Lara Heinz

Who is Lara Heinz?

Lara Heinz is a retired Luxembourgian swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. She is a two-time national record holder for both the long and short course freestyle.

Heinz made her official debut, as a 19-year-old, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where she served as Luxembourg's flag bearer in the opening ceremony. In the 100 m freestyle, Heinz touched out Thailand's Pilin Tachakittiranan to take the fourth spot in heat three by 0.14 of a second with a time of 58.55 seconds. In her second event, 50 m freestyle, Heinz challenged seven other swimmers on the sixth heat, including four-time Olympian Mette Jacobsen of Denmark, Rania Elwani of Egypt, and Kirsty Coventry of Zimbabwe. She snared the fifth spot by two hundredths of a second ahead of Fiji's Caroline Pickering in 26.55 seconds. Heinz failed to qualify for the semifinals, as she placed thirty-fourth overall in the preliminary heats.

Four years later, Heinz qualified for her second Luxembourgian team, as a 23-year-old, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She attained B-standard entry times of 26.41 and 57.14 from the European Long Course Meet in Luxembourg. In the 100 m freestyle, Heinz edged out Hungary's Ágnes Mutina to take the fifth spot in heat three and thirty-sixth overall by 0.70 of a second, with a time of 57.40. In the 50 m freestyle, Heinz touched out Iceland's Ragnheiður Ragnarsdóttir to a fifth-heat triumph by a single hundredth margin, breaking a Luxembourgian record of 26.35 seconds. Her storming victory was not insufficiently enough to put her through the semifinals, as Heinz placed thirtieth out of 75 swimmers in the morning preliminaries.