Pernille Blume (; born 14 May 1994) is a Danish former swimmer specializing in sprint freestyle events. She competed at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

she was the

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have b ...

ist in the women's 50 metre freestyle and won a bronze medal in the women's 4 × 100 metre medley relay where she swam the freestyle leg of the relay in both the prelims and the final. She also competed at the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

, winning a bronze medal in the 50 metre freestyle.

Personal life

Blume was born on 14 May 1994 in

Herlev Herlev is a suburb about 11 km northwest of Copenhagen city centre, bordering Rødovre to the south, Ballerup to the west and Gladsaxe Municipality, Gladsaxe to the north. It is the site of the municipal council of Herlev Municipality, Denma ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. In February 2020, Blume started dating Olympic swimmer Florent Manaudou, and in September 2021 they announced their engagement.Race, Retta (1 September 2021)
"Sprint Champions Manaudou & Blume Announce Engagement"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 26 October 2021.D'Addona, Dan (1 September 2021)
"Olympic Gold Medalists Pernille Blume, Florent Manaudou Announce Engagement"
'' Swimming World''. Retrieved 16 January 2022. Blume swam for Sigma Nordsjælland Club in Denmark until early 2022.Keith, Braden (13 February 2022)
"Florent Manaudou, Pernille Blume Swim First Long Course Races Since Olympics"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 13 February 2022. When her fiancé, Florent Manaudou, announced he was changing swimming clubs, it was announced that Blume would likely change clubs to his new club, CN Antibes, as well, so she could train with him as they prepared for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad () and branded as Paris 2024, were an international multi-sport event held in France from 26 July to 11 August 2024, with several events started from 24 July. P ...

in Manaudou's home country of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

.Keith, Braden (26 October 2021)
"Florent Manaudou Leaves Longtime Club CN Marseille For Young Coaches At Antibes"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 26 October 2021. In February 2022, Blume officially switched to and started competing for CN Antibes. Manaudou and Blume separated in 2023.

Career

2012 Summer Olympics

At the

in London, Blume competed for the Danish team in five different events. In the 50 metre freestyle she failed to advance beyond the heats having finished 8th in her race and 26th fastest overall. In the 100 metre freestyle she again was eliminated in the first round after finishing 6th in her heat and 19th fastest overall. She won her heat of the 200 metre freestyle but did not advance to the next round after finishing 24th fastest overall. In the 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay Blume swam in a Danish quartet along with Mie Nielsen, Lotte Friis and Jeanette Ottesen; they qualified for the final, in which they finished sixth, setting a new Danish national record of 3:37.45. In the 4 × 100 metre medley relay Blume, Nielsen, Ottesen and Rikke Pedersen reached the final and finished seventh.

2012 World Short Course Championships

Later in 2012 Blume won a gold medal at the World Short Course Championships in the 4 × 100 metre medley relay.

2014 World Short Course Championships

At the 2014 World Short Course Championships, Blume, Nielsen, Pedersen and Ottesen won a gold medal and set a new world record as they won the 4 × 50 metre medley relay. The quartet also won the gold medal in the 4 × 100 metre medley relay. Blume also won a bronze medal in the 4 × 50 metre freestyle relay.

2016 Summer Olympics

In 2016 Blume won the 50 metre freestyle event at the Danish open gala. She was subsequently selected to compete at the

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

, Brazil, where she won 50 metre freestyle and also competed in 100 metre freestyle, the 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay and the 4 × 100 metre medley relay where she anchored the medley and thereby contributed to the Danish team winning a bronze medal, just 0.01 seconds behind the Australian team who won the silver medal. Blume's gold medal was the first Olympic gold won by Denmark in swimming since Karen Harup at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and officially branded as London 1948, were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus cau ...

in London. Blume was Denmark's flag bearer at the closing ceremony.

2017

Blume participated in Edinburgh International 2017 and competed in the 50 metre freestyle event, finishing at 24.51 and winning the gold medal. She also won gold in the 100 metre freestyle with a time of 53.93. This was her first competition after the Rio Olympics. In April 2017 Blume participated in the Stockholm Swim Open; in the 50 metre freestyle event she finished second behind

Sarah Sjöström Sarah Fredrika Sjöström (; born 17 August 1993) is a Swedish competitive Swimming (sport), swimmer specialising in the sprint Freestyle swimming, freestyle and Butterfly stroke, butterfly events and one of the most decorated swimmers of all ti ...

with a time of 24.15.

