Alain Bernard

Alain Bernard (born May 1, 1983) is a French swimmer from Aubagne, Bouches-du-Rhône. Bernard has won three medals in the 2008 Summer Olympics. After competing on the silver medal-winning French 4×100 m relay team, Bernard won the gold medal in the men's 100 m freestyle event. He held the same 100 m freestyle world record

after winning the European LC Championships 2008 final in a time of 47.50 seconds on March 22, 2008. He had already beaten the world record the previous day, finishing in 47.60 seconds in the semi-finals. On March 23, Bernard lowered the 50 m freestyle world record to a time of 21.50 but only held the record for four days before being bettered by Australian Eamon Sullivan. At the French Championships, Bernard qualified for the Olympic Games in Beijing in the 50 m freestyle (with a time of 21.69 s) and 100 m free (47.82 s). Before the 400 m freestyle relay against the Americans, he was quoted by a reporter as saying, "The Americans? We're going to smash them. That's what we came here for." He and his team ended up in second place behind the American team by .08 seconds. Bernard, who was given a lead going into the anchor leg of slightly less than a bodylength, was