Martina Moravcová

Martina Moravcová (born 16 January 1976) is a Slovak medley, butterfly, and freestyle swimmer. She made her international swimming debut in 1991 for Czechoslovakia, and went on to compete in five consecutive Summer Olympics (1992–2008). She is a two-time Olympic silver medalist, both achieved at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. In the 100 metre butterfly, she finished second to Inge de Bruijn, and in the 200 metre freestyle, she finished eight one-hundredths of a second to home favourite Susie O'Neill.

Martina Moravcová was born in 1976 in Piešťany. As a child, she liked to go to the swimming pool and swim in the Váh river; when she became a young girl, she participated in yachting on Sĺňava Lake.^[1] In 1995 she moved to Dallas, Texas, where she started attending Southern Methodist University.^[2] She was diagnosed with Graves' disease in 1999.^[3]

Moravcová represented Czechoslovakia at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain. The youngest member of her country's delegation at 16 years old, she took part in the 100 metre butterfly and the 100 metre freestyle.^[2]

In 1999, she was named the NCAA's Women's Swimmer of the Year^[4] While at SMU, she won the Honda Sports Award as the nation's top female swimmer in 1999.^[5][6]

Moravcová represented Slovakia at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She reached the final of the 100 metre butterfly, finishing second behind Inge de Bruijn who set a new world record in the race, to claim a silver medal.^[3] In the 200 metre freestyle, Moravcová became Slovakia's first multiple Olympic medal winner after finishing second in the final for another silver. She completed the race in 1 minute, 58.32 seconds, a national record and less than a tenth of a second behind gold medallist Susie O'Neill.^[7]

In 2000–01 FINA Swimming World Cup, Moravcová was the top women's winner in the FINA's World Cup series, winning eight events.^[8] She repeated the achievement in 2002 and 2004.^[9][10] She won her 100th World Cup gold medal in Moscow in 2005.^[11]

In 2008, Moravcová headed to the Summer Olympics for the fifth time as one of only two Slovak swimmers in her nation's delegation.^[12]

In 2014 she became a coach of a Slovak Swimming Camp at which she helped 700 children to achieve their goals.^[13]

She is a mother to two children.^[13]

• Official website
• Martina Moravcová at World Aquatics
• Martina Moravcová at Olympedia
• Martina Moravcová at Olympics.com
• Martina Moravcová at Olympic.sk (in Slovak)