Britta Steffen

Britta Steffen

Steffen with 100 m freestyle gold medal at 2009 world championships
Personal information
Full name Britta Steffen
National team  Germany
Born (1983-11-16) 16 November 1983
Schwedt, then East Germany
Height 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in)
Weight 60 kg (130 lb)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Freestyle
Club SG Neukölln

Britta Steffen (born 16 November 1983) is a German competitive swimmer who specializes in freestyle sprint events. She is the current holder of the world record in women's 50- and 100-metre freestyle events.[1]

In 1999, Steffen won six titles at the European Junior Championships, and won a medal as a member of Germany's relay team in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle at the 2000 Summer Olympics.[2] In 2004, she asked to swim the 4×100 m relay. But after the Olympics, she took one year off swimming and concentrated on her studies, which were not finished.

At the 2006 European Championships in Budapest, Steffen clocked 53.30 in the women's 100 m freestyle event, breaking the world record and upstaging the previous record of 53.42 set by Libby Lenton of Australia. Even though Lenton swam a time of 52.99 on 4 April 2007 during the mixed 400 metre freestyle relay, this time was not recognized by the FINA as world record, because the race is not considered to be a FINA event.

At the same championships, Steffen was part of two world record-breaking relay teams. First, the German 4×100 m women's relay team of Dallmann, Goetz, Steffen and Liebs took the Australian 4×100 m freestyle relay (Mills, Lenton, Thomas and Henry) world record of 3:35.94, clocking a time of 3:35.22. The German women's relay team of Dallman, Samulski, Steffen and Liebs, then swam a time of 7:50.82 to take the previous US 4×200 m freestyle relay (Coughlin, Piper, Vollmer and Sandeno) world record that stood at 7:53.42.

At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne where she finished third in the 100 metre freestyle event and second in the 4×200 metre freestyle relay.

During the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, Steffen won the 100-meter freestyle, catching world record-holder Libby Trickett of Australia at the last stroke. Steffen touched in 53.12 seconds, bettering her own Olympic record of 53.38 set on the leadoff leg of the 4×100 m freestyle relay. Steffen then edged out Dara Torres to win the 50-meter freestyle gold with a time of 24.06 seconds, winning by 0.01 seconds.

At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Steffen clocked 52.07 in the 100 m freestyle event, breaking the world record and upstaging the previous record of 52.22 set by herself four days before.[3] Two days later on 2 August 2009, Steffen won her second title in the 50 m freestyle event, breaking the world record with a time of 23.73 seconds.[4]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "World Swimming Records" (PDF). http://www.fina.org/. FINA. 20 April 2015. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  2. ↑ "Britta Steffen Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Retrieved 9 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Steffen Breaks Record on Way to Glory". Sporting Life. 31 July 2009. Retrieved 31 July 2009.
  4. ↑ "Britta Steffen sets 42nd world record in 50 free". The Daily News Online. Retrieved 2 August 2009.

External links

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