{"id":362513,"date":"2019-04-04T13:53:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T20:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/?p=362513"},"modified":"2019-04-17T18:55:15","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T01:55:15","slug":"germanys-fastest-female-swimmer-ever-britta-steffen-to-be-inducted-into-ishof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.swimmingworldmagazine.com\/news\/germanys-fastest-female-swimmer-ever-britta-steffen-to-be-inducted-into-ishof\/","title":{"rendered":"German Sprinter & Olympian, Britta Steffen, To Be Inducted Into ISHOF"},"content":{"rendered":"

Britta Steffen is one of the fastest female swimmers Germany has ever produced.\u00a0 She specialized in the sprint freestyle events and won a total of three Olympic medals, two gold and one bronze in two different Olympic Games, eight years apart, 2000, Sydney and 2008, Beijing. Despite periods of health issues, injuries, and training challenges, Britta refocused and rebounded both mentally and physically in her training to ultimately finish with a successful swimming career with four Olympic appearances and several world records.\u00a0 Britta Steffen will be inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame as a member of the Class of 2019 during the Honoree Induction ceremony in Fort Lauderdale, Florida,<\/a> May 18, 2019.<\/p>\n

Come celebrate Britta and the other honorees at the ISHOF Induction dinner.\u00a0<\/a> Become an ISHOF Legacy Member and attend the ISHOF Induction Dinner for FREE.<\/a>\u00a0 Can’t attend the event? Please consider making a donation to ISHOF<\/a> to support Britta and our other inspirational honorees<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Britta<\/p>\n

About Britta Steffen<\/h2>\n

Britta began competing in 1998 and 1999 at youth championships in Germany and in Europe. In 1999, at age 15, Steffen became an eight-time European Junior Champion.\u00a0 At 17, she was selected to be a member of the German Olympic Team and traveled to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney.\u00a0 As a member of 4 x 200m freestyle relay team, she won her first Olympic medal, a bronze.<\/p>\n

\"Britta<\/p>\n

In 2004, Steffen was chosen for her second Olympic Team. While in Athens, on the first day of competition, she injured her foot and was unable to compete at all.\u00a0 Britta was devastated.<\/p>\n

After her heart-breaking Olympic experience in Athens, Britta returned home to begin her studies and work on her bachelor\u2019s degree in Environmental Engineering, in addition to her training.\u00a0 This greatly changed her schedule and made her day much longer.\u00a0 She often had to start practice later than her teammates and for more than half of her training time, she was alone.<\/p>\n

She was always exhausted and after a few weeks, ended up with a severe cold. Britta had a lot of time to think while she was in bed sick.\u00a0 She knew she could swim as fast as the men in practice, but could never do it in competition, when it counted.\u00a0 Somehow, she just was not able to prove her abilities in competition.\u00a0 She decided it was time to quit swimming, or at least take a break.\u00a0 Her coach, Norbert Warnatzsch<\/strong> was very disappointed and tried to convince her to keep swimming.<\/p>\n

She knew she had to change her thinking if she ever wanted to continue swimming.\u00a0 She met psychologist, Dr. Friederike Janofske<\/strong>, who specialized in high performance and health.\u00a0 She began to train Britta mentally and taught her how to help herself be stronger.\u00a0 Britta made many changes with her workouts, her relationship with her coach, her thoughts mentally, and much more.\u00a0 Britta was on a new path, and she hoped, to winning\u2026\u2026.<\/p>\n

\"Britta<\/p>\n

In 2005, Britta Steffen returned to swimming.\u00a0 Still the question was, could Britta get out of her own head?\u00a0 “Mental thoughts are very powerful and very hard to control or change,” says Britta.\u00a0 Among other things, Britta had worked very hard to overcome her thoughts and insecurities, but was it enough?<\/p>\n

Steffen headed to Budapest to compete in the 2006 European Championships.\u00a0 She broke three world records and came away with four gold medals and one silver.\u00a0 She swam her first world record in the 100m freestyle in a time of 53.30, and the other two world record swims were on the 4 x 100 freestyle relay (3:35.94) and the 4 x 200 freestyle relay (7:50.82). \u00a0The good news was she had become the most successful athlete of the 2006 European Championships and was celebrated as the new German swimming star!\u00a0 Not surprisingly, the German Swimming Federation named Britta Swimmer of the Year for 2006.<\/p>\n

\"Britta<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, sometimes, with good comes bad.\u00a0 The bad news was the question of her potential doping being raised by the international media.\u00a0 To put this into context, at this time in sports history, messages about doping and particularly cycling, flooded the media and were a part of conversations that carried over into all sports.\u00a0 Britta Steffen, however, never failed a drug test. She even volunteered for examinations to try and squash the rumors.\u00a0 All doping tests were negative, but any athlete that experiences fast, high-profile success also undergoes tremendous scrutiny.\u00a0 A roller coaster ride for Britta was about to begin again.\u00a0 After her success in Budapest, she attended the World Championships (2007-Melbourne) a year later and came away with only a silver (100m free) and a bronze (4 x 200m free relay, despite participating in several other events.<\/p>\n

