with a time of 3:33.02, along with César Cielo, Guilherme Guido and Eduardo Fischer. He also finished fourth in the 50-meter butterflyonly three hundredths of a second away from winning a bronze medal, and seven hundredths of a second away from winning a silver medal. Almeida broke the South American record in the semifinals with a time of 23.22 seconds, and in the final with a time of 23.29 seconds. His semifinal time was the same as that of the silver medalist Mark Foster. Almeida finished fifth in the 100-meter butterflyonly 12 hundredths of a second away from winning a bronze medal. In this event, he broke the South American record twice with times of 52.18 seconds in the heats and 51.80 seconds in the final. 2005 Almeida competed in the 2005 World Aquatics Championships in Montreal, where he was a finalist in the 100-meter butterfly, finishing in seventh place. He also ranked 14th in the 200-meter butterfly and 17th in the 50-meter butterfly. In 2005, he twice broke the South American record in the 50-meter butterfly with times of 23.17 seconds on 9 September and 22.92 seconds on 21 November. In 17 December, he established a new world record in the short-course 50-meter butterfly with a time of 22.60 seconds. The former world record holder was Ian Crocker of the US, with a time of 22.71 seconds in October 2004. Almeida's record was beaten in 2008 by Australian Matt Jaukovic, who improved the record to 22.50 seconds. On December, Almeida also broke the short-course South American record in the 100-meter butterfly with a time of 50.62 seconds and in the 200-meter butterfly with a time of 1:53.27. He finished among the top three in the world rankings of the butterfly races, became the world record holder in the 50-meter, and finished second in the 100-meter and third in the 200-meter. 2006 Almeida won the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly in the 2006 FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) held in Shanghai. It was his biggest title. In the same competition, he also won a bronze medal in the 50-meter butterfly and finished 10th in the 200-meter butterfly. Almeida swam at the 2006 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, where he finished eighth in the 100-meter butterfly and in the 200-meter butterfly. 2007 At the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Almeida won gold medals in the 100-meter butterfly