Danielle Villars
Danielle Villars (born March 6, 1993) is a Swiss swimmer who specialized in freestyle and butterfly events.[1][2] She has won multiple Swiss titles and currently holds four national records in both freestyle and butterfly (100 and 200 m). Villars is a resident athlete for the Limmat Sharks, and is coached and trained by Dirk Reinicke.[1]
Personal information | |
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National team | |
Born | Zurich, Switzerland | 6 March 1993
Height | 1.78 m (5 ft 10 in) |
Weight | 60 kg (132 lb) |
Sport | |
Sport | Swimming |
Strokes | Freestyle, butterfly |
Club | Limmat Sharks (SUI)[1] |
College team | Southern Methodist University (USA)[1] |
Coach | Dirk Reinicke[1] |
Villars made her international debut at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics in Singapore, where she rounded out the finale to eighth place in the 100 (57.72) and 200 m freestyle (2:04.89).[3][4]
At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Villars maintained her program by qualifying for two swimming events. She posted FINA B-standard entry times of 59.57 (100 m butterfly) from the European Championships in Debrecen, Hungary, and 2:01.47 (200 m freestyle) from the Olympic trials in Zurich.[5][6][7] In the 100 m butterfly, Villars broke her own Swiss record of 59.42 to share a top seed in the second heat and a twenty-sixth-place tie with Spain's Judit Ignacio Sorribes on the first day of the Games.[8] In the 200 m freestyle, Villars raced to second place on the first heat by 1.06 seconds behind Thailand's Natthanan Junkrajang, outside her personal best of 2:03.55. Villars failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed thirty-first overall in the preliminaries.[9]
Shortly after her first Olympics, Villars attended Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, where she was a biology major, and trained as a varsity swimmer for the SMU Mustangs.
References
- "Danielle Villars". London 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Danielle Villars". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- "Youth Olympic Games: Andrii Govorov Smokes 50 Fly". Swimming World Magazine. 18 August 2010. Archived from the original on 27 May 2014. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- "Youth Olympic Games: Tang Yi, Andrii Govorov Post World-Ranked Times". Swimming World Magazine. 17 August 2010. Archived from the original on 30 June 2013. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- "Qualifying Athletes – Women's 100 m butterfly" (PDF). FINA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- "Qualifying Athletes – Women's 200 m freestyle" (PDF). FINA. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 November 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- Braden, Keith (16 March 2012). "3 more national records go down in Switzerland". SwimSwam. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- "Women's 100m Butterfly Heat 2". London 2012. Retrieved 22 April 2013.
- "Women's 200m Freestyle Heat 1". London 2012. Retrieved 3 April 2013.