Mark Foster
Mark Foster ![]() |
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![]() Mark Foster in a parade in London (2008) |
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Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Surname: | Mark Andrew Foster | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nickname (s): | Fos | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Nation: |
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Swimming style (s) : | Freestyle, butterfly | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Society: | University of Bath SC | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Birthday: | May 12, 1970 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Place of birth: | Billericay , England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Size: | 1.98 m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal table | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medals
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Mark Andrew Foster (born May 12, 1970 in Billericay , England ) is a former British swimming professional .
Career
Mark Foster celebrated his greatest successes over the 50 meter freestyle and 50 meter butterfly course, and especially on the short course.
Foster was first considered by the English Commonwealth Team for the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh at the age of 16 . There he won the bronze medal with the 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay.
He made his breakthrough four years later, at the 1990 Commonwealth Games in Auckland , where he won the bronze medal in the 50 meter freestyle and thus his first individual medal in international championships.
In the 1990s he improved the 50 meter freestyle short course world record four times and the 50 meter butterfly short course world record twice.
Foster took part in the Summer Olympics five times, but could never win an Olympic medal. In 1988 in Seoul he was over the 50 meter freestyle 22. With the British 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay, he reached the final and there the seventh place.
In 1992 in Barcelona he reached the 50 meter freestyle final and was ultimately sixth. With the British 4 × 100 meter freestyle relay, like in Seoul, it was only enough for seventh place.
In 1996 in Atlanta , he finished 16th over the 50 meter freestyle course and four years later at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney he finished seventh over the same distance.
In 2004 he was the first to finish the British Olympic Games for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens over the 50 meter freestyle and undercut the international qualification limit, but stayed only seven hundredths of a second above the national limit, which meant he was not allowed to participate in the Games.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing , Foster was given the honor of flying the British flag at the Olympic opening ceremony. In these games he failed over the 50 meter freestyle in the run-up and finished in 22nd place.
Foster actually announced his retirement from competitive sports after the European Short Course Championships in Helsinki in 2006 , but in 2007 he decided to take part again in Manchester for the Short Course World Championships in his own country in 2008 and to try again to win an Olympic medal in Beijing. In Manchester, Foster was once again runner-up in the 50 meter freestyle world championship. In Beijing he did not get beyond the 50 meter freestyle heats and finished in 23rd place.
Private
Mark Foster appeared on numerous British TV shows in 2008. Among other things, he formed a dance couple with the New Zealand professional dancer Hayley Holt in the sixth season of the British TV dance show Strictly Come Dancing . In November 2017, Foster came out as gay.
Web links
- Website for Mark Foster (English)
- Mark Foster in the database of Swimrankings.net (English)
- Mark Foster in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
Individual evidence
- ↑ Mark Foster's dream of an Olympic medal on BBC-online (English)
- ↑ Mark Foster's profile at bbc.co.uk/strictlycomedancing (English)
- ↑ OUtsports.com: Former Olympic swimmer Mark Foster comes out as gay
personal data | |
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SURNAME | Foster, Mark |
ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Foster, Mark Andrew |
BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British swimmer |
DATE OF BIRTH | May 12, 1970 |
PLACE OF BIRTH | Billericay , England |