Before marrying royalty, Princess Charlene was an Olympic swimmer

Before she married a European prince, Princess Charlene of Monaco was a swimmer who represented South Africa at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.

Earlier that year, Charlene Wittstock met Prince Albert at an international swimming competition in Monaco.

No doubt, they bonded over their shared sporting prowess, with the prince representing Monaco at five Winter Olympic Games.

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Charlene Wittstock was born on January 25, 1978, in the former Rhodesia – now Zimbabwe.

Her mother Lynette was a former competitive diver and swimming coach who reportedly began coaching her daughter when she was eight.

The family, which included two younger children, relocated to South Africa in 1989 when Wittstock was 12.

Soon after the move, Wittstock started swimming competitively.

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In 1996, the then 18-year-old Wittstock won her first South African Championship.

According to the website World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA, by 1997 she was competing on the world stage.

She was part of the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).

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Later that year she swam the women's 50m freestyle event at the Pan Pacific Championships.

In 1999, she again took part in the FINA World Swimming Championships (25m).

Later that year she was part of the women's 4x100m freestyle relay team and competed in the individual 100m freestyle event at the Pan Pacific Championships.

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In 2000, she was selected for the South African swimming team that competed in the Sydney Olympic Games.

She swam the backstroke leg of the 4×100m medley relay and helped her team set a new African record in their heat and secure a place in the finals.

The team finished fifth in the final and managed to shave two seconds off their time to set another African record.

She continued to swim after the Olympics, winning a gold medal in the women's 100m backstroke event at the 2001 FINA Swimming World Cup.

In all, she won five gold, 10 silver and eight bronze medals at Swimming World Cup championships.

She competed in the 1998 and 2002 Commonwealth Games, picking up a silver medal, and won three gold and one silver medal at the African Games.

In 2007, Wittstock regained her former title of South African 50m backstroke champion.

She was on track to swim at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games but injury forced her to retire from swimming in 2007.

Wittstock first met Prince Albert at the Mare Nostrum swimming competition in Monte Carlo in June 2000 – just three months before the Sydney Olympic Games.

She told Tatler in 2010, "I was in Monte Carlo for a swimming competition when I first met the prince. I was 22 and focused. I wasn't in the emotional place for a relationship.

"But the moment I met Albert, I felt a profound sense of destiny. I have been quoted as saying I felt weak at the knees.

"That is a slightly trite way of phrasing it, but it is true – I knew he was the one."

They married in 2011 and welcomed twins Princess Gabriella and Prince Jacques in December 2014.

In June this year, Princess Charlene, now 46, and Prince Albert, 66, were torchbearers during the Olympic torch relay through Monaco as part of the lead-up to the Paris Olympic Games, and later posed for photos with their children.

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