Mariam Pauline Keita

Who is Mariam Pauline Keita?

Mariam Pauline Keita is a three-time Olympic swimmer from Mali, specialized in breaststroke events. She first represented Mali 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 competitors got disqualified for a false start and for violating the technical rules of the sport, with the slowest possible time of 1:37.80. At her second Olympics in Athens, Keita swam swiftly and improved her personal best in the 100 m breaststroke event. She finished the race only 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.

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.