 Steffen with the 100m freestyle gold medal at 2009 world championships | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| National team |  Germany |
| Born | (1983-11-16)16 November 1983 (age 41) Schwedt,Bezirk Frankfurt,East Germany |
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) |
| Weight | 60 kg (132 lb) |
| Website | britta-steffen |
| Sport | |
| Sport | Swimming |
| Strokes | Freestyle |
| Club | SG Neukölln |
Medal record | |
Britta Steffen (German pronunciation:[ˈbʁi.taˈʃtɛfn̩]ⓘ; born 16 November 1983) is a German former competitiveswimmer who specialized infreestyle sprint events, winning 2 gold medals at the2008 Beijing Olympics.
In 1999, Steffen won six titles at theEuropean Junior Championships, and won a medal as a member of Germany's relay team in the4 × 200 metre freestyle at the2000 Summer Olympics.[1] 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 the2006 European Championships in Budapest, Steffen clocked 53.30 in the women's 100 m freestyle event, breaking theworld record and upstaging the previous record of 53.42 set byLibby 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 ofDallmann, Goetz, Steffen andLiebs took the Australian 4×100 m freestyle relay (Mills,Lenton,Thomas andHenry) 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 andSandeno) world record that stood at 7:53.42.
At the2007 World Championships in Melbourne where she finished third in the100 metre freestyle event and second in the4 × 200 metre freestyle relay.
During the2008 Summer Olympic Games inBeijing, China, Steffen won the100-meter freestyle, catching world record-holderLibby 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 outDara Torres to win the50-meter freestyle gold with a time of 24.06 seconds, winning by 0.01 seconds.
At the2009 World Championships in Rome, Steffen clocked 52.07 in the100 m freestyle event, breaking the world record and upstaging the previous record of 52.22 set by herself four days before.[2] Two days later on 2 August 2009, Steffen won her second title in the50 m freestyle event, breaking the world record with a time of 23.73 seconds.[3]
Her 100-metre freestyle long course world record was broken byCate Campbell on 2 July 2016.Her 50-metre freestyle long course world record was broken bySarah Sjöström on 29 July 2017.
Steffen officially retired from competitive swimming in 2013.[4]
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