Alain Bernard

Personal information
Full name	Alain Bernard
Nationality	France
Stroke(s)	Freestyle
Club	CN Antibes
Date of birth	1 May 1983 (1983-05-01) (age 26)
Place of birth	Aubagne, France
Height	1.96 m (6 ft 5 in)
Weight	93 kg (210 lb; 14.6 st)
Medal record Olympic Games Gold 2008 Beijing 100 m freestyle Silver 2008 Beijing 4×100 m freestyle Bronze 2008 Beijing 50 m freestyle World Championships (LC) Silver 2009 Rome 100 m freestyle Bronze 2007 Melbourne 4×100 m freestyle Bronze 2009 Rome 4×100 m freestyle European Championships (LC) Gold 2008 Eindhoven 100 m freestyle Gold 2008 Eindhoven 50 m freestyle Bronze 2006 Budapest 4×100 m freestyle European Championships (SC) Gold 2004 Vienna 4×50 m freestyle Gold 2008 Rijeka 4×50 m freestyle Gold 2007 Debrecen 100 m freestyle Silver 2005 Trieste 4×50 m freestyle Silver 2006 Helsinki 4×50 m freestyle Silver 2007 Debrecen 4×50 m freestyle Bronze 2006 Helsinki 100 m freestyle Bronze 2007 Debrecen 50 m freestyle Summer Universiade Gold 2005 Izmir 4×100 m freestyle Mediterranean Games Gold 2005 Almería 4×100 m freestyle

Alain Bernard (born 1 May 1983) is a French swimmer from Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône. Bernard has won three medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics. After competing on the silver medal-winning French 4×100 m relay team, Bernard won the gold medal in the men's 100 m freestyle event.

He held the same 100 m freestyle world record after winning the European LC Championships 2008 final in a time of 47.50 seconds on 22 March 2008. He had already beaten the world record the previous day, finishing in 47.60 seconds in the semi-finals. On 23 March Bernard lowered the 50 m freestyle world record to a time of 21.50 but only held the record for four days before being bettered by Australian Eamon Sullivan.^[1]

Contents 1 2008 Olympics 2 Personal bests 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

[edit] 2008 Olympics

At the French Championships, Bernard qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing in the 50 m freestyle (with a time of 21.69 s) and 100 m freestyle (47.82 s).

Before the 400 m freestyle relay against the Americans, he was quoted by a reporter as saying, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." He and his team ended up in second place behind the American team by .08 seconds. Bernard, who was given a lead going into the anchor leg of slightly less than a bodylength, was caught in the final strokes by Jason Lezak, whose anchor leg of 46.06 seconds was the fastest relay leg in history.

The close defeat left Bernard "wounded," according to his coach ^[2]. However, he rebounded to win the gold medal in the men's 100 metre freestyle final, in which Lezak tied for the bronze. Bernard became only the second Frenchman to win a gold medal in swimming, after Jean Boiteux, who won the 400 m freestyle at the 1952 Helsinki Games. He also finished third in the 50 m freestyle final behind César Cielo Filho of Brazil and Amaury Leveaux of France, making it the first time in Olympic history that France had produced two medallists in a swimming final.

He has a whale tattoo on his right hip.

[edit] Personal bests

Personal bests

Event	Long course	Short course
50 m freestyle	21.23	21.59
100 m freestyle	46.94	45.69
200 m freestyle	1:47.81	1:46.43

[edit] See also

• World record progression 100 metres freestyle
• (French) fr:Alain Bernard — his entry on French Wikipedia.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• swimrankings.net Bernard, Alain - Swim Rankings by GeoLogix AG, Switzerland.
• (French) Fiche de Bernard, Website of the sports daily L'Équipe.
• "Alain Bernard", n°29 on Time’s list of "100 Olympic Athletes To Watch"

Records
Preceded by Eamon Sullivan	Men's 50 metre freestyle world record holder (long course) 23 March 2008 – 27 March 2008	Succeeded by Eamon Sullivan
Preceded by Pieter van den Hoogenband	Men's 100 metre freestyle world record holder (long course) 21 March 2008 – 11 August 2008	Succeeded by Eamon Sullivan
Preceded by Eamon Sullivan	Men's 100 metre freestyle world record holder (long course) 13 August 2008	Succeeded by Eamon Sullivan
Preceded by Stefan Nystrand	Men's 100 metres freestyle world record holder (short course) 7 December 2008 – 12 December 2008	Succeeded by Amaury Leveaux
Preceded by Eamon Sullivan	Men's 100 metre freestyle world record holder (long course) 23 April 2009 – 22 June 2009 (record annulled)	Succeeded by Eamon Sullivan
Awards
Preceded by Mateusz Sawrymowicz	European Swimmer of the Year 2008	Succeeded by Incumbent

v • d • e Olympic Champions in Men's 100 m Freestyle 1896: Alfréd Hajós | 1904: (100 yards) Zoltán Halmay | 1906: Charles Daniels | 1908: Charles Daniels | 1912: Duke Kahanamoku | 1920: Duke Kahanamoku | 1924: Johnny Weissmuller | 1928: Johnny Weissmuller | 1932: Yasuji Miyazaki | 1936: Ferenc Csík | 1948: Walter Ris | 1952: Clarke Scholes | 1956: Jon Henricks | 1960: John Devitt | 1964: Don Schollander | 1968: Michael Wenden | 1972: Mark Spitz | 1976: Jim Montgomery | 1980: Jörg Woithe | 1984: Rowdy Gaines | 1988: Matt Biondi | 1992: Alexander Popov | 1996: Alexander Popov | 2000: Pieter van den Hoogenband | 2004: Pieter van den Hoogenband | 2008: Alain Bernard

