On the eve of the 2014 Mare Nostrum series, which kicks off Saturday morning in Monaco, we’re reminded that this is the meet where perhaps the most famous of swimming romances was born.
Rewind to the year 2000, and Charlene Wittstock was racing for her adopted home country of South Africa (she was born in Zimbabwe when it was called Rhodesia), there she met Albert II, Prince of Monaco, at this very same Mare Nostrum meet. This was shortly before her first Olympic appearance.
They are reported to have first crossed paths one late night after racing was completed. While it took 6 years for them to officially declare a public romance (it was at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games opening ceremonies), the couple has been very, very good to the sport.
Besides the continued sponsorship of this meet, Princess Charlene has stepped in and provided significant financial support for a struggling South African federation. She provided a host for the pre-Olympic training camp in 2012, and has also pledged support for the ‘Get the Girls to Gold’ program.
Albert himself is quite a successful athlete. He is a five-time Olympic bobsledder for Monaco. When he was younger, he was a swimmer in the United States. Now as a member of the International Olympic Committee, he has continued to be a steadfast supporter of swimming from a further position of power.
This story is now once again news not just because the Mare Nostrum begins tomorrow. Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene announced last week that they are to be expecting the first child since being married in 2011.
This child upon its birth will then become the first in line to take the throne of Monaco. Prince Albert is already 56 years old, and even 12 years ago, concern was so high that he would not produce an heir that the Constitution of Monaco was actually amended to allow his sister, Princess Caroline, and her heirs to take seat at the head of the table if Albert never had a legitimized child – a possibility previously not allowed for.
And so, a love born upon the pools and the glory of the race comes full-circle, 14 years later, and this time with perhaps an heir to the throne of Monaco, and the throne of Monaco swimming, on the way. Monaco typically produces an Olympic swimmer (they have in three of the last four years), but it is usually through the Universality program and giving little challenge to make it out of prelims, let alone medal.
But this heir to Prince Albert and Princess Charlene holds the key to the continued support of swimming in Monaco. Perhaps it will be on-hand in 2015 to witness its Meeting International de Natation de Monte Carlo, and it too will fall in love with the sport of swimming, and continue the monarchy’s support for another generation.
