RIO DE JANEIRO – ­Former FGCU swimmer Lani Cabrera has arrived in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and is prepared to make her Olympic debut with the Opening Ceremony scheduled for Friday and the swimming competitions slated for Aug. 6-13 at the Olympic Aquatics Stadium.
 
As a Universality Place, Cabrera (Bridgetown, Barbados/St. Ursula's Secondary School) is allowed to compete in one event during the Games and will focus her attention on the 400 free, which takes place Sunday, Aug. 7. The preliminary event is scheduled for 1:28 p.m. ET, and the top-eight qualifiers will advance to the final event at 10:01 p.m. ET.
 
NBC will broadcast the Opening Ceremony of the Rio Olympics on Friday, Aug. 5 on a one-hour delay beginning at 8 p.m. ET. Additionally, each event can be seen on the NBCOlympics.com live stream. For a more detailed view of the daily competition schedule, click here.
 
"I keep using the word surreal, but that's exactly how I feel," said Cabrera. "It's like everything I've ever worked for is actually happening. It's the definition of a dream come true. I want to continue to make not only myself proud, but also everyone else that's watching proud. I'm so thrilled and honored to have this. There are no words. I worked hard. I made it here. I deserve to be here and will do my best."
 
During the qualification period, Cabrera clocked the fastest times among Barbadian female swimmers in the 200 free (2:05.62) at the Southern Zone South Sectional Championship, 400 free (4:25.53) at the All-Florida Senior Circuit and 800 free (9:08.02) at the Arena Pro Swim Series. She recently capped off her qualification efforts at the Caribbean Island Swimming Championship, where she medaled in a pair of events with a runner-up finish in the 400 free and third-place finish in the 800 free.
 
Additionally, during her Barbados amateur swimming career, the Bridgetown native clocked her country's fastest national times in the 200 free, 400 free, 800 free, 1500 free and 400 IM.
 
Cabrera, who joins former teammate Evita Leter (Paramaribo, Suriname/Doral Academy) at the Rio Olympics, is one of five members of the FGCU Swimming and Diving program and the sixth FGCU student-athlete to qualify for the Olympic Games. Former swimmers Danielle Beaubrun (St. Lucia) and Eva Lehtonen (Finland) qualified for Beijing in 2008, while Beaubrun and Karen Vilorio (Honduras) competed in London four years later. Additionally, former beach volleyball player Brook Youngquist Sweat will also compete in Rio as the University's first representative of the United States.

The Barbados native capped off her career at FGCU as a CCSA Champion in three individual events and pair of relay events en route to leading the Green and Blue to a pair of team titles. Additionally, she set the FGCU record in all three distance freestyle events with respective times of 4:47.43, 9:59.27 and 16:35.50, and also contributed to the top time of 7:13.83 in the 800 free relay. Following a successful 2016 season both in and out of the pool, Cabrera was named the CCSA Co-Scholar Athlete of the Year and a 2016 CSCAA Honorable Mention Scholar All-American.
 
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