Claudia Maria Poll Ahrens is a Costa Rican Nicaraguan swimmer, born December 21, 1972, in Managua, Nicaragua, who specialized in freestyle events from 200 to 800 meters. At the 1996 Atlanta Olympics she won Costa Rica's only Olympic gold medal, in the women's 200 meter freestyle, defeating favored competitor Franziska van Almsick of Germany, and became the first person from Central America to win Olympic gold. She won two bronze medals at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, in the 200 meter and 400 meter freestyle, gold in the 200 meter freestyle at the 1998 World Championships, and was named World Swimmer of the Year in 1997 by Swimming World Magazine and Costa Rica's Athlete of the Century in 1999. Her career included a doping ban in 2002 for norandrosterone, later reduced from four years to two, which she contested.
Facts
Career HighlightWon Costa Rica's first Olympic gold medal, in the 200 meter freestyle at the 1996 Olympics 1 Classification
Competition Category FAQs
Why was Claudia Poll given a doping ban in 2002?
A 2002 test for norandrosterone brought a four-year ban that FINA cut to two years; Poll protested her innocence.
According to Wikipedia, Claudia Poll was given a four-year doping ban in 2002 after a failed test for norandrosterone, a metabolite of the steroid nandrolone. The international swimming federation, FINA, later reduced the ban to two years. The same source says Poll claimed that the test and sampling methods were flawed and protested her innocence.
Is Claudia Poll related to another Costa Rican Olympic medalist?
Her older sister Silvia won Costa Rica's first Olympic medal in 1988.
Yes. Her older sister, Silvia Poll, won Costa Rica's first Olympic medal, a silver medal, at the 1988 Games. Claudia then won the country's first Olympic gold medal in 1996. As of 2021, Claudia and Silvia are the only Costa Ricans to have won a medal at an Olympics.
Connections
Competed In
Source Wikipedia: Claudia Poll
Plays
Source Wikipedia: Claudia Poll
In the Other Atlases
Nationality
Also in Geography Atlas: the nationality of this subject.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Claudia Poll
Intro, birth clause
born 21 December 1972
Infobox: birth_date
December 21, 1972
Intro, descriptor
a Costa Rican-Nicaraguan former swimmer
Intro, Olympic clause
having won the country's first Olympic gold medal at the 1996 Olympics in the 200 meter freestyle
Wikipedia, article summary lead
Claudia María Poll Ahrens (born 21 December 1972) is a Costa Rican-Nicaraguan former swimmer who competed in the 200 m to 800 m freestyle events.
Plays: Swimming, lead paragraph, plays
Claudia María Poll Ahrens (born 21 December 1972) is a Costa Rican-Nicaraguan former swimmer who competed in the 200 m to 800 m freestyle events.
Competed In: Olympic Games, Lead or career section
She was the only to do so until the 2008 Olympic Games when long jump athlete Irving Saladino of Panama won a gold medal.
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