Claudia Poll, Swimmer, - Biography
Costa Rican Swimmer
Height: 6 foot 3
Weight: 168 pounds
Born December 21, 1972, Managua, Nicaragua
Claudia Maria Poll Ahrens is a swimmer from Costa Rica.
. Her parents were Germans who settled in Nicaragua where
they had Claudia & her older sister Silvia Poll, who was also a competitive swimmer.
After the 1972 earthquake of Managua & rising political tensions, Claudia's parents decided to move south to Costa Rica as many other Nicaraguans did. There she began a new life. She currently holds Costa Rican citizenship while being of German ancestry & Nicaraguan birth.
She began swimming under coach Francisco Rivas & quickly became one of the best in Central America, winning many regional titles.
At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics she won the Gold medal in the 200m Freestyle event. The win was the first gold medal for Costa Rica in a summer olympic game. It was a surprising win because she snatched the medal from the favorite Germany's Franziska van Almsick. Dagmar Hase, also from Germany won the bronze. Costa Ricans joke that all three podium winners were "German" one way or another.
In 1997, she was named by Swimming World magazine as the Female Swimmer of the Year.
At Sydney 2000, Poll continued with her medal run & won 2 bronze medals. In Athens 2004, she just missed out on the 400m Freestlye final, ending up 9th on the time table.
Claudia was accused of doping in 2002. She appealed the verdict
but on 3 June 2002, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the appeal
against the decision of the FINA Doping Panel & decided to sanction her for a
positive out-of-competition doping control with nandrolone metabolites, with a
4 year suspension.
Note: The 4 year suspension was later reduced to 2 years in the course of harmonization of FINA & WADA doping rules.
To this day Claudia still defends her innocence.
Olympic medal record
Competitor
for Costa Rica
Women's Swimming
Gold Atlanta 1996 200m Freestyle
Bronze
Sydney 2000 200m Freestyle
Bronze Sydney 2000 400m Freestyle
This site was written in January 2007
Pictures of Claudia Poll
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