Heidi Earp

Heidi Earp
Personal information
Full name Heidi Earp
National team  Great Britain
Born (1980-12-20) 20 December 1980
Stoke-on-Trent, England
Height 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight 57 kg (126 lb; 9.0 st)
Sport
Sport Swimming
Strokes Breaststroke
Club Nova Centurion Swim Club
Coach Bill Furniss

Heidi Earp (born 20 December 1980) is an English former competitive swimmer who represented Great Britain in the Olympic Games and the European championships, and for England in the Commonwealth Games. She specialized in breaststroke events.[1] She swam for the British squad at the 2000 Summer Olympics, and later earned two bronze medals at the European Short Course Championships (2000 and 2001). During her sporting career, she trained for the Nova Centurion Swim Club in Nottingham under her longtime coach and mentor Bill Furniss.[2]

Earp competed only in two swimming events at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. She broke one of Britain's oldest records from the Olympic Trials in Sheffield, finishing in a FINA A-standard of 1:09.92.[3][4] On the second day of the Games, Earp placed twentieth in the 100 m breaststroke. Swimming in heat five, she came from behind the pack to edge out Poland's Alicja Pęczak on the final stretch and pick up a seventh seed in a time of 1:10.56, but missed the semifinals by almost a tenth of a second (0.10).[5][6] Earp also teamed up with Katy Sexton, Sue Rolph, and Karen Pickering in the 4×100 m medley relay. Swimming the breaststroke leg, Earp recorded a split of 1:10.25, but the Brits settled only for seventh place in the final with a record-breaking time of 4:07.61.[7][8][9]

Shortly after the Games, Earp, along with Sarah Price, Alison Sheppard, and non-Olympian Rosalind Brett, shattered a British record of 1:51.20 to take home the bronze in the 4×50 m medley relay at the 2000 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Valencia, Spain.[10][11] The following year, she added a second bronze to her career hardware in the 100 m breaststroke from the 2001 European Short Course Swimming Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.[12][13]

At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England, Earp failed to collect a single medal for the English team in the 200 m breaststroke, finishing off the podium at 2:30.45.[14] In 2003, Earp announced her retirement from swimming to pursue a further career in medicine.

References

  1. Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill. "Heidi Earp". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  2. Lonsbrough, Anita (27 July 2000). "Swimming: Earp stays calm to set record". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  3. "Swimming – Women's 100m Breaststroke Startlist (Heat 5)" (PDF). Sydney 2000. Omega Timing. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  4. Lord, Craig (26 July 2000). "Three British Records Fall on Day Two of Olympic Trials". Swimming World Magazine. Archived from the original on 24 June 2013. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  5. "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Women's 100m Breaststroke Heat 5" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. p. 259. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 26 April 2013.
  6. "Dolan breaks own world mark in 400 IM". Canoe.ca. 17 September 2000. Retrieved 28 May 2013.
  7. "Sydney 2000: Swimming – Women's 4×100m Medley Relay Final" (PDF). Sydney 2000. LA84 Foundation. p. 362. Archived from the original (PDF) on 19 August 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  8. "Results from the Summer Olympics – Swimming (Women's 4×100m Medley Relay)". Canoe.ca. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  9. "De Bruijn completes hat-trick". BBC Sport. 23 September 2000. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  10. "Cooke, Rolph claim second medals". BBC Sport. 16 December 2000. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  11. Lovell, Chris (16 December 2000). "Swimming: Hickman loses his butterfly crown". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  12. "Price strikes gold". BBC Sport. 16 December 2001. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  13. Lord, Craig (16 December 2001). "Four European Records Fall, Moravcova Steals the Show and Klochkova Upset on Final Day of Euro SC Champs". Swimming World Magazine. Retrieved 19 June 2013.
  14. "England Celebrates Its Greatest Day Ever in International Competition, Wins 4 Gold on Day 3 of Commonwealth Games". Swimming World Magazine. 1 August 2002. Archived from the original on 3 December 2013. Retrieved 2 June 2013.
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