The crowd whistled and cheered as he walked past the towering athletes on the pool deck at Paris’ La Defense Arena.
In a floral Speedo, there he was. Not an Olympian, but still a hero: “Bob the Cap Catcher.”
The world has become fixated after the Speedo-clad mystery man saved the day when the one of the women’s 100-meter breaststroke heats faced a hiccup.
The race’s starter called for the swimmers to step down from their diving platform, spotting an obstacle in the pool: one of U.S. swimmer Emma Weber’s caps.
“We can’t have that at the bottom of the pool,” swimming analyst Amy Van Dyken explained. “We’re going to have to have someone dive in and go get it.”
While the arena was equipped with dozens of Olympians who can swim at superhuman speeds, this task called for someone else.
From the side of the pool, the mystery hero walked out to cheers.
“I mean, look at that right there!” Van Dyken exclaimed to viewers.
The diver performed a perfect — Olympic, even — dive, scooping up the cap, which was a bit over 8 feet away from the pool’s edge.
“Now, is Emma going to let him keep the cap? That’s the question,” Van Dyken wondered.
The diver triumphantly held up his catch to roaring applause, having cleared the pool for the race to begin.
“See, does that guy get a name?” commentator Jason Knapp asked. “The Cap Catcher?”
Knapp and Van Dyken baptized the hero right then.
“I think that’s what we’re going to call him — Bob, the Cap Catcher! I like that,” Van Dyken said.
“Good job, Bob.”
