Mireia Belmonte García is a Spanish Olympic, world, and European champion swimmer. She is the first female Olympic champion in the history of Spanish swimming and is widely considered to be the greatest Spanish swimmer of all time. At the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio she became Olympic champion in the 200-metre butterfly, and also won the bronze medal in the 400-metre individual medley. She previously participated at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, where she debuted at 17 years old, and at 2012 London, where she won two silver medals; in the 200-metre butterfly with a time of 2:05.25 and in the 800-metre freestyle with a time of 8:18.76, improving the national record by four seconds.
Biography
Early years
Mireia's parents, José Belmonte and Paqui García, moved to Catalonia and the family has always lived in the La Salud quarter of Badalona. She was advised to swim at the age of 5 by her doctor. was the swimming club where she started to compete. In 2003, she obtained a scholarship from to train at the in San Cugat del Vallés. Her coach was Jordi Murio when she was signed by . After 6 years in this club, she was signed in the 2007/08 season by . She continued training at the CAR with her new coach, Carles Subirana. In 2009 she left the CAR and moved to the Club Natación Sabadell to train with Michael Piper and later Fred Vernoux.
On 21 March 2008, at the 2008 European LC Championships held in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, Belmonte won the women's 200-metre individual medley breaking the European Championship record with the time of 2:11.16. She also reached 8th place in the 400-metre individual medley. The European Short Course Swimming Championships 2008 took place in Rijeka, where she won the 400 m individual medley gold medal in a new world record time of 4:25:06. The record was previously held by the American swimmer Julia Smit, who set a time of 4:25.87 on 28 November 2008 in Toronto, Canada.
Although the season 2009–2010 was not very good for her, Belmonte recovered her best form and appeared strengthened when she arrived at the 2010 FINA World Swimming Championships, where she achieved a very remarkable performance, winning three gold medals: the 200-metre butterfly, the 200-metre medley and the 400-metre medley and a silver medal in the 800-metre freestyle, in which she was only surpassed by her teammate Érika Villaécija.
2011 XII Spanish Championship
In 2011 at the XII Championship of Spain, she swam the best time of the year in the 400-metre medley and a new record with 4:24.91. She also reached a record in the 200-metre butterfly with 2:06:25, obtaining the minimum marks for the World Championships in Shanghai at three different distances. Also in 2011 she was at the head in the Holland competition of the 800-metre freestyle, beating the record of Spain with 8:22.78.
In August 2012 Belmonte won two silver medals at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London: one in 200m butterfly and another one in 800m freestyle. She became the first Spanish swimmer to win two Olympic medals.
After four months without training, she was presented as a member of the team of the Universidad Católica San Antonio de Murcia on 21 January, with a federative license for the UCAM Club Natación Fuensanta. Thus, she could combine her studies in Business Management with her training in Sabadell through a blended learning program. That year, the World Swimming Championship was held in Barcelona. Belmonte would compete in 6 events during the 8 days of the competition. On 29 July, she won the bronze medal in the 200-metre medley. On 1 August, she won the silver medal in the 200-metre butterfly. On 4 August, the last day of the championship, she won her second silver medal in the 400-metre medley. On 5 August, she was honored in her birthplace, Badalona, where he was received by hundreds of fans and decorated by the Mayor Xavier García Albiol in an institutional act. On 10 August, she broke the world record in the short course 800 m freestyle, becoming the first woman to achieve a time under 8 minutes. The next day she broke the world record for the 400-metre freestyle in short course with a time of 3:54.52.17. On 29 November, she broke the record again.
2013 European Championship
On 12 December, at the European Short Course Swimming Championship held in Herning, Mireia won the gold medal in the 200-metre butterfly, beating the continental record in at time of 2:01.52.19. The next day, she won another gold medal in the 800-metre freestyle with a time of 8:05.18. She defeated the local heroine Lotte Friis in that final.
Belmonte won four individual gold medals and broke two world records:
2014 World Championship Swimming in Short Course Doha
On December 3, she won two gold medals in the 200-metre butterfly and in the 400-metre medley. And at the same time she achieved the world record with substantial time improvements, making her the first swimmer to go under 2 minutes in the 200-metre butterfly. In both races, she had to compete with her main rival, the Hungarian Katinka Hosszú, who topped their duels during the majority of the competitions, but was beaten by Mireia in both finals.
In Russia, Mireia was unable to participate because of a chronic shoulder injury that led to months without competing at a high level. Mireia Belmonte said that her goal was to prepare well for the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, although she had tried to be at the Kazan World Cup until the very last moment.
2016 Summer Olympics
In Rio 2016 Mireia Belmonte achieved a historic victory for Spain by winning the gold medal in the 200-metre butterfly on 10 August, in a time of 2:04.85, just 3 hundredths of a second ahead of the silver medalist, Australian swimmer Madeline Groves, who finished with the quickest time in the semifinal. She also achieved a bronze medal in the 400-metre medley and was classified for the final of the 800-metre freestyle on 11 August. She was the first Spanish female swimmer to become an Olympic champion.
