Early Career
Born on November 16, 1983, Britta Steffen was a German Freestyler. She still holds the World Record in both the 50M and 100M freestyles. Her times of 23.73 and 52.07 were set in 2009, which is a testament to her swiftness as her almost seven year old records still stands.
Britta burst on to the world scene in 1999, winning six titles at the European Junior Championships.
International Success
Britta won a bronze medal at the 2000 Olympics as part of the German Women’s 4x200M free relay.
At the 2006 European Championships (Britta took 2005 off to concentrate on her studies), Britta broke the World Record in the 100M free, clocking a 53.30. She also swam on two German World Record-breaking relays, the 4x100M and the 4x200M relay.
At the 2008 Olympics, Britta won the 100M freestyle with an Olympic Record of 53.12, and the 50M freestyle, touching out American Dara Torres by .01 seconds with a 24.06.
Britta broke the World Record in the 100m freestyle at the 2009 World Championships, clocking a 52.07. Impressively, she also broke the 50M free record of 23.73.
Retirement
Britta retired from competition on September 27, 2013. Britta stated that “in recent weeks she “doubted” whether she had the “necessary motivation and energy for one or even three more years in competition for gold medals and championship titles”. As such, Rio 2016 was a Games too far.”
Britta has been dating another German swimmer, Paul Biedermann for over 6 years.