2021

2020 Summer Olympics

At the

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

, postponed to 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, Blume won a bronze medal in the women's 50 metre freestyle literally minutes after her significant other, Florent Manaudou, won a silver medal in the men's version of the race.Petty, Martin (31 July 2021)
"Swimming-Medals in minutes for sprint couple Blume and Manaudou"
''

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

''. Retrieved 26 October 2021. Blume also competed in the women's 100 metre freestyle, where she placed tenth in the semifinals with a time of 53.26 seconds and did not advance to the final, and the women's 4 × 100 metre freestyle relay, where she helped the relay advance from the prelims heats to the final ranked seventh overall and contributed to the relay placing eighth in the final by swimming the lead-off leg in a time of 53.07 seconds. Omega Timing; Atos (1 August 2021)
"Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: Swimming Results Book"
. ''

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; , CIO) is the international, non-governmental, sports governing body of the modern Olympic Games. Founded in 1894 by Pierre de Coubertin and Demetrios Vikelas, it is based i ...

''. Retrieved 26 October 2021.

Reality television debut

Following the 2020 Summer Olympics, Blume decided to capitalize on her Olympic fame by taking a break from swimming competition and transitioning to

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring ordinary people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 1990s ...

by competing on the Danish dance show '' Vild med dans'', where Danish celebrities compete against each other to earn the designation of top dancer of the group of celebrities who participate in the given season of the show.Johnson, Annika (24 October 2021)
"Pernille Blume Dominates Danish Dance Show With Highest Score Of The Week"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 26 October 2021. Her professional dance partner for the show was Morten Kjeldgaard, who previously won the show with his then-celebrity-partner Sarah Mahfoud, a professional boxer, in 2016.Johnson, Annika (November 9, 2021)
"Pernille Blume Moves On To Week 10 Of Danish Dance Show"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved November 9, 2021. Blume's pasodoble on the dance floor with her partner in the eleventh week of competition, where she excelled dominantly in physical

synchronization Synchronization is the coordination of events to operate a system in unison. For example, the Conductor (music), conductor of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are sa ...

with her partner, along with her contribution in a group Charleston dance were good enough for her to advance to the semifinals of the competition.Johnson, Annika (16 November 2021)
"Pernille Blume Advances To Semifinals Of Danish Dance Show"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 16 November 2021. In the semifinals Blume advanced to the final with a score of 50 points, overcoming a wardrobe mishap during an Argentine tango where her garment just below hip level caught on and stuck to one of her partner's shirt buttons.Johnson, Annika (23 November 2021)
"Blume Secures Spot In Danish Dance Show Final With Highest Score"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 23 November 2021. In the grand finale, Blume and her partner placed third overall in the competition.Johnson, Annika (28 November 2021)
"Pernille Blume Earns Third Place In Danish Dance Show Finale"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 28 November 2021.

2022: Retirement

Following a multiple month break from swimming competition after the conclusion of the Olympic Games in August 2021, Blume returned to training in January 2022.Dornan, Ben (13 January 2022)
"Olympic Champion Pernille Blume Returns To Training After Post-Tokyo Hiatus"
'' SwimSwam''. Retrieved 13 January 2022. The next month, Blume started competing internationally for her new professional swim club CN Antibes, which is based in

Antibes Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...

. Approximately nine months later, '' SwimSwam'', '' Swimming World'',

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division for NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, that is responsible for sports broadcasts on their broadcast network NBC, the Cable television, cable channels NBC owns, and on Peacock (streaming service) ...

, and

FINA World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA (; ), is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administering international competitions in List of water sports, water sports. It is one of several interna ...

announced she had permanently retired from the sport of swimming with no intent of returning to competition.Byrnes, Liz (27 October 2022)
"Rio 2016 Champion Pernille Blume Announces Retirement After Achieving Her "Wildest Dreams""
'' Swimming World''. Retrieved 1 November 2022.OlympicTalk (27 October 2022)
"Pernille Blume, Olympic swimming champion, retires"
''

''. Retrieved 1 November 2022."Danish freestyle ace Pernille Blume calls time on her career"
''

''. 1 November 2022. Retrieved 1 November 2022.

References

External links

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Blume, Pernille 1994 births Living people Danish female freestyle swimmers Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Denmark Olympic bronze medalists for Denmark Olympic bronze medalists in swimming Olympic gold medalists in swimming Olympic swimmers for Denmark Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m) World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming World record holders in swimming European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Sportspeople from Herlev Municipality Swimmers from the Capital Region of Denmark 21st-century Danish sportswomen