After having won the 50 and 100 meter freestyle crowns at both the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the Rome 2009 World Championships, Britta Steffen flopped at the Shanghai 2011 World Championships, ending up as #16 in the 100 freestyle and a no-show in the 50. In her opinion because the (supersuit era?) weight-training had hurt her stamina, wherefore she now abandons the weights:

The 27-year-old Berliner flopped at the World Swimming Championships in Shanghai, China, in July when she failed to defend either the 50m or 100m world titles she won in Rome two years ago. The German then fled Shanghai after her embarrassing performance, which she blames on a weight-training programme that she says turned her into “a little body-builder.”

“I was so muscular that after 50 metres, I didn’t have any strength left,” Steffen said having won two golds at the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

“That is when stamina comes into play and I should have done a lot more training in that area.”

Read TheNational.