Honiara, SOLOMON ISLANDS — Team American Samoa has registered its second medal in the ongoing 2023 Pacific Games thanks to the efforts of its sole Olympian, swimmer Micah Masei who won bronze in the 100m Breaststroke event of the 2023 Pacific Games swimming competition.

Eight swimmers from eight countries vied for the medals in a closely contested race.Theirs were the top eight times of the 17 swimmers who competed in the Heats held earlier in the morning.

Micah’s 2023 Pacific Games campaign started on Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023 where he competed in the 50m Breaststroke event in which he secured the silver medal with a time of 19.48 seconds. 

Tasi Limtiaco of the Federated States of Micronesia had won gold with a time of 29.17 and Alexandre Gane of New Caledonia settled for bronze with a time of 29.60.

On Wednesday, Nov. 22, 2023, only Micah and Alexandre of the three competed in the final of the 50m Freestyle event.

Both of them qualified for the final but unfortunately, both did not place. Alexandre ended up at 6th place while Micah finished at 8th place.

On Thursday, Nov. 23, 2023, the two swimmers were reunited with Tasi Limtiaco in the 100m Breaststroke event and again the three ended up in the top three places.

This time, Micah and Alexandre changed places while Tasi again took gold with a time of 1:03.60 seconds. Alexandre took silver with a time of 1:05.36 while Micah settled for bronze with a time of 1:05.80.

In an interview with the bronze medalist, he revealed that he had been conserving his strength from the morning’s heats for the evening’s final, and that he had given it his all.

 “My game plan was to gradually change gears in the speed of my strokes past the halfway mark of the last lap and dig deeper as I entered the last 15 meters to the wall which I did and gave it my all,” Micah explained. “It happened to be just enough to get the bronze medal but I gave it all I had.

 “I just want to thank everyone that’s been reaching out to support me. It definitely means a lot to hear from everyone and to know that they have my back. The ASNOC President Ed Imo and everyone here on island for the tremendous support they have shown and of course my family, coaches and everyone back home for their prayers.”

He stated that he was going to “cool down and look towards the next step, go back to training, hit the pool hard one step a day and hopefully I’ll get faster and faster building up for Paris next year.”

The 24 year-old Olympic swimmer added that he had to get back to work in Hawaii where he is a project manager for a real estate development company in Oahu which focuses on industrial and residential housing development and property management.

Micah will be returning home this Saturday.

This Pacific Games report is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Builders, Inc. and ASNOC.