Pernille Blume (born 14 May 1994) is a former Danish

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 ...

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) was 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 ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

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 bee ...

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 also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

, 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 9 km northwest of Copenhagen city centre. It is the site of the municipal council of Herlev Municipality, Denmark. Sports Herlev is the hometown of former Vancouver Canuck Jannik Hansen. Herlev is known for its ...

Denmark ) , song = ( en, "King Christian stood by the lofty mast") , song_type = National and royal anthem , image_map = EU-Denmark.svg , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark ...

. In February 2020, Blume started dating Olympic swimmer

Florent Manaudou ] Florent Manaudou (; born 12 November 1990) is a French competitive swimming (sport), swimmer, an Olympic champion of the 50-meter freestyle at the 2012 London Olympics, and the younger brother of Laure Manaudou, a 2004 Olympic gold medalist i ...

, and in September 2021 they got Engagement, engaged.Race, Retta (1 September 2021)
"Sprint Champions Manaudou & Blume Announce Engagement"
''

SwimSwam ''SwimSwam'' news is a swimming news organization covering competitive swimming along with diving, water polo and synchronized swimming. SwimSwam launched as a website in March 2012 and quickly became the most-read swimming website in the world. ...

''. Retrieved 26 October 2021.D'Addona, Dan (1 September 2021)
"Olympic Gold Medalists Pernille Blume, Florent Manaudou Announce Engagement"
''

Swimming World ''Swimming World'' is a US-based monthly swimming magazine that was first published in a magazine format as ''Junior Swimmer'' in January 1960. It concurrently runs online websites ''Swimming World Magazine'' and ''Swimming World News'', (known ...

''. 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"
''

''. 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 her soon-to-be-husband as they prepared for the

2024 Summer Olympics The 2024 Summer Olympics (french: Jeux olympiques d'été de 2024), officially the Games of the XXXIII Olympiad (french: Jeux de la XXXIIIe Olympiade, links=no) and also known as Paris 2024, is an upcoming international multi-sport event that is s ...

in Manaudou's home country of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

.Keith, Braden (26 October 2021)
"Florent Manaudou Leaves Longtime Club CN Marseille For Young Coaches At Antibes"
''

''. Retrieved 26 October 2021. In February 2022, Blume officially switched to and started competing for CN Antibes.

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 Mie Østergaard Nielsen (born 25 September 1996) is a Danish former competitive swimmer who holds the Danish record in several backstroke events. Career Nielsen won her first international senior medals at the 2011 European Short Course Swimmin ...

Lotte Friis Lotte Friis (born 9 February 1988) is a Danish competitive swimmer from Allerød Municipality. Career Friis was born in Blovstrød. Finishing third in the 1500 metre freestyle competition at the European Championships 2008 in Eindhoven she won ...

and

Jeanette Ottesen Jeanette Ottesen (born 30 December 1987) is a Danish competitive swimmer who participated at the 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics. In total she has won 50 international medals. Records She currently holds the Danish record in the ...

; 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 Rikke is a name, notable people with this name are: * Rikke Broen (born 1972), Danish badminton player * Rikke Dybdahl (born 1997), Danish football player * Rikke Emma Niebuhr, Danish singer * Rikke Granlund (born 1989), Norwegian handball player * ...

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 ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, 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 Karen Margrethe Harup Petersen (20 November 1924 – 9 July 2009) was a Danish swimmer. She competed in four events at the 1948 Summer Olympics and won three medals: a gold in the 100 m backstroke and silvers in the 400 m and 4 × 100 m freestyl ...

at the

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

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 swimmer specialising in the sprint freestyle and butterfly events. She is the current world record holder in the 50 metre freestyle (long course), the 100 metre freestyle ...

with a time of 24.15.

2021

2020 Summer Olympics

At the

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, postponed to 2021 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, Blume won a bronze medal in the women's 50 metre freestyle literally minutes after her

significant other The term significant other (SO) has different uses in psychology and in colloquial language. Colloquially, "significant other" is used as a gender-neutral term for a person's partner in an intimate relationship without disclosing or presuming ...

, won a silver medal in the Swimming at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre freestyle, 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 Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

''. 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 A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

, 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 Omega SA is a Swiss luxury watchmaker based in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. Founded by Louis Brandt in La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1848, the company formerly operated as ''La Generale Watch Co.'' until incorporating the name ''Omega'' in 1903, becoming ' ...

;

Atos Atos is a European multinational information technology (IT) service and consulting company headquartered in Bezons, France and offices worldwide. It specialises in hi-tech transactional services, unified communications, cloud, big data and ...

(1 August 2021)
"Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games: Swimming Results Book"
. ''

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

''. 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 unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

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"
''

''. 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 Boxer most commonly refers to: * Boxer (boxing), a competitor in the sport of boxing *Boxer (dog), a breed of dog Boxer or boxers may also refer to: Animal kingdom * Boxer crab * Boxer shrimp, a small group of decapod crustaceans * Boxer snipe ee ...

, in 2016.Johnson, Annika (November 9, 2021)
"Pernille Blume Moves On To Week 10 Of Danish Dance Show"
''

''. Retrieved November 9, 2021. Blume's

pasodoble Pasodoble (Spanish: ''double step'') is a fast-paced Spanish military march used by infantry troops. Its speed allowed troops to give 120 steps per minute (double the average of a regular unit, hence its name). This military march gave rise r ...

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 of an orchestra keeps the orchestra synchronized or ''in time''. Systems that operate with all parts in synchrony are said to be synchronou ...

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"
''

''. 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 Argentine tango is a musical genre and accompanying social dance originating at the end of the 19th century in the suburbs of Buenos Aires. It typically has a or rhythmic time signature, and two or three parts repeating in patterns such as AB ...

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"
''

''. 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"
''

''. 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"
''

''. 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 (, also , ; oc, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department of southeastern France, on the French Riviera, Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of ...

. Approximately nine months later, ''

'', ''

'',

NBC Sports NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...

, and

FINA FINA (french: Fédération internationale de natation, en, International Swimming Federation, link=yes) (to be renamed as World Aquatics by ) is the international federation recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for administer ...

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""
''

''. 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 of 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 People from Herlev Municipality Sportspeople from the Capital Region of Denmark 20th-century Danish women 21st-century Danish women