Etiene Medeiros

Etiene Medeiros

Etiene Medeiros is a Brazilian swimmer, who at just 17 years old, won her first international medal. Born May 24, 1991 Medeiros is a sprint backstroke and freestyle swimmer, and she’s competed at multiple international competitions including the World Championships, Pan American Games and the Pan Pacific Championships.

Early career

Medeiros began her international career at the 2008 Youth World Swimming Championships, finishing second in the 50m backstroke. Over the next three years she competed at the World Championships – her best finish was 17th in the 2010 50m backstroke.

2011 World Championships (Shanghai, China)

After swimming in Rome and Dubai at World Championships, Medeiros got a shot at the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai when fellow Brazilian, Fabiola Molina, was dealt a positive drug test. Although she didn’t win a medal, Medeiros gained valuable experience moving forward.

2012-2013

At the 2012 FINA World Championships in Istanbul, Medeiros finished 10th in the 50m backstroke and 28th in the 100m backstroke. Medeiros had a major breakout swim when she snuck into the final of the 2013 World Championships for the first time, finishing fourth overall. Ever since she’s been swimming well, and has broken both world and South American records in the 50m backstroke.

2014 FINA Short Course World Championships (Doha, Qatar)

Medeiros swam at the 2014 Pan Pacific Championships in Queensland, swimming on multiple relays, and she finished within the top eight in both the 50m freestyle and 100m butterfly. In Dec. 2014 Medeiros broke the world record in the short course 50m backstroke when participating in the FINA World Championships in Doha.

2015 Pan American Games (Toronto, Canada)

proved to be historic for Medeiros , winning the first Gold medal in Brazilian women’s history in the 100m Backstroke with a time of 59.61, a new Pan Am games and South American record. Just one hour later, Mederios finished second in the 50m freestyle in a time of 24.55, setting a South American record as well.

2015 World Championships (Kazan, Russia)

In August 2015 Medeiros travelled to Kazan to compete at the 2015 World Championships. The sprint specialist was coming off of a strong 2014 Championships, she entered the 2015 meet as one of the top in the world. In the 50-meter backstroke Medeiros advanced to the final ranked 2nd after missing the World Record by just over .30 seconds. In the championship final, and in such a quick race, Medeiros touched the wall in 3rd place, .47 seconds behind the winner.

In addition to her bronze medal winning swim in the 50, Medeiros also competed in the 100-meter race. She advanced from the preliminaries, but her semi-final swim wasn’t enough to land her in the championship final. Medeiros finished 9th in semi’s, narrowly missing a spot in the final. The Brazilian showed off her pure sprint talent by also qualifying for World’s in the 50-meter free. Although she’s better known for her backstroke speed Medeiros still advanced to the semi-finals in the 50. She finished 16th in the semi-finals, and didn’t advance to the championship.

2016 Olympics (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Medeiros, swimming in front of her home country, placed eighth in the 50m Free, and broke the South American record in her semifinal swim with a time of 24.45. She finished 16th in the semifinals of the 100MmFree, 25th in the 100m Backstroke, and led her 4x100m Free Relay Team to an 11th place finish.

2017 FINA World Championships (Budapest, Hungary)

Medeiros became the first female long course world champion for the nation of Brazil while also breaking the South American record in the 50 backstroke. She had previously broken the continental mark in semifinals, going 27.18. Her old record was 27.26 from the 2015 World Championships, where she took silver. In the Budapest final, though, Medeiros went 27.14, taking another four one-hundredths off the record and winning Brazil’s first long course World Championships gold medal on the women’s side.

2018 Short Course World Championships (Hangzhou, China)

Medeiros came into Hangzhou as a favorite to top the podium in the 50 backstroke. However, after seemingly slipping off the start in semi finals, she placed only 15th and didn’t qualify for finals. However, she made the most of her other event, the 50 freestyle, and won a bronze medal, breaking an Americas record (23.76) in the process.

2019 FINA World Championships (Gwangju, South Korea)

Medeiros wasn’t able to defend her world title in 2019, but she did touch for silver in the 50 backstroke in 27.44, just .11 behind gold medalist Olivia Smoliga. That makes her 3rd straight world medal in the 50 backstroke, and 1 of each color.

2019 Pan American Games (Lima, Peru)

Medeiros continued her medal haul of 2019 in Lima, winning 4 medals in total. She touched first in the 50 free at 24.88, and picked up an individual bronze in the 100 back at 1:00.67.

She also helped Brazil to silver in the 4×100 free relay (55.54 lead off) and bronze in the 4×100 medley relay (1:00.99 lead off).