Fernando Eurico de Barros Oliveira da Fonseca e Costa (also Fernando Costa, born April 29, 1985 in Porto) is a Portuguese swimmer, who specialized in long-distance freestyle events. He is a two-time Olympian, and currently holds the Portuguese record in the 1500 m freestyle from the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand.Costa made his official debut, as a 19-year-old, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece, where he competed in the men's 1500 m freestyle, an event which was later dominated by Australian swimmer and world record holder Grant Hackett. Costa placed twenty-first overall in the preliminary heats with a time of 15:32.55, but failed to qualify for the eight-man final.At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, Costa qualified for the second time in the men's 1500 m freestyle, by clearing a FINA B-standard entry time of 15:16.22 from the 2007 Summer Universiade in Bangkok, Thailand. Costa challenged six other swimmers on the second heat, including three-time Olympians Dragoș Coman of Romania, and Nicolas Rostoucher of France. He raced to sixth place by two seconds behind Coman in 15:26.21. Costa failed to advance into the final for the second time, as he placed twenty-ninth overall in the preliminaries.Costa is also a former member and a student assistant coach of the swimming team for the Wayne State Warriors, and a graduate of nutrition and food science at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
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