v • d • e European Champions in Men's 50 m Freestyle 1987: Jörg Woithe (GDR) • 1989: Vladimir Tkacenko (URS) • 1991: Nils Rudolph (GER) • 1993: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 1995: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 1997: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 1999: Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED) • 2000: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 2002: Bartosz Kizierowski (POL) • 2004: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 2006: Bartosz Kizierowski (POL) • 2008: Alain Bernard (FRA)

v • d • e European Champions in Men's 100 m Freestyle 1926: István Bárány (HUN) • 1927: Arne Borg (SWE) • 1931: István Bárány (HUN) • 1934: Ferenc Csík (HUN) • 1938: Kees Hoving (NED) • 1947: Alexandre Jany (FRA) • 1950: Alexandre Jany (FRA) • 1954: Imre Nyéki (HUN) • 1958: Paolo Pucci (ITA) • 1962: Alain Gottvallès (FRA) • 1966: Bob McGregor (GBR) • 1970: Michel Rousseau (FRA) • 1974: Peter Nocke (FRG) • 1977: Peter Nocke (FRG) • 1981: Per Johansson (SWE) • 1983: Per Johansson (SWE) • 1985: Stéphan Caron (FRA) • 1987: Sven Lodziewski (GDR) • 1989: Giorgio Lamberti (ITA) • 1991: Alexander Popov (URS) • 1993: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 1995: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 1997: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 1999: Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED) • 2000: Alexander Popov (RUS) • 2002: Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED) • 2004: Filippo Magnini (ITA) • 2006: Filippo Magnini (ITA) • 2008: Alain Bernard (FRA)

v • d • e European Short Course Champions in Men's 100 m Freestyle  1996: Lars Conrad (GER)  •  1998: Lars Frölander (SWE)  •  1999: Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED)  •  2000 – 2001: Stefan Nystrand (SWE)  •  2002: Lorenzo Vismara (ITA)  •  2003: Pieter van den Hoogenband (NED)  •  2004: Frédérick Bousquet (FRA)  •  2005 – 2006: Filippo Magnini (ITA)  •  2007: Alain Bernard (FRA)  •  2008 – 2009: Amaury Leveaux (FRA)

v • d • e European Short Course Champions in Men's 4×50 m Freestyle Relay  1996: Germany (Conrad, Tröger, Nolte, Smollich)  •  1998: Netherlands (Veens, Kenkhuis, Aartsen, Van den Hoogenband)  •  1999: Sweden (Andersson, Frölander, Nystrand, Carlsson)  •  2000: Sweden (Dahl, Nystrand, Frölander, Andersson)  •  2001: Ukraine (Sylantyev, Volynets, Lisogor, Shyrshov)  •  2002: Netherlands (Kenkhuis, Damen, Holst, Veens)  •  2003: Netherlands (Veens, Kenkhuis, Damen, Van den Hoogenband)  •  2004: France (Maitre, Bernard, Barnier, Bousquet)  •  2005: Netherlands (Veens, Zastrow, Damen, Kenkhuis)  •  2006: Sweden (Nystrand, Stymne, Piehl, Tilly)  •  2007: Sweden (Stymne, Piehl, Nylin, Nystrand)  •  2008: France (Bernard, Gilot, Leveaux, Bousquet)  •  2009: France (Leveaux, Stravius, Maitre, Bousquet)

v • d • e Summer Universiade Champions in Men's 4×100 m Freestyle Relay  1959: Great Britain: Unknown  •  1961: Japan: Unknown  •  1963: Japan: Unknown  •  1965: USA: (Roth, Saari, Dilley, Ilman) •  1967: USA: (Walsh, Havens, Charlton, Zorn) •  1970: USA: (Havens, McConica, O'Mallay, Heckl) •  1973: USA: (Elliot, Tietre, Anderson, Knox) •  1977: USA: (Coan, Lambert, Curington, Ebuna) •  1979: Not Held  •  1981: USA: (Spencer, Schmidt, Goodridge, Kirschner) •  1983: Soviet Union: •  1985: USA: (McCadam, Born, Oppel, Biondi) •  1987: USA: (Hansen, Kerska, Williams, Thomas) •  1991: USA: (Anderson, Davis, Hansen, Towne) •  1993: USA: (Kurza, Pepper, Picotte, Fox) •  1995: USA: (Schumacher, Tucker, Gumbril, Davis) •  1997: USA: (Newman, Esway, Lezak, Jones) •  1999: Australia: (Goudie, Upton, Wyllie, Pine) •  2001: Great Britain: (Kidd, Scotcher, Cozens, Belk) •  2003: Great Britain: (Cozens, Scotcher, Davenport, Kidd) •  2005: France: (Galavtine, Bodet, Madelaine, Bernard) •  2007: USA: (McGinnis, Grevers, Lundquist, Ritter) •  2009: USA: (Copeland, Brady, Mcginnis, Robison)

v • d • e Mediterranean Champions in Men's 100 m Freestyle 1951: Alexandre Jany (FRA) · 1955: Aldo Eminente (FRA) · 1959: Paolo Pucci (ITA) · 1963: Alain Gottvallès (FRA) · 1967: José Chicoy (ESP) · 1971: Fabrizio Nardini (ITA) · 1975: Marcello Guarducci (ITA) · 1979: Marcello Guarducci (ITA) · 1983: Marcello Guarducci (ITA) · 1987: Giorgio Lamberti (ITA) · 1991: Christophe Kalfayan (FRA) · 1993: Christophe Kalfayan (FRA) · 1997: Salim Iles (ALG) · 2001: Salim Iles (ESP) · 2005: Salim Iles (ALG) · 2009: Alain Bernard (FRA)