Alexander Dale OenTHE DEATH of world champion swimmer Alexander Dale Oen, considered one of Norway's top Olympic medal prospects, dominated the headlines in his homeland this week.
The 26-year-old was found dead in the shower at a training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona, on Monday evening. A postmortem was carried out by the Coconino County Medical Examiner’s Office on Tuesday but proved inconclusive.
Tributes to the swimmer were led by Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg who described him on Twitter as “a great sportsman for a small country”.
At last summer’s world championships in Shanghai, Dale Oen turned in the most emotionally charged performance of the event. Competing in the 100m breaststroke final three days after 77 people, mostly children, died in the worst massacre in Norway’s history, he won in 58.71 seconds.
It was the fastest time recorded by a swimmer not wearing the now-banned polyurethane suits and the fourth-fastest in history.
After his time flashed on the scoreboard, Dale Oen pointed to the Norwegian flag on his cap, rose from the water and flexed his biceps in a show of strength to those back home in Norway.
“We need to stay united,” he said after the race. “Everyone back home now is of course paralysed with what happened. But it was important for me to symbolise that even though I’m here in China, I’m able to feel the same emotions.”
Mark Gangloff, an American who finished eighth in the race, described Dale Oen’s victory as “one of the most amazing performances ever”.
“He really put his country on his shoulders for that race,” said Gangloff, who was nearly two seconds off Dale Oen’s pace.
Since last summer, Gangloff said, he had watched the video of the final several times – most recently last week.
“I’ve looked at it to see what I could have done better, but also to see what he was doing correctly.
“The way he swam that race was amazing. He didn’t hold anything back; he just went for it. His swim set the standard for the rest of us.”
Michael Alexandrov, who represented Bulgaria in the 2004 and 2008 Olympics before taking out US citizenship, said Dale Oen’s technique – which stood out because of his high stroke rate – was frequently copied but never duplicated.
“He was like a feather in the water,” he said. Alexandrov recalled racing Oen, who began swimming at four, for the first time in 2001, and over the years they kept in touch. Their last communication, he said, came on Facebook before Dale Oen travelled to Arizona for the swim camp.
“He was really into nature and photography,” said Alexandrov. “He’d show me pictures he had taken of these crazy mountains in Norway. I’m just really torn apart. He was a great guy and I considered him the favourite for the gold.”
On his Twitter page last Monday, Dale Oen, who lived in Bergen, said he was looking forward to going back home: “2 days left of our camp up here in Flagstaff, then it’s back to the most beautiful city in Norway.”
Japanese swimmer Kosuke Kitajima, who edged Dale Oen by 29 hundredths of a second in the 100m breaststroke in Beijing on his way to winning his second Olympic 100-200 double, said in a statement: “I was looking forward to racing against him at the Olympics. I’m sure he was looking forward to the Olympics, too. I still can’t believe he’s passed away.”
It was also hard for Gangloff to fathom that his target, the standard he has been chasing in his daily workouts, is gone. “I was just shocked when I received the news,” said Gangloff. “It’s almost like it’s not real. You don’t expect that to happen to a person who’s at the peak of their physical condition.”
Gangloff (29), a married father of a two-year-old, has made the Olympics his focus. But he was having a hard time concentrating on swimming last Tuesday.
“I think something like this puts everything in perspective,” he said. “All I could think about all morning as I played with my daughter is what his parents, his family and his country are going through right now. It’s heartbreaking.”
Dale Oen, who would have turned 27 this month, is survived by his parents, Mona Lillian Dale and Ingolf Oen, and an older brother.
Alexander Dale Oen: born May 21st, 1985; died April 30th, 2012.
