Marianne Limpert

Marianne Louise Limpert (born October 10, 1972) is a Canadian former freestyle and medley swimmer who competed in the Summer Olympics for Canada in 1992, 1996 and 2000, and won the silver medal in the 200-metre individual medley at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. She swam for Canada in over one hundred international competitions, capturing 80 medals in international meets. At the World Championships, she won all three possible medals. She won a gold in 1995 World Championships in the 4x200m freestyle, and at the 2000 Worlds, won both a silver in the 100m medley and a bronze in the 200m individual medley. She won nine medals at the 1994, 1998, and 2002 Commonwealth Games, and served as Canada's flagbearer at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Limpert was born October 10, 1972 in Matagami, Quebec to Heinz, a helicopter pilot and Marianne Limpert. He had trained in his youth as a boxer in his native country of Germany, and qualified for the 1964 Canadian Olympic team but could not compete as he had not lived in Canada long enough to gain citizenship. After the family moved to Canada's East Coast, Limpert spent her high school years in New Brunswick where she graduated from Fredericton High School in Fredericton, New Brunswick, the province's capital. Sue Leitch and Bruce Fisher were her swim coaches at Fredericton High. A strong team, by 1988, the Fredericton High School Black Cats swimming team had won the New Brunswick Interscholastic Association Swimming Championship (NBIAA) in three successive years. During High School, she also swam for the Fredericton Aquanaut Swim Team (FAST), a highly competitive program under accomplished swim coach Claude St. Jean. St. Jean was a Canadian Hall of Fame recipient, who mentored six Canadian Olympians during his career.

At 16 in August, 1989, she won a gold medal in the 100 meter breaststroke with a time of 1:13.82 at the 1989 Jeux Canada Games in Saskatoon. Swimming for FAST in December 1989, she set two provincial records, one in the 200 meter Individual Medley with a time of 2:20.04, and another record in the 400 meter individual medley. In 1990, she would improve on her 200 Meter IM time to 2:16.74, then the fifth best in the world. In 1989, and 1990, Limpert was named the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal Female Athlete of the Year.

In September 1990, at 18, Limpert trained at the University of Toronto in Ontario, where she was managed by the university's head coach Byron McDonald.

After the 1996 Olympics, Limpert enrolled at McGill University in Montreal beginning in the fall of 1996, majoring in humanistic studies and had an outstanding freshman year swimming for the school in 1996-97. While in Montreal, she continued training with her high school swim coach Claude St. Jean, who had moved to Montreal in 1996 to coach Club Aquatique Montreal, known as CAMO, the Montreal Aquatic Club which met at the Claud Robillard Center. CAMO was only around 6 miles or 10 km from the McGill Campus, convenient to Limpert.

In the 1996-1997 swimming season at McGill, Limpert won 25 races and led McGill to the Quebec conference title and a third-place finish at the CIAU national championships in St. Catharines, Ontario. It was the McGill swim team's highest finish ever at a national meet. Limpert held school records at McGill in the 100 breast of 1:11.08, in the 200 breast of 2:37.25, in the 200 Individual Medley of 2:14.21, a conference record. In relay events, she swam on winning teams that set a 4x50 free relay record of 1:49.74, a 4x100 free relay record of 3:52.92, a 4x200 free relay record of 8:20.02, both a conference and Canadian Interscholastic Athletic Union record, and a 4x100 medley relay record of 4:15.65. Earning all-Candian honors from her performance at the CIAU Nationals, Limpert won five gold medals in the 50m and 100m breast, the 200m individual medley, the 4x100 medley relay, and the 4x200m freestyle relay. She also won a bronze at Nationals in the 4x100 free relay.

In July 1997, Limpert worked out early morning at CAMO in Montreal, attended classes and did a workout with the McGill swim team, but found the routine too exhausting. Her total yardage per day with her two workouts likely averaged 5–7 thousand meters, around 3–5 miles per day. She switched for a period to training primarily with the McGill Swim team and training with Claude St. Jean's CAMO Club only in the summers. Limpert also had responsibilities as part of the Canadian National Team during her years at McGill.

She later graduated from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, completing a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2002. She likely received training from the university's Assistant swim coach Randy Bennett, who would coach the Canadian Olympic team at the 2012 Olympics. Limpert also swam for the Vancouver, British Columbia Pacific Dolphins Swim Club under the direction of Canadian national team coach Tom Johnson who coached the Dolphins from 1979-1990, though Johnson continued to coach Limpert beyond those years. He also served as the Head Swim coach of the University of British Columbia from 1990-2005 during Limpert's enrollment at the university. A nationally recognized coach, Johnson helped start the Canadian National Training Center at the University of British Columbia and served as a Director from 1998-2006, during all of Limpert's elite swimming career.