Britta Steffen

Biography

Steffen won six titles at the 1999 European Junior Championships and earned a medal as part of Germany's 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics. In 2004 she requested to swim the 4×100 m relay, but after those Olympics she took a year off from swimming to focus on her unfinished studies. At the 2006 European Championships in Budapest, she set a world record in the women's 100 m freestyle with a time of 53.30, surpassing the previous mark of 53.42 set by Australia's Libby Lenton.

At the same championships, Steffen was part of two world-record-breaking relay teams: the German 4×100 m women's relay (Dallmann, Goetz, Steffen, Liebs) clocked 3:35.22, breaking the Australian record of 3:35.94; and the German 4×200 m women's relay (Dallmann, Samulski, Steffen, Liebs) swam 7:50.82, surpassing the previous US record of 7:53.42. At the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne she placed third in the 100 metre freestyle and second in the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay.

During the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Steffen won the 100-meter freestyle in 53.12 seconds, catching world record-holder Libby Trickett at the last stroke and bettering her own Olympic record of 53.38 from the 4×100 m freestyle relay leadoff leg. She then edged Dara Torres to win the 50-meter freestyle gold in 24.06 seconds, winning by 0.01 seconds. At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, she clocked 52.07 in the 100 m freestyle, breaking the world record she had set four days earlier (52.22).

Two days later she won the 50 m freestyle title with a world record of 23.73 seconds. Her 100-metre freestyle long course world record was broken by Cate Campbell on 2 July 2016, and her 50-metre freestyle long course world record was broken by Sarah Sjöström on 29 July 2017. Steffen officially retired from competitive swimming in 2013.