Born in Bucharest, Romania, she practiced gymnastics as a child. Her father, thanks to a contract of cooperant, went to work in Algeria, taking his family. They then joined France in 1984 where they asked for asylum to flee the Ceauşescu regime. It was in Blois, in a transit center, that she learned French, then she went to secondary school at Jean Macé College in Mulhouse. She was naturalized French in 1991 at the age of 16 years. She graduated from ESCP Europe in 2005 and has a master's degree in English and German.
Sporting career
Representing the Mulhouse Olympic Swimming, whose coach is Lionel Horter, she won her first French championship title in 100 meters and 200 meters in 1991 at the summer championships. In Seville, at the 1997 European Championships, she was beaten by Germany's Antje Buschschulte in the 100 meters back and third in the 200-meter backstroke, behind Germany's Cathleen Rund and Antje Buschschulte. At the 1998 Worlds Championships in Perth, she began her competition with a sixth place finish in the 100m backstroke, won by Lea Maurer. Before the 200-meter final, her coach Lionel Horter assures her that if she leads the 150-meter race, she will win the race. First in front of Germany's Dagmar Hase, she becomes the first French world swimming champion. In October 2004, she announced her sporting career ended two months after Laure Manaudou's 400m triumph at the Athens Olympics. The 1998 world champion clearly inspired the new star of French swimming: she had sent a letter to her idol as a child.
With the resignation of Lionel Horter, resigned from the for the position of National Technical Director, the French Swimming Federation makes a call for applications to which it responds. In 2015, she is, with Jacques Favre and Philippe Hellard, among the last three candidates of a list established by the Ministry of Sports. The post is finally awarded to Jacques Favre.
Volunteering
She takes part in the program "Eat well, it's well played!" launched in 2005 by the Sports Foundation. She is also involved in the production of videos aimed at young athletes to teach them the basics of a diet adapted to physical effort, as part of a program of the Sports Foundation sensitizing children to the importance of the sport. physical activity.
Following numerous drownings of children, Édouard Philippe, Prime Minister, asked her in July 2018 to accompany an interministerial mission charged with thinking of ways to significantly improve the results of the training in swimming in France in primary schools. On 4 September 2018 Roxana Maracineanu was appointed Minister of Sports in the Philippe Government, replacing Laura Flessel.
