Each Wednesday for a six-week period from June 23 to July 28, one of the newly-minted 2021 inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame will be profiled. In our third installment, meet Olympic swimmer Marianne Limpert, a silver-medalist at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Games who hails from Fredericton, N.B.

Limpert was born on Oct. 10, 1972 in Matagami, Que., and graduated from Fredericton High School.  A 5-foot-11 freestyle and medley specialist with the national team for 15 years, she swam for Canada at three Olympics, namely Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996) and Sydney (2000).

After winning silver at the Atlanta Games, she enrolled at McGill, majoring in humanistic studies and had a stellar freshman campaign in 1996-97. She won 25 of 27 races and led the McGill Martlets to the Quebec conference title as well as a third-place standing at the CIAU national championships in St. Catharines, Ont.,  the team's highest finish ever.

Limpert merited all-star status in the QSSF conference after winning four gold medals at the league championship meet in Sherbrooke, Que. She then earned All-Canadian honours with a spectacular five gold medals at the Nationals, sweeping the 50-metre breaststroke, 100 breast, 200 individual medley, 4x100 medley relay and the 4x200 freestyle relay. Sho also claimed bronze in the 4x100 freestyle relay.

Limpert established McGill records in the 100 breast (1:11.08), 200 breast (2:37.25), 200 IM (2:14.21, QSSF record), 4x50 free relay (1:49.74), 4x100 free relay (3:52.92),  4x200 free relay (8:20.02, QSSF & CIAU record), 4x100 medley relay (4:15.65).

She spent much of her adult swimming career in Vancouver, B.C., under the direction of national team coach Tom Johnson. She graduated from the University of British Columbia in 2002 and retired from competitive sport in 2005.

Limpert represented Canada in more than 100 international competitions reaching the podium 84 times. At the world championships, Limpert captured a full set of medals – one gold in 1995 (4x200m freestyle), and in 2000 one silver (100m medley) and one bronze (200m individual medley).

For her silver medal performance at the Atlanta Olympics, she clocked a time of 2:14.35 in the individual medley, a race won by Ireland's Michelle Smith who later received a four-year ban for tampering with a drug test urine sample. As soon as Limpert received her medal from Prince Albert of Monaco, she presented it to her father, a German-born boxer who was unable to compete for Canada because of his citizenship.

She also served as a flagbearer for Canada in the Opening Ceremonies at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and was previously inducted to the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame (2007) and the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame (2008).

Other new laureates joining Limpert in the 2021 McGill induction class include basketball Olympian Sylvia Sweeney of Montreal, Olympic rower Derek O'Farrell (BSc '07) of Unionville, Ont., five-time volleyball All-Canadian Jennifer Thomson (BEd '09, MA '11) of Rosemere, Que., Gilles Hudon (BA '84), a three-time hockey all-star from Montreal, and longtime fundraiser Thomas Thompson (BSc [PE] '58; DipEd '61; MEd '78), who was elected in the builder category.

The hallowed Hall now has 163 honoured members, 30 of them Olympians, since the pantheon was initiated in 1996. The induction ceremonies are slated for Oct. 27 and ticket information will be available in early September . Profiles for previous inductees to the McGill Sports Hall of Fame are also available online at: www.mcgillathletics.ca/hof.aspx


SOURCE:
Earl Zukerman
Communications Officer
Athletics & Recreation
McGill University
514-398-7012 (Tel.)
m.athletics.mcgill.ca (mobile website)
www.mcgillathletics.ca
earl.zukerman@mcgill.ca