Alexander Dale Oen
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Nationality | ![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Øygarden, Norway | 21 May 1985|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Died | 30 April 2012 Flagstaff, AZ, USA | (aged 26)|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.90 m (6 ft 3 in) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 80 kg (180 lb) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Strokes | Breaststroke | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Bærumsvømmerne | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
College team | Auburn Tigers (USA) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Alexander Dale Oen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ɑlɛk'sɑndər 'dɑ:lə 'u:ən]) (21 May 1985 – 30 April 2012[3]) was a Norwegian swimmer. He represented the clubs Vestkantsvømmerne (1995–2010) and Bærumsvømmerne (2011–2012). Dale Oen's gold at the 2008 European Championships made him the first Norwegian male to win a medal at a major international long course championship.
Dale Oen got his international breakthrough in 2005, placing seventh in the 100-metre breaststroke during the 2005 World Aquatics Championships. During the European short-course Championships in December the same year, he swam the 100 m breaststroke in 59.05 seconds, placing fourth and setting a new Nordic Record. He became the first Norwegian to swim this distance in less than 1 minute. At the Norwegian Short Course Championships two months later, he bettered that time to 58.81, a world best mark for the year.
On 30 April 2012, at around 19:50 MST Dale Oen was found unconscious in his hotel bathroom after having suffered a heart attack, caused by chronic, undetected coronary heart disease, a rare disease