Triin Aljand (born 8 July 1985) is a retired

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

swimmer Swimming is an individual or team racing sport that requires the use of one's entire body to move through water. The sport takes place in pools or open water (e.g., in a sea or lake). Competitive swimming is one of the most popular Olympic ...

who competed for Texas A&M University and won a silver medal at the

2012 European Aquatics Championships The 2012 European Aquatics Championships were held from 14 to 27 May 2012 in Debrecen, Hungary and Eindhoven, Netherlands. The 2012 European Swimming Championships were to take place in Antwerp, Belgium, but were reallocated to the City of Debrec ...

in 50 m butterfly. Specializing in the 50 and 100-meter freestyle, she competed in the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Summer Olympics for Estonia, but did not reach the finals.

Swimming for Texas A&M

Born in Tallinn, Estonia, she attended

Texas A&M University Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

, where she swam for the women's varsity team under Hall of Fame Head Coach Steve Bultman. While swimming for Texas A&M, Aljand received 23 All-America honors and captured a total of 16 relay and individual conference titles. By the time she graduated A&M in 2009, she held five school records, all of which were still top-five marks among A&M swimming records in 2022. Her outstanding swimming helped lead the Aggies to their first two Women's SEC conference titles in 2007 and 2008. Excelling in sprint freestyle, on 21 November 2008 she broke the

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

record for women in the 50-yard freestyle with her time of 21.61, though the record was disallowed after it was found the pool was just over one inch short.

Olympics

She competed in the

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

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 ...

in the 50 m and 100 m freestyle and 100 butterfly, but never reached the finals. She also participated in multiple

FINA World Aquatics Championships The World Aquatics Championships, formerly the FINA World Championships, are the World Championships for six aquatic disciplines: swimming, diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water polo. The championships are stag ...

. Against intense world competition, her top finishes were a 19th in the 50-meter freestyle in the 2012 Olympics and a 21st in the 50-meter freestyle in the 2008 Olympics.

Honors

As the holder of many team records and one of only two A&M swimmers to compete in three or more Olympics as of 2022, she was elected to the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame in 2022.

Records

She set the Estonian national records three times in the 50-m butterfly on 12 December 2008. She set another national record in the 100-m butterfly at the 2008 European Short Course Swimming Championships on 14 December 2008.

Personal

Her twin sister Berit and younger brother

Martti The IV District, also known as Martti ( Finnish; ''Martinsbacken'' in Swedish), is one of the central districts of Turku, Finland. It is located on the east side of the river Aura, between ''Tervahovinkatu'' in the west and ''Betaniankatu'' ...

are also swimmers. Her father Riho Aljand is a swimming coach, and her grandmother, Ulvi Voog (Indrikson) is a former Olympic swimmer.Triin Aljand
sports-reference.com She is married to Slovenian swimmer Peter Mankoč. They have a daughter Brina, who was born in 2015.

References

External links

ESBL bio

Olympedia Bio, Triin Aljand

A&M University Athletics Hall of Fame, Triin Aljand
{{DEFAULTSORT:Aljand, Triin 1985 births Living people European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming Estonian female freestyle swimmers Estonian female butterfly swimmers Olympic swimmers for Estonia Swimmers from Tallinn Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Olympics Texas A&M Aggies women's swimmers Estonian expatriate swimmers in the United States Estonian swimming coaches