Mariam Pauline Keita

Mariam Pauline Keita (born September 2, 1983, in Bamako) is a three-time Olympic swimmer from Mali, specialized in breaststroke events.[1] She made her first Malian team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, and competed for the women's 100 m breaststroke. At age seventeen, Keita won the first heat of the event, where two of her swimmers were disqualified for a false start and for violating the technical rules of the sport, recording the slowest possible time in the prelims at 1:37.80.[2] On her second Olympic appearance in Athens 2004, Keita swam swiftly and improved her personal best in the 100 m breaststroke event. She finished the same heat in sixth place and forty-sixth overall, with a time of 1:30.40, just seven seconds ahead of her mark from the previous Games.[3]

For her third and final Olympics in Beijing, Keita swam in the women's breaststroke events, with fair results. She finished last in the first heat of the women's 100 m breaststroke event, against Asmahan Farhat of Libya, and Anna Salnikova of Georgia, with a time of 1:24.26. Although she had achieved her personal best, Keita, however, failed to advance into the semi-final rounds, as she placed forty-sixth in the overall rankings.[4]