Emiliano Brembilla (born 21 December 1978) is a freestyle swimmer from Italy who was five-time individual European Champion, four in 400 m freestyle (1997, 2000, 2002 and 2004) and one in 1500 m freestyle (1997). [1]
He won the bronze medal with the men's 4×200 m freestyle relay team at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece. [2] A long-distance specialist, he made his first mark at the 1997 European Swimming Championships in Seville, Spain, where he won three titles. Brembilla competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1996.
Brembilla won 41 national championships at individual senior level. [3]
Laure Manaudou is a retired French Olympic, world and European champion swimmer. She has held the world record in freestyle events between 200 and 1500 meter. She is the older sister of Florent Manaudou who is also an Olympic gold medalist swimmer.
Ryk Neethling OIS is a South African businessman who rose to prominence as the three-times World Champion and four-times World Record Breaking Olympic swimming champion.
Federica Pellegrini is an Italian retired swimmer. A native of Mirano, in the province of Venice, she won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. At the 2009 World Championships in Rome, Pellegrini became the first woman ever to break the 4-minute barrier in the 400 m freestyle with a time of 3:59.15. She also held the women's 200 meters freestyle world record.
Grant George Hackett OAM is an Australian swimmer, most famous for winning the men's 1500 metres freestyle race at both the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. This achievement has led him to be regarded as one of the greatest distance swimmers in history. He also collected a gold medal in Sydney for swimming in the heats of the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. He was well regarded for his versatility, and has held the long course world records in the 200 m, 800 m, and 1500 m freestyle events. He dominated the 1500 m event for a decade, being undefeated in the event in finals from 1996 until the 2007 World Aquatics Championships. In total, he won 10 long-course world championship gold medals.
Novella Calligaris is a retired Italian swimmer, and the first Italian to win an Olympic medal in swimming. Her elder brother Mauro Calligaris was also an Olympic swimmer.
Yana Oleksandrivna Klochkova is a Ukrainian swimmer, who has won five Olympic medals in her career, with four of them being gold. She is Merited Master of Sports (1998), Hero of Ukraine (2004). Klochkova was the most awarded Olympian from Ukraine until in 2024 fencer Olga Kharlan overtook her.
Massimiliano "Massi" Rosolino is an Italian retired competitive swimmer.
Anders Holmertz is a Swedish retired swimmer who was a leader in freestyle races in the 1980s and at the beginning of the 1990s, though often missing personal success. He also settled a record in the 400 m freestyle. He is the brother of another Swedish swimmer, Mikael Holmertz.
Daniel Steven Kowalski is an Australian former middle- and long-distance swimmer specialising in freestyle events. He competed in the Olympic Games in 200-, 400- and 1,500-metre individual freestyle events and in the 4 × 200-metre freestyle relay. At the 1996 Summer Olympics, he was the first man in 92 years to earn medals in all of the 200-, 400- and 1500-metre freestyle events. Kowalski, alongside Livinia Nixon, hosted the short-lived TV show Plucka's Place in 1997. Kowalski is perhaps best known for having been a perpetual runner-up to fellow Australians Kieren Perkins and Grant Hackett, who were, respectively, the world's best 1500-metre freestyle competitors during the earlier and later parts of Kowalski's career. He was an Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder. Daniel's coaches included Denis Cotterell and Bill Nelson.
Oussama "Ous" Mellouli is a Tunisian swimmer who competes in the freestyle and medley events. He is a three-time Olympic medalist, is an African record holder, and trains with the USC Trojans team based at the University of Southern California, where he studied as a computer science undergraduate and swam collegiately.
Frederik Carlo Hviid Köhler is a former long-distance freestyle and medley swimmer from Spain who competed at two consecutive Summer Olympics for his native country, starting in 1996. In the late 1990s he won several medals in the international short course and long course events. He's a recipient of the Spanish Cross of the Order of Merit, handed to him by then crown prince Felipe de Borbón.
Alessia Filippi is a retired Italian swimmer.
Éva Risztov is a Hungarian Olympic gold medalist female swimmer.
Mireia Belmonte García is a Spanish Olympic, world, and European champion swimmer. She is the world record holder in the short course 200 metre butterfly and 400 metre individual medley. Formerly, she held the world record in the short course 400 metre freestyle, 800 metre freestyle, and 1500 metre freestyle. She was the first Spanish woman to win a gold medal in swimming at an Olympic Games and is widely considered to be the greatest Spanish swimmer of all time.
Diana Marie Munz, later known by her married name Diana DePetro, is an American former competition swimmer and Olympic champion from Moreland Hills, Ohio. She represented the United States at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, where she won a gold medal in the women's 4×200-meter freestyle relay and a silver medal in 400-meter freestyle. Four years later at the 2004 Athens Olympics she added a bronze medal in the 800-meter freestyle to her Olympic medal collection. She has 3 daughters; Sydney, Her song, Reogun, and Penelope.
The men's 200 metre freestyle event at the 2008 Olympic Games took place on 10–12 August at the Beijing National Aquatics Center in Beijing, China. There were 58 competitors from 50 nations. The winning margin was 1.89 seconds which as of 2023 remains the only time this race has been won by more than 1.8 seconds at the Olympics.
Zhang Lin is a retired Chinese competitive male swimmer. He is an Olympic silver medalist, world champion, and the current world-record holder in the 800 metre freestyle.
Pál Joensen is a Faroese elite swimmer. He was born in Vágur, Suðuroy, Faroe Islands. He has won World and European Championship medals. His bronze medal in the men's 1500 metre freestyle at the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships in Istanbul was the first medal won by a Faroese swimmer at the World Aquatic Championships.
Kathleen Genevieve Ledecky is an American competitive swimmer. She has won nine Olympic gold medals and 21 world championship gold medals, the most in history for a female swimmer. With 14 medals and 9 gold medals, she is also the most decorated American woman, most decorated female swimmer, the female with the most gold medals and fifth-most decorated athlete in Olympic history. She has won a record 16 individual gold medals at the World Aquatics Championships. Ledecky's eight individual medals at the Olympics and 26 overall medals at the World Aquatics Championships are records in women's swimming. Ledecky is the world record holder in the women's 800- and 1500-meter freestyle, as well as the former world record holder in the women's 400-meter freestyle. She also holds the fastest-ever times in the women's 500-, 1000-, and 1650-yard freestyle events. She is widely regarded as the greatest female swimmer of all time and one of the greatest Olympians of all time.
Simona Quadarella is an Italian swimmer. She specializes in long distance freestyle events. At the 2020 Summer Olympics, she won a bronze medal in Women's 800 metre freestyle, and at the 2019 World Championships in Gwangju, won the gold medal in the 1500 m freestyle, and the silver medal in the 800 m freestyle.