Leonie Antonia Beck
Born May, 27 1997 Leonie Antonia Beck is a distance swimmer from Germany. At such a young age Beck has already climbed to the top of the world rankings and is a three-time German champion. She’s dominated the German distance events at a young age, and has both German Age Group Records and Dutch Age Group Records tied to her name.
First national title
Similar to fellow German champion, Sarah Kohler, Beck won the German National Title in the 1500m freestyle in 2012, when she was just 14 years old. Even though her time wasn’t an Olympic qualifying mark, her performance was one of the most impressive of the meet. She’s been compared to American standout, Becca Mann, posting similar times at close ages. Prior to the senior level, Beck was a standout among junior swimmers in both Europe and her native Germany.
2013 Championships
In 2013 Beck swam at the European Junior Championships held in Poznan, Poland where she won the championship title in the 400m freestyle. But in Nov. 2013 Beck competed at the German Nationals, once again taking the championship title in the 1500m freestyle – her time, which was completed in under 16 minutes, was a German Age Group Record. But it was her performance in the 800m freestyle that landed her on Germany’s European Short Course Championship Team.
800m freestyle success
In her earlier career Beck was dominating Germany’s distance swimmers in the 1500m freestyle, but the 800 distance seemed to be taking over as her best event – at the 2014 Euro Meet swim she nabbed a bronze medal in the event.
2015 German Championships
At the 2015 German Championships in Berlin she picked up a gold medal in the 800m freestyle; however in 2015 Beck had posted the year’s fastest time in the world in the 1500m freestyle, until Maria Belmonte finished with a faster time in April. She currently ranks within the top 10 in both the 800m freestyle and the 1500m freestyle worldwide.