Nádia Cruz

Nádia Cruz

Personal information
Full name	Nádia Vanda Sousa Eloy Cruz
National team	Angola
Born	(1975-07-12) 12 July 1975 Luanda, Angola
Height	1.59 m (5 ft 3 in)
Weight	50 kg (110 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Breaststroke

Nádia Vanda Sousa Eloy Cruz (born July 12, 1975) is an Angolan former swimmer, who specialized in breaststroke events. She represented Angola in all four editions of the Olympic Games since 1988, and later became the chairman of the Angolan Olympic Athletes Association (AAOA) in 2010.

Cruz made her first ever Angolan team, as a 13-year-old teen, at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul. She failed to reach the top 16 final in the 100 m breaststroke, finishing in forty-second place at 1:24.46. Cruz also competed in the same stroke at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, and at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, but finished outside the top 35 rankings.

Twelve years after competing in her first Olympics, Cruz qualified for her fourth Angolan team in the women's 100 m breaststroke, as a 25-year-old, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. Because of her remarkable record and legacy, she became the nation's flag bearer in the opening ceremony. She also received a ticket from FINA, under an Olympic Solidarity and Universality program, in an entry time of 1:14.00. She challenged seven other swimmers in heat two, including Bolivia's 26-year-old Katerine Moreno, who also competed with her in their Olympic debut back in 1988. Coming from last at the initial turn, she held off a sprint challenge from Papua New Guinea's Xenia Peni on the final stretch to pick up a seventh seed in a time of 1:19.57. Cruz failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed thirty-eighth overall in the prelims.