SWIMMING:NORWEGIAN WORLD champion swimmer Alexander Dale Oen has died of a suspected heart attack in Arizona aged 26, the Norwegian Olympic Committee said yesterday.

Oen became a national hero last year when he won the 100 metres breaststroke at the world championships in Shanghai just days after Norway had been rocked by the massacre of 77 people by Anders Behring Breivik.

One of his country’s best hopes for a medal at this year’s London Olympics, Oen was attending an altitude training camp when he died.

After a day of light training and a game of golf, his team-mates became worried when they noticed he had spent a long time in the shower on Monday evening. After breaking into the bathroom, they found him lying half-in and half-out of the bath tub.

Ola Ronsen, doctor to Norway’s elite Olympians, was quickly on the scene and an ambulance arrived shortly afterwards, but despite their best efforts to revive him Oen was pronounced dead at 9pm local time.