Casey Legler (born 26 April 1977) is a French-American writer, restaurateur, model, and former

Olympic Olympic or Olympics may refer to Sports Competitions * Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896 ** Summer Olympic Games ** Winter Olympic Games * Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece b ...

swimmer.

Early life

Legler was born in

Fréjus Fréjus (; ) is a commune in the Var department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in Southeastern France. In 2019, it had a population of 54,458. It neighbours Saint-Raphaël, effectively forming one urban agglomeration. The north of ...

Var Var or VAR may refer to: Places * Var (department), a department of France * Var (river), France * Vār, Iran, village in West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Var, Iran (disambiguation), other places in Iran * Vár, a village in Obreja commune, Ca ...

, France, to expatriate American parents. They attended school in both France and America, and began competitive swimming at the age of 13.

Career

Legler competed in the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

at the age of 19, where, after breaking the world record in practice the day before, they came 29th in the women's 50 metres freestyle event and 10th in the women's 4x100 metres freestyle relay event. Legler gave up swimming two years later and subsequently studied architecture, obtained a scholarship for law school, and began medical school. They are a member of

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal a ...

and graduated cum laude from

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

before moving to New York to focus on an artistic career. In 2012, through a connection made by their friend the photographer

Cass Bird Cass Bird (born 1974) is an artist, photographer, and director who lives and works in New York City. Exhibitions Bird has exhibited widely within the United States and abroad, in exhibitions including ''Global Feminisms'' at The Brooklyn Museum ...

, Legler became the first woman signed to

Ford Models Ford Models, originally the Ford Modeling Agency, is an American international modeling agency based in New York City. It was established in 1946 by Eileen Ford and her husband Gerard W. Ford. Company Ford Models was started in 1946 by Eileen ...

to exclusively model men's clothes. While no longer full time, Legler continues to model men's clothes in their spare time and their work has been featured in ''

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'', ''

Le Monde ''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...

'' and ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

''. Legler's first book, ''Godspeed: A Memoir'', was released July 10, 2018 and is published by

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

Personal life

Legler now dedicates their time to writing and pursuing their love of restaurants, dividing their time between

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

with their wife, Siri May.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Legler, Casey French female freestyle swimmers Olympic swimmers for France Swimmers at the 1996 Summer Olympics French female models 1977 births Living people People from Fréjus French lesbian writers Queer memoirists French women memoirists Lesbian sportswomen Lesbian models Lesbian memoirists French LGBT sportspeople French LGBT models LGBT swimmers 21st-century French women writers 21st-century French LGBT people