Tunisian swimmer shines in and out of pool

Oussama Mellouli of Tunisia became the first Olympian to win a swimming medal both in and out of the pool, grabbing gold Friday in the 10-kilometer marathon. Mellouli earned the bronze medal in the 1,500-meter event during the final day of pool swimming last Saturday and won the long-distance competition in the lake at Hyde Park by less than 4 seconds over Germany's Thomas Lurz. It was the second Olympic gold medal for Mellouli, who won the 1,500-meter race in Beijing. He became the first Tunisian in history with more than one Olympic gold medal. Distance runner Mohammed Gammoudi won four medals over his career while competing in three Olympics, but just one of them was gold. Mellouli only recently took up open water swimming and became eligible for the Olympics when he won a qualifying event during the spring. He finished the 10 kilometers Friday in 1 hours, 49 minutes, 55.1 seconds. The bronze medal went to Richard Weinberger of Canada.