Marianne Limpert

Marianne Limpert joined the Canadian national team in 1990 and made her first major international appearance two years later at the 1992 Summer Olympics, where she placed 6th in the 200 metres individual medley and 8th in the 4×100m freestyle relay alongside Nikki Dryden, Andrea Nugent, and Allison Higson. The following year she won gold in the 200m IM at the Summer Universiade. At the 1994 Commonwealth Games she earned silver in the 200m IM and bronze in the 100m freestyle event and the 4×100m (with Jessica Amey, Lisa Flood, and Beth Hazel) and 4×200m (alongside Joanne Malar, Stephanie Richardson, and the non-Olympian Donna Wu) freestyle relays. She had a successful 1995 season as well, winning gold in the 4×200m freestyle relay (with Malar, Shannon Shakespeare, and Sarah Evanetz) at the World Championships (short course) and silver medals in the 200m IM and 200m freestyle and bronze in the 100m freestyle at the Pan American Championships. Perhaps her greatest achievement, however, came at the 1996 Summer Olympics, when she won a silver medal in the 200m IM following a controversial victory from the Irish competitor Michelle Smith, who later received a four-year ban for tampering with a drug test urine sample. She also finished 5th in the 4×200m freestyle relay (alongside Shakespeare, Malar, Andrea Schwartz, Jessica Deglau, and Sophie Simard) and 7th in the 4×100m freestyle relay (with Shakespeare, Julie Howard, and Andrea Moody).

Limpert was the Canadian flag-bearer at the 1998 Commonwealth Games, where she won gold in the 200m IM. She then had great success at the 1999 Pan American Games, winning gold in the 4×100m (alongside Deglau, Evanetz, and Laura Nicholls) and the 4×200m (with Deglau, Malar, and Nicholls) freestyle relays and bronze in the 100m freestyle and 200m IM. She next competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics, where she missed a podium spot in the 200m IM by 0.12 seconds and participated in all three relays. Later that year, at the World Championships (short course), she captured silver in the 100m IM and bronze in the 200m IM, her last major international medals. After graduating from the University of British Columbia in 2002, she retired from active competition in 2005 and was inducted into the Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame in 2007 and the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.