Ahmed Atari was 18 years old at the time of the London Olympics and making his Olympic debut. He qualified for the men's 400 metre individual medley by using a universality place that was issued to swimmers who did not qualify on merit from swimming's governing body FINA because his personal best time of five minutes and 16.80 seconds, set at the 2011 World Aquatics Championships, was 48.36 seconds slower than the "B" (FINA/Invitation) qualifying standard for his event. Atari was assigned to compete against four other swimmers in heat one on 28 July. He could not remain underwater for more than half of the first fifteen metres and was distanced by the nearest swimmer a third of the way through. Atari continued to struggle for the rest of the heat but he was applauded by the crowd. His time of 5 minutes and 21.30 seconds put him 36th and last overall; he was not allowed to progress to the final since only the top eight could advance to that stage. Afterwards Atari was dubbed "Atari the Qatari" and the media compared his slow speed and times to that of Equatorial Guinea's Eric Moussambani's at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.