Swimming Special Report: German Swimmer, Britta Steffen holds world records
One of the most talented freestyle swimmers, Britta Steffen is a German citizen. She was born on the 16th of November 1983 in Schwedt, Germany. Britta currently holds world records in women’s 50 metre and 100 metre freestyle events.
She started her athletic career at the age of 16. The first major event that the teenager swimmer contended was the European junior championships that were held in 1999. Britta won six titles at this event. She then qualified to swim for the Australian team
at the Summer Olympics 2000. She went on to win a gold medal for the freestyle relay team at the Olympics. In the next edition of the Summer Olympics (Athens 2004), she was again part of the 4 into 100 metre relay team of Australia. After these Olympics, the
athletic beauty took break from the sport to concentrate on her education, since her studies were left unfinished.
At the European championships held at Budapest in 2006, Brittan surpassed the world record set by the Australian athlete Libby Lenton in the women’s 100 metre freestyle event. The former finished the race in a time of 53.30 seconds, while the latter had
a world record of 53.42 seconds. Libby then swam the event during the mixed 400 metre freestyle relay in a time of 52.99 seconds on 4th of April 2007; however, this time was not registered as a world record by FINA. She then went on to swim for world breaking
teams in two events at the same championships (2007 FINA Aquatics Championships). The first event was the 4 into 100 metre freestyle relay. The team was based on Dallman, Goetz, Steffen and Liebs, surpassed the Australian 4 into 100 metre freestyle relay team
(Mills, Lenton, Thomas and Henry) world record of 3 minutes and 35.94 seconds by finishing the race in a time of 3 minutes and 35.22 seconds.
The German team (Dallman, Samulski, Steffen and Liebs) then went on to win the 4 into 200 metre freestyle relay in a time of 7 minutes and 50.82 seconds. This world record was previously held by the US team of Coughlin, Piper, Vollmer and Sandeno. The world
record time held by the aforementioned team was 7 minutes and 53.42 seconds. The next event that Steffen participated in was the FINA World Championships that took place in Melbourne. In this particular event, she was the third place finisher and second place
finisher in the 100 metre freestyle meet and the 4 into 200 metre freestyle relay event respectively.
Steffen then qualified for the Summer Olympics 2008. The great German swimmer held off the Australian world record holder Libby Trickett in the 100 metre freestyle event of the Beijing Olympics. She finished the race in a time of 53.12 seconds, while the
world record mark set by Trickett was 53.38 seconds. Steffen then went on to take over the field in the 50 metre freestyle event and won a gold medal, winning by just 0.01 seconds from Dara Torres. She won the event in a time of 24.06 seconds.
The year that followed, at the World Championships in Rome on the 31st of July 2009, Steffen once again won the women’s 100 metre freestyle event. She clocked the event in a time of 52.07 seconds. This time was even better than her own world record in the
event that she set four days before (52.22 seconds). On the 2nd of August 2009, Steffen clinched her second title in the women’s 50 metre freestyle event. She earned this title by surpassing the world record mark of 23.73 seconds in the event.
Britta Steffen has displayed her talent in the sprint events and has proved herself as the leading sprinter in the world at the current time. She has repeatedly given brilliant performances in the 50 and 100 metre freestyle events, and thus has become one
of most renowned freestyler in the world.
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