Meritxell Sabate

Meritxell Sabate González (born September 8, 1980) is an Andorran former swimmer, who specialized in long-distance freestyle and individual medley events.[1] She represented Andorra in two editions of the Olympic Games (1996 and 2000), and also held numerous national records in long-distance freestyle (both 400 and 800 m) and medley double (both 200 and 400 m).

Meritxell Sabate

Personal information
Full name	Meritxell Sabate González
Nationality	Andorra
Born	(1980-09-08) 8 September 1980 Andorra la Vella, Andorra
Height	1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Weight	65 kg (143 lb)
Sport
Sport	Swimming
Strokes	Freestyle, medley

Sabate made her first Andorran team, as a 16-year-old teen, at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. She failed to reach the top 16 final in the 200 m individual medley, finishing in forty-second place at 2:37.38.[2]

At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Sabate swam only in the 200 m individual medley. She established an Andorran record and a FINA B-cut of 2:23.24 from the Mare Nostrum Meet in Barcelona, Spain.[3] She participated in heat one against three other swimmers Marina Mulyayeva of Kazakhstan, Alexandra Zertsalova of Kyrgyzstan, and Fernanda Cuadra of Nicaragua. Entering the race with the fastest-seeded time, Sabate faded down the stretch to touch the wall with a third-place time of 2:30.41, but missed a chance to lower her own national record by 7.17 seconds. Sabate failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed thirty-fifth overall in the prelims.[4][5]