Ismael Ortiz
Ismael Jafet Ortiz Zuñiga is a swimmer from Panama. He participated in the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, competing in the Men's 100-meter Freestyle. His heat time was 51.74 seconds, which was not enough to advance to the semi-finals. Ortiz also represented his native country at the World Championships in 2001 and 2003.
Despite qualifying to represent Panama in the 2008 Olympics with a time below 23.00 seconds, domestic political circumstances prevented him from competing in the games, causing a small public outcry in his home country.
He swam for the USA's Drury University from 2005 to 2007. He graduated with a degree in Fine Art in 2008, and currently teaches youth swimming in Miami.
Trivia
- Ortiz is known affectionately by teammates and fans as "The Ish."
- He is also a successful sculpture artist in his own right, having had many shows in both the United States and in Panama. His found-object artwork is reminiscent of the sculptures of Robert Rauschenberg and Jean Tinguely.
- Ortiz is a noted fan of the manga series Naruto, admittedly spending hours on end watching pirated YouTube transcriptions of the comics. Playful attempts at coining the nickname "Pablo Naruto", a pun derived from his characteristic romantic Latin machismo and his aforementioned otaku tendencies, never stuck.