Manoel dos Santos Júnior (born 22 February 1939) is a former Brazilian swimmer, former world record holder and a bronze medalist in 100-metre freestyle at the Olympic Games in Rome in 1960.

[3][4] At 4 years of age, Manoel spent months in a hospital, recovering from recurrent threats of pneumonia and similar diseases, that his body suffered.

[5] The strongest swimmer of the group was a boy three years older than Manoel, named João Gonçalves Filho, future champion and South American record holder in the backstroke and an athlete in various sports, who participated in various Olympic Games.

The top three sprinters in the country at the turn of the decade and early '50s (Aram Boghossian, Sérgio Rodrigues and Plauto Guimarães) had retired.

[5] In March 1955, at age 16, Manoel was summoned to his first international competition, the II Pan American Games in Mexico City.

In Mexico, after a trip into a military aircraft, a DC-3, which lasted four days, with overnight in Belém, Trinidad and Tobago and Cuba, Manoel competed very poorly.

His main memory of the tournament was the moment he left desolate of proof, fell on a nearby heating pool and pretending to be loosening up, cried a lot, solitude, until the last tear is lost hidden in the middle of chlorine.

[6] The following year, on February 56, in Viña del Mar, Chile, was the thirteenth edition of the South American Swimming Championships.

The Brazilian relay team had Haroldo Lara, Manoel dos Santos, João Gonçalves and Aristarco de Oliveira.

[5] In November 1956, at the new pool of CR Vasco da Gama, Manoel dos Santos failed to get Olympic qualification, by two tenths of a second.

For the first time in the history of the tournament, the winner of the 100-metre freestyle won the race handily, not in the beat of hand, but two and a half seconds ahead of, or fifteen feet away - Manoel dos Santos.

In July 60, during the pre-Olympic final preparations, in Rio de Janeiro, Manoel convincingly broke his South American record of the 100-metre freestyle, with a time of 55.6.

[9] He was put on antibiotics and had only a few days to recover before the heats of the 100-metre freestyle, the traditional opening race of the Olympic program at that time.

[5] In the final the next day dos Santos led at the turn but eventually finished third in a time of 55.4, new South American record, to claim the bronze medal.

The awarding of the gold medal to Devitt ahead of Larson remains one of the most troubled decisions in the history of Olympic swimming.

[5] At the Brazilian Championship in 1961 dos Santos took silver in the 100-metre freestyle with a time of 57.8, a second behind the winner, Athos de Oliveira.