Franziska van Almsick

Franziska van Almsick was born on April 5, 1978 in Berlin in East Germany. She started swimming at the age of five. She was very talented and as a result attended sport schools to be able to combine training and learning better. From 1990 on she trained under coach Dieter Lindemann. A year later she got second at the German nationals over 200m freestyle.

In 1992 she won the 200m freestyle and 100m fly at the German nationals and qualified for the Olympic Games at the age of 14. In Barcelona she won two silver medals over 200m freestyle and with the 4x200m medley relay and two bronze medals. Furthermore she won her first World Cup this year and set a new Short Course World Record over 50m freestyle.

With her success in Barcelona she became one of Germany's first sport stars after the German reunification. Although the hype around her was not easy to handle for a fourteen year-old she got better and better. A year later she won 6 gold medals at the European Championships in Sheffield (GBR). She was named German, European and World Sportswomen of the Year in 1993.

In 1994 she won the 200m freestyle at the World Championships in Rome (ITA) also breaking the World Record in 1:56.78. Additionally she won silver with the 4x200m freestyle relay and two bronze medals over 100m freestyle and with the 4x100m freestyle relay.

Difficult years were to come. In Vienna at the European Championships she won five gold medals. A year later she did qualify for the Olympic Games but just over 200m freestyle. At the Games in Atlanta she missed gold but won silver over this distance. After this competition she changed her coach and trained under Gerd Esser from then on.

In 1997 she had a motorcycle accident and was not able to train for 14 weeks. A year later she made a successful comeback at the World Championships in Perth (AUS) winning gold with the 4x200m freestyle relay and silver as part of the 4x100m freestyle squad.

Over the following years there were no major individual successes. She won two gold and three medals in total with the relay teams at the European Championships in Istanbul in 1999. At the Olympic Games in Sydney a year later a bronze medal with the 4x200m freestyle relay was the only place on the podium for her.

In 2001 she switched to coach Norbert Warnatzsch and later to the club he was coaching for. Her new goal were the European Championships in 2002 on home soil in Berlin. Indeed she was at her best there and won the 100m and 200m freestyle as well as 3 gold medals as part of the relay teams.

The Olympic Games 2004 in Athens were her last big competition. Although she won two bronze medals with the relays she wasn't fully satisfied as she missed out to win an individual medal finishing fifth over 200m freestyle.

After the Games she retired and published a book about her career. From then on Almsick worked for the first German TV channel as an expert at various national and international swimming competitions. Although she never won an Olympic gold medal she has been and still is one of Germany's most popular and famous sport stars and was named German Sportswomen of the Year in 1993, 1995 and 2002.

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