Alain Bernard

This article is about the French swimmer. For the Swiss dance teacher see Alain Bernard (dance teacher) .

Alain Bernard
Personal information
Surname:	Alain Bernard
Nation:	France
Swimming style (s) :	Freestyle
Birthday:	May 1, 1983
Place of birth:	Aubagne
Size:	1.95 m
Weight:	90 kg
Medal table

Alain Bernard (born May 1, 1983 in Aubagne ) is a French swimmer . He is an officer of the French National Order of Merit .

Career

At the European Championships in Eindhoven ( Netherlands ) in 2008 on March 22, 2008, he set a new world record in the 100 meters freestyle with 47.50 seconds , after undercutting the old world record the day before with just a tenth of a second more. One day later he also improved the world record in the 50 meter freestyle in 21.50 seconds . However, this record was already broken five days later by the Australian Eamon Sullivan . At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing , Bernard became Olympic champion in the 100 m freestyle, won the silver medal in the 4 × 100 m freestyle relay and the bronze medal in the 50 m freestyle.

In 2008 he was named Europe's swimmer of the year and by the sports newspaper L'Équipe as France's athlete of the year (“ Champion des champions ”).

For the 2011 World Championships he was only able to qualify in the 50 m freestyle and 4 × 100 m freestyle relay disciplines in March 2011 and failed in fourth over 100 m freestyle.

Records

Personal best

Long track

• 50 m freestyle - 00: 21.23
• 100 m freestyle - 00: 46.94

Short course

• 50 m freestyle - 00: 20.64
• 100 m freestyle - 00: 45.69
• 200 m freestyle - 01: 43.40

International records

European records (4)
100 m freestyle	00: 47.12 min	July 30, 2009	Rome
4 × 100 m freestyle (with Leveaux , Gilot and Bousquet )	03:08:32 min	August 11, 2008	Beijing
4 × 50 m freestyle (short course) (with Gilot , Leveaux and Bousquet )	01: 20.77 min	December 14, 2008	Rijeka
4 × 100 m freestyle (short course) (with Bousquet , Gilot and Agnel )	03: 04.78 min	December 15, 2010	Dubai
(As of October 16, 2014)

Web links

Commons : Alain Bernard  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Alain Bernard in the database of Swimrankings.net (English)
• Alain Bernard in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cérémonie de remise de décorations aux médaillés Olympiques de Londres ( Memento of March 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
2. ^ Alain Bernard: bientôt la fin de sa carrière ( Memento of April 13, 2011 in the Internet Archive )