Zimbabwean swimmer
Heather Brand (born 17 November 1982) is a Zimbabwean swimmer, who specialised in freestyle and butterfly events.[2] Brand had claimed a total of five medals (three silver and two bronze) at the 2007 All-Africa Games in Algiers, Algeria, and eventually represented her nation Zimbabwe in the 100 m butterfly at the 2008 Summer Olympics.[3][4] Apart from her medal treasury, Brand also established five long and short-course national records in all butterfly events at a major international competition, spanning three editions of the World Championships.[5][6]
Brand competed for Zimbabwe in the women's 100 m butterfly at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She scored a solid Zimbabwean record of 1:00.61 to capture the 100 m butterfly crown and slide under the FINA B-cut (1:01.43) by nearly a full second at the All-Africa Games one year earlier.[4][7] Swimming on the outside in heat three, Brand wound up last in a disappointing 1:01.39 to round out the eight-female pack, over two seconds behind the leader Birgit Koschischek of Austria. Brand failed to advance to the semifinals, as she placed forty-second overall out of 49 swimmers in the prelims.[8]
Brand is the former captain of the LSU swimming team and a graduate of wildlife management at the Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.[9] She is also a resident athlete of King Aquatic Club in Federal Way, Washington, where she trained with numerous world-class swimmers, including Margaret Hoelzer and Megan Jendrick of the United States (both of whom were Olympic medalists), and Svetlana Karpeeva, an individual medley specialist from Russia.[10][1]
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