Swimming Blogs - Chris DeSantis

My post on Giorgio Lamberti got me thinking about other swimmers who held the world record for a long period of time but for the most part garnered little attention stateside. It occurred to me that nearly contemporary to Lamberti there was a woman who held the 200 free world record for an even longer period of time. Although unlike Lamberti she did medal in the event over a career that spanned four olympics, she swam in two of those games as the world record holder and came home empty handed in her best event. The swimmer was Franziska Van Almsick.

In this case, however, there is no doubt in my mind whether Franziska was a well recognized star. Part of her celebrity came from her appearance. Perhaps to a lesser degree than Amanda Beard is today, she was sexualized by the European swimming press. Van Almsick did not hesitate to capitalize on her sexuality. If you travel to her site you can see very suggestive photos of the German star:

http://www.franzi.de/index.php?id=37

Yet there was more about Franzi that captivated swimming eyes. She was a complete and utter enigma in the pool. At first she seemed like a rocket poised to dominate the women's freestyle events. She won bronze in 1992 at just 14 years of age in the 100 free. Two years later, at the 1994 World Championship, she set the world record in the 200 free, lowering it nearly a second to 1:56.78. However, in 1996 she would win silver in the 200 free. Far be it for me to call any olympic medal disappointing, but Van Almsick could have been significantly slower than her best and still won gold, as Claudia Poll captured victory in just 1:58.16.

The next six years of her career would be possibly the darkest for Van Almsick. In 2000, still only 22 years old and the world record holder, the winning time was even slower in the event than Poll's from 1996. Van Almsick would not even qualify for the final, clocking 2:00.26. It seemed as if Franzi had been a child phenom who's talent had somehow burned out at a terribly young age. I can recall watching the games and thinking she had long since retired.

To say that few saw what was coming in 2002 at the European Championships in Berlin would be a severe understatement. Van Almsick dominated the field in the 200 free and broke her own world record from 1994. She also won the 100 free. All of a sudden, a phoenix rising from the ashes of her broken career, Franzi was back. The fact that her dramatic comeback occurred in her home country of Germany exacerbated the excitement over Franzi's return.

As exciting as 2002 was, the Athens Olympics in 2004 would bring heartbreak again. For the third consecutive Olympics, she would enter as the world record holder and need only to come close to her best to win. The winning time was eerily similar, 1:58.03, and yet Van Almsick would not even medal.

In fact, the most curious part of Van Almsick's career would prove to be the lack of challengers to her world record. In the past two years we've seen a spike in women's performance in the 200 free such that several have bettered Van Almsick's time. But for the duration of her active career, no swimmer even came close to bettering her world records. In fact, her years with the record presided over what seemed like a worldwide malaise in women's 200 freestyle swimming ability. She will be remembered as a sparkling talent that suffered from inconsistency for one reason or another.

In the end, I wanted to include a video of her swimming one of those two glorious 200 freestyles but my youtube search could only turn up videos of her modeling swim suits. If anyone out there can find some Franzi swimming videos I would greatly appreciate it!

Update:
Thanks to John Gullotta, here is one.