Friday, June 01, 2012

Babe of the Month - Keri-Anne Payne, British Olympian


Keri-Anne Payne was born in Johannesburg, South Africa to British parents. She started swimming aged four, and was noticed aged eight by British Swimming's national performance director Bill Sweetenham at a training camp in South Africa. As a result, the family returned to the UK to live in Heywood, Greater Manchester, when she was 13 years-old.

Keri-Ann will be going for gold at the London Olympics #focused

Keri-Anne broke through into senior swimming just two days after her 17th birthday when she won 400m Freestyle gold at the European Short Course Championships in Vienna - her first senior international meet.

After finishing fourth and sixth in the 800m Freestyle and 400m Individual Medley events respectively at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Payne turned her attention to open water events.

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Keri-Ann won the silver medal in the inaugural 10km marathon swim. As one of the most memorable events of the Beijing Olympics, the marathon swim led to an explosion of public interest and participation in open water swimming events in the UK and worldwide. She also swam for Team GB in the 200m and 400m individual medley events.

Keri-Anne's stature in this exciting new sport of open water swimming heightened when she was crowned world champion at the 2009 World Championships in Rome.

Keri-Anne, British Swimmer & the face of Max Factor

Payne continues to combine open water and pool swimming and captured her first senior long course medal in the pool at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi, claiming bronze in the 400m Individual Medley.

In 2011 in Shanghai, Payne reclaimed the World Championship in the 10 km Open Water event, becoming in the process the first British athlete in any sport to confirm qualification for the 2012 Summer Olympic Games. 

Keri-Anne follows the Sale Sharks Rugby Team. Her favourite film is The Count of Monte Cristo and she is a fan of the band The Killers.

You can follow Keri-Anne at her official website


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