Camille Muffat

Camille Muffat (28 October 1989 – 9 March 2015) was a French swimmer and three-time Olympic medalist.

Swimming for the Olympic Nice Natation club, she specialised in the individual medley and the free style events.

Born on 28 October 1989 in Nice, Camille Marie ManuElla Muffat was the middle child in the family, having an older sister, Chloé, and a younger brother, Quentin.

Her father, Guy Muffat was a physical therapist and her mother, Laurence, was a nurse.

Upon finishing high school, she pursued a degree in economics, during which time she swam under a high-performance athlete studying system.

She eventually dropped out of school in order to pursue her swimming career.

Muffat was trained as a medley swimmer who was particularly gifted in the breaststroke and crawl styles, which are the closing disciplines in the medley.

However, after a strong start to her career, her results in the medley events started to fade, and Muffat felt like she could not sustain her pace well enough to achieve her goals by swimming the medley.

As a result, she changed her swimming profile, switching to the freestyle events, at the suggestion of her coach Fabrice Pellerin.

Her career ran from 2005 to 2014.

Muffat first came into the spotlight in 2005, upon beating fellow Frenchwoman Laure Manaudou in the 200-metre individual medley event at the French National Championship, in Nancy, also breaking the French national record, which Manaudou also held.

Only months later, she would again win the 200-metre individual medley event at the European Junior Championships, held in Budapest, Hungary.

At the European Juniors, she would also take silver in the 100-metre freestyle.

In 2006, she debuted in the senior European Championships by swimming a leg of the 4 × 100 metres freestyle relay for France.

A month later, she won four medals, including one gold, at that year's World Junior Championships, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In December 2006, she attained her first international podium, at the European Short Course Championships in Helsinki, Finland.

In 2007, for the first time Muffat took part in a World Championship, held in Melbourne, Australia, reaching semifinals in the 400 m medley.

At the end of the year, she had her first victory in senior competitions, by winning the 200-metre individual medley and taking bronze in the 400-metre individual medley event at the 2007 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Debrecen, Hungary.

In March 2008, Muffat won her first medal as a senior, long-course international event, by taking bronze at the 200-metre individual medley at the European Championships in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

On the first day of the 2008 French national championships, a qualifying event for that year's Olympic Games, Muffat and Joanne Andraca tied in the 400 m individual medley (IM) in a new French record of 4:38.23.

Two days later, she won gold at the 200-metre individual medley by breaking Laure Manaudou's French record.

At the end of competition, Muffat had qualified for the 200- and the 400-metre individual medley events at the Olympics, and clinched a berth in the French team for the 4 × 200 metre freestyle relay.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, however, Muffat only qualified for the final of the relay, where the team finished fifth.

Later, at the 2008 European Short Course Championships, held in Rijeka, Muffat finished second in the 400-metre freestyle, bested by her countrywoman and former Olympic relay teammate, Coralie Balmy.

On both the 200- and 400-metre individual medley events, she finished in fifth place.

At the 2009 French national championships, Muffat sets a new French record in the 200 m IM (2:09.34).

At that year's World Championships, in Rome, she finished 7th in the 200 m individual medley final, and takes part in the French team that finishes eighth in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay final.

At the 2010 French Championship, in Saint-Raphäel, she wins both the 200 m individual medley event and the 400 m individual medley event, finishing second to Coralie Balmy in the 200 m freestyle event.

At the European Championships in Budapest, Muffat arrived as the favourite to take gold at the 200 m individual medley, declaring to the press that the gold medal is her objective in that event.

However, after leading the field into the third discipline of the medley, the breaststroke, she was overtaken by Hungarian Katinka Hosszú, causing Muffat to lose momentum and finish fourth in the event.

On the same day, the French 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team also finishes second in the final when Muffat, who was anchoring the French relay, got overtaken by another Hungarian swimmer, Evelyn Verrasztó.

Two days later, she would also finish 4th in the 200 m freestyle event, which was won by Italian swimmer Federica Pellegrini.

Following her disappointing results, her coach, Fabrice Pellerin, urges Muffat to make a choice between the medley events and the freestyle events.

Choosing the latter, Muffat improved her results in freestyle swimming, taking first place in all distances (50 m, 100 m, 200 m and 400 m) at the following French Championships, at Chartre, where she also broke the French record in the 100 m freestyle event.

A month later, at the 2010 World Short Course Championships in Dubai, Muffat would take her first world title, by winning the 200 m freestyle event, defeating Katie Hoff of the United States and Kylie Palmer of Australia.

Swimming with the French 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, she also took a bronze medal from the event.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, she won gold in the 400-metre freestyle, silver in the 200-metre freestyle and bronze in the 4×200-metre freestyle relay, becoming the fourth French swimmer to win an individual Olympic gold medal.

She was also the third French athlete overall to win three Olympic medals at a single edition of the Olympic Games.

She died in the Villa Castelli helicopter collision, at age 25, during the filming of French TV reality show Dropped for the TF1 network.

Under Pellerin's guidance, Muffat dedicated herself to an extensive training programme, which included training on Sundays for a year before the 2012 Olympic Games.