Richard Weinberger

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 current reigning Pan American Games champion and also has a bronze medal from the 2010 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships.

Career

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 become 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."