Franziska van Almsick (born April 5, 1978 in Berlin, Germany) is a German swimmer. She won her first Olympic Medals in 1992 at the Barcelona Olympic Games aged 14. Over her career, she earned six career Olympic medals, with none of them being gold. She also holds the world record in the 200 meter freestyle, which she set in 2002 after holding the previous record for eight years. She ended her career at the Athens Olympic Games. April 5 is the 95th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (96th in leap years). ... 1978 was a common year starting on Sunday (the link is to a full 1978 calendar). ... For other uses, see Berlin (disambiguation). ... Swimming is the most highly participated sport in the world. ... The Games of the XXV Olympiad were held in 1992 in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. ... The Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, commonly known as the 2004 Summer Olympics were the 28th Summer Olympic Games. ...
At 50 metres vanAlmsick was just 0.07 seconds inside her record but deafening cheers from her fans helped her increase that lead to a huge 0.79 seconds with 50 metres remaining.
The popular vanAlmsick, back to her best after years in the wilderness, started her Berlin campaign by inspiring a German victory in a world record time in Monday's 4x100 metres freestyle relay before anchoring the German quartet to another gold in Tuesday's 4x200 freestyle event.
VanAlmsick has been through hard times since bursting into the limelight as a fresh-faced 14-year-old by winning silver for the 200 metres freestyle and bronze for the 100 metres freestyle at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
VanAlmsick, who had fallen out of the ranks of the top swimmers years ago, swam 1 minute 56.64 seconds in the 200 meter freestyle as she lowered her record by.14 seconds -- eight years after she set the mark at the world championships in Rome.
VanAlmsick, who was raised in Berlin, cried after she climbed out of the pool to the wild cheers of 4,000 spectators at the Landsberger Allee arena, where long lines waited to gain entrance.
VanAlmsick drew huge roars from the crowd as she raced in front right from the start and was.59 seconds ahead of old record at the halfway point.
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