2023-05-12 08:00:01
Three months before the Olympic Games in Athens, on May 12, 2004, Malia Metella won her second gold medal at the 27th European Championships in Madrid, Spain. The Guyanese improved the French record for the 100m freestyle in the semi-finals and in the final with a time of 54 seconds 46.
MEMOSPORT MALIA METELLA ARCHIVE
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Malia Métella’s big smile lights up the Madrid swimming pool, following reaching the finishing wall of the final. This Wednesday, May 12, 2004, it’s time for the queen women’s event of these European championships, the 100 meter freestyle. In the playoffs, the Guyanese won the best time. In the semi-final, she took the lead in the race and set a new French record in 54 seconds 57. On the strength of her European 4x100m relay title won two days earlier, Malia’s determination was exponential. She dives into lane number 4 of the M 86 – M like Madrid and 86 in memory of the world championships. Before setting off, she insists in apnea that “this race is hers”.
His departure is not the quickest. At 50 meters, the former USLM Pacoussines swimmer turns in fourth position. The Guyanese gives all her strength, throughout the last 25 meters. She poses her stroke with control. Under a rainy sky, it accelerates and catches up. She takes the lead in the race and finds the energy to beat the French record once more, with a time of 54 seconds 46. She is ahead of the Dutch Marleen Veldhuis and the Greek Nery Mantey Niangkouara. At 22, the Guyanese rocket becomes the third Frenchwoman to obtain a European crown over this distance, following Yvonne Godard, European champion in 1931, and Catherine Plewinski, in 1991.
Malia and her teammates won the 4X100m freestyle on the first day of the 27es European swimming championships and close the competition in apotheosis with a third continental title in the 4x100m medley relay. Along the way, she won a silver medal in the 100m butterfly. She is full of confidence.
Three gold medals at the European Grand Bassin Championship, the record is exceptional and allows Malia to ride the right wave before the Olympic Games in Athens. Three months later, the Guyanese swimmer won silver in the 50 meter freestyle at the Athens Olympics.
In the wake of her sister Ismahane, at the age of 4, the Cayennaise plunged into the deep end of the Pacoussines club, a club in the Guyanese capital. Malia dreams of doing like her eldest. Passionate regarding swimming, Djamila, her mother transmitted this passion to her three children. Two years later, the little girl began competitions. As a pre-teen, she trains twice a day. The first session is at sunrise, at 5:30 am. When she comes of age, she leaves her native French Guiana for France. She overcomes the horrors of the climate and the remoteness of her family to achieve her goals. Graduated from the Dauphins du TOEC club in Toulouse and housed at INSEP, she swims 12 km a day and does two hours of bodybuilding.
In ten years, the Guyanese has had 9 consecutive successes in the 50m freestyle at the French championships and twelve international distinctions. 2004 remains the year of all the exploits. Malia reaped an incredible harvest of medals, including 4 European champion titles, two individually and two in the 4x100m freestyle relay. His second place in the 50 meters at the Olympic Games in Athens remains the highlight of his career. The following year, at the Worlds, she won a silver medal.
In the wake of Malia, emerges in turn his little brother Medhy, world champion in the 4×100 m freestyle and holder of the French record in the 100 m butterfly. On November 3, 2009, the captain of the French women’s team put an end to her career.
In 2021, accompanied by Théo Curin, Paralympic swimmer and Mathieu Witwoet, environmental activist, she will swim across Lake Titicaca for eleven days, towing a 500-kilo raft. This incredible adventure for Malia Metella, a woman of challenges, should certainly call for other challenges in the future.
Asset manager in an insurance company, Guyanese Malia Metella contributed to the development of swimming. The Olympic vice-champion looks back on her exceptional journey.
MEMOSPORT interview MALIA METELLA
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