Ragnhild Hveger

Ragnhild Tove Hveger (born December 10, 1920 in Nyborg) is a retired swimmer from Denmark, who won the silver medal in the women's 400m freestyle at the 1936 Summer Olympics.

According to the International Swimming Hall of Fame, Hveger once held nineteen world records at one time in freestyle (1941), and has been considered by many to be "the most extraordinary swimmer ever to have existed." From 1936 to 1942, she set 42 world records, more than any other swimmer ever, male or female. Hveger was also versatile enough to set freestyle world records at distances from 100 yards to one mile, the longest and shortest FINA-recognized world record distances at the time, and she even set at least two backstroke world records. Her 1940 400 meter freestyle world record of 5:00.1 lasted until 1956.

As great as Hveger's achievements were, World War II deprived her of Olympic glory. Hveger had the misfortune of reaching her peak during one of those rare times when the Olympic Games were canceled. She was only 15 years old during the 1936 Summer Olympics and placed second to Holland's great Rie Mastenbroek in the 400 meters at Berlin. At the 1938 European Swimming Championships, the last major international championship before the war, Hveger won three gold medals. Her 18.7 second margin of victory in winning the 400 freestyle at those games is to this day the all-time record for women's events in the European Championships, open water races excepted. She had no opportunity to repeat this performance at the 1940 Olympics, because those games were never held. Hveger was still the world record holder in three Olympic swimming events in 1944, but the Olympics were canceled that year, as well. Perhaps Hveger even could have excelled at the 1948 Summer Olympics, in which the Danish women swimmers, spearheaded by Hall of Famer Greta Andersen, dominated the competition. But Hveger was married, out of shape, retired, and did not even try out for those first post-war Games.

By 1952, when she did come back at the age of 32, Hveger was unable to swim as fast as she had a decade earlier. Nevertheless, she qualified for the 400 meter freestyle final at the Helsinki Olympics that year, and even led that race for the first 200 meters before fading to fifth place. She also anchored the Danish Olympic 4 x 100 meter freestyle relay team, which placed fourth.

References

* [http://www.ishof.org/Honorees/66/66rhveger.html ISHOF Profile]

* Pat Besford, "Encyclopaedia of Swimming" (London: St. Martin's Press, 1971).

* David Wallechinsky and Jaime Loucky, "The Complete Book of the Olympics" (London: Aurum, 2008).