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. 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.

University of British Columbia 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.

Olympics Representing Canada, Limpert swam in the 1992 Barcelona, 1996 Atlanta and 2000 Sydney Olympics for Canada. At the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Limpert swam the lead off leg and placed 8th in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay and recorded a combined team time of 3:49.37. She made the finals, and placed 6th in the 200 meter Individual Medley swimming a time of 2:17.09. Limpert also placed 7th in the 4x100 meter freestyle relay and 5th in the 4x200 meter freestyle relay at the Atlanta Olympics.

At the 1995 Pan American Games, she won two silver medals in the 200-metre freestyle and in the 200-metre individual medley, and a bronze medal in the 100-metre freestyle.

At the 1995 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, she won a bronze medal in the 4x200-metre freestyle relay.

At the 1997 Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, she won two silver medals in the 200-metre individual medley and in the 4x200-metre freestyle relay.

Honors The University of New Brunswick, in her hometown of Fredericton, New Brunswick, has an annual swim meet, the Marianne Limpert Team Cup, named after her.

In 1997, Limpert was named the Athlete of the Year, and University Athlete of the Year by the Quebec Swimming Federation. She was rated third in the world in the 200 meter Individual Medley that year.

Limpert became a member of the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2007 and was inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

As an outstanding collegiate competitor for multiple years, Limpert was admitted to the McGill University Sports Hall of Fame in 2021.