 2, 2018
And another user @tjgairr said this was the “best thing” she had seen all day.
About the name…
Apuada’s mother told Huffington Post that her husband’s favourite superhero happened to be Superman, and when their child was born they decided to name him “Clark Kent”.
They used to introduce him as “Clark”, but when they realised his full name, people started calling him “Superman”. and that just stuck.
Apuada trains every day and has expressed his desire to compete in the Olympics in the future. According to Huffington post, his mantra is: “Never give up on your dreams. Never.”