The Beijing Olympic Games was considered a great success individually for Britta Steffen.\u00a0 She came away with two gold medals.\u00a0 The first was the 100m freestyle in which she out-touched Libby Lenton-Trickett<\/strong> at the very last stroke with a time of 53.21, bettering her own Olympic record.\u00a0 Lenton-Trickett and Steffen had been bettering the world record up and back for the last year or more, so it was anyone\u2019s guess as to who would take it in Beijing, but it was Steffen who proved victorious.\u00a0 Winning this medal, made Steffen the first German to win gold in swimming since Dagmar Hase<\/strong> in 1992, Barcelona.\u00a0 In the 50m freestyle, Britta just edged out American Dara Torres<\/strong> to win gold with a time of 24.06, winning by 0.01 seconds. 2008, the same year as her Beijing Olympics performance, Britta was chosen as German Sportswoman of the Year.<\/p>\n

\"Britta

Britta Steffen won two gold medals at 2008 Beijing Olympics<\/p><\/div>\n

Steffen headed to Rome for the 2009 FINA World Championships.\u00a0 In her first event, the 100m freestyle, she swam a world-record breaking, 52.07 and won gold, beating her own previous time of 52.22, that she had set just four days earlier.\u00a0 Two days later, she swam the 50m freestyle, winning her second gold and breaking her second world record, lowering the time to 23.73.\u00a0 Britta\u2019s record in the 50m free stood for an amazing eight years, until Sarah Sjostrom<\/strong> broke it on July 29, 2017, and her 100 free record held almost just as long, until July 2, 2016, when Cate Campbell<\/strong> broke it.<\/p>\n

Things took another turn for the worse in 2010 when Britta faced a slew of health issues.\u00a0 There were not more than 10 days in a row that she could train during the entire year.\u00a0 She missed the European Championships in Budapest because of a bout of bronchitis. Continuing her roller coaster ride, she attended the 2011 FINA World Championships (Shanghai) and did not medal.<\/p>\n

Things turned around in 2012, where she attended the European Championships and brought home three gold and one silver.<\/p>\n

London and the 2012 Olympics Games did not go as well as Britta had wanted. She placed fourth in the 50m freestyle with a time of 24.46.\u00a0 It was the best finish of any German swimmer of the Games, but not how Britta envisioned the outcome.\u00a0 It would be her last Olympic Games.<\/p>\n

Britta Steffen retired in September of 2013, stating that \u201cin recent weeks, she \u201cdoubted\u201d whether she had the necessary motivation and energy for one or even three more years in competition for gold medals and championships titles.\u201d\u00a0 As such, Rio was a Games too far.\u00a0 Despite the ups and downs through the years, Britta closed out her competitive swimming career with so much to be proud of and is now enjoying life as a mom.<\/p>\n

\"Britta

Britta and her son; Photo Courtesy: Britta Steffen<\/p><\/div>\n

About The International Swimming Hall of Fame\u00a0Induction Weekend<\/a><\/h2>\n

\"International<\/p>\n

The\u00a0International Swimming Hall of Fame (ISHOF) Induction Ceremony is shaping up to be a star-studded weekend with multiple events spread out over three days in beautiful Fort Lauderdale, Florida.\u00a0 Make your plans now to attend the weekend of May 17-19, 2019!\u00a0\u00a0ISHOF Members can purchase the Weekend Package and Save<\/a>!\u00a0 Can’t attend the event? Make a donation to ISHOF<\/a> to support our honorees.<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s International Swimming Hall of Fame honorees include\u00a0<\/span>Swimmers:\u00a0<\/span>Jason Lezak <\/b><\/a>(USA), <\/span>Otylia Jedrzejczak <\/b><\/a>(POL),<\/span> Stephanie Rice<\/b><\/a> (AUS), <\/span>Britta Steffen<\/b>\u00a0(GER);\u00a0Diver:<\/span> Li Ting <\/b><\/a>(CHN); Water Polo Player:\u00a0<\/span>Alessandro Campagna <\/b><\/a>(ITA); Coach:\u00a0<\/span>Boris Popov<\/a>\u00a0<\/b>(RUS)<\/span>;\u00a0\u00a0<\/b>Synchronized Swimmer:<\/span>\u00a0Olga Sedakova <\/a><\/b>(RUS);\u00a0<\/span>Open Water Swimmer<\/span>: Marcy MacDonald<\/b><\/a> (USA); Contributor:\u00a0<\/span>Dr. Ferenc Salamon<\/b><\/a> (HUN); and Pioneer<\/span>: Alfred Nakache<\/a><\/b>* (FRA). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

ISHOF will also present the 2019 Gold Medallion Award to<\/span> Dr. Joseph B. MacInnis <\/a><\/b>(CAN).<\/b><\/p>\n

2019 Paragon Award<\/a> and ISHOF Specialty Award<\/a> Recipients<\/h2>\n