- George Hodgson
George Ritchie Hodgson (
October 12 ,1893 –May 1 ,1983 ) was aCanadian swimmer of the early 20th century, and considered by many to be the greatest swimmer in Canadian history.who?He was born and died in
Montreal .Hodgson won the two longer
freestyle swimming gold medals at the1912 Olympics , the only categories in which he competed, and was undefeated in his professional career.Fact|date=February 2008Personal life
George Hodgson was born in 1893 in Montreal, Canada. He matriculated at
McGill University in 1912, competing in swimming andwater polo for the school. While there, he was admitted to theZeta Psi fraternity, and graduated with a baccalaureate in Applied Science in 1916. He was inducted into theCanadian Amateur Sports Hall of Fame in 1949, theInternational Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968, into theMcGill University Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and died in Montreal in 1983.Professional career
George Hodgson, Canada's only Olympic gold medal winner in swimming till 1984, did not stay in competition very long, but during the 3 years he swam, he never lost a race, including the two gold medals he won at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, with times of 5:24.4s in the 400 meter and 22:00.0s in the 1500 meter freestyle. He had already set a world record of 22:23.0 in the first round of the race. He was eighteen at the time and retired immediately after one of the great races of all time. His unprecedented success was widely attributed to his innovation of the
trudgen stroke, a hybrid between thefront crawl andsidestroke .It was for the 1500 meter Olympic championship and Hodgson broke world and Olympic records for 1000 yards and meters, and 1 mile in addition to the prescribed 1500 meter race distance. His Olympic record at 400 meters stood until 1924 when
Johnny Weissmuller broke it atAmsterdam . He was Canada's lone swimmer in 1912.Records
Olympic records
*1912 gold (400 m freestyle)
*1912 gold (1500 m freestyle)Fastest freestyle mile in the 1911 Festival of Empire Games (now the
Commonwealth Games )External links
* [http://www.databaseolympics.com/players/playerpage.htm?ilkid=HODGSGEO01 Olympic database] - Hodgson's record in the official records
* [http://www.ishof.org/honorees/68/68ghodgson.html International Swimming Hall of Fame] - George Hodgson 1968 Honor Swimmer entry
* [http://www.athletics.mcgill.ca/varsity_sports_player_profile.ch2?athlete_id=965 McGill University] - press release on Hodgson's induction to their hall of fame
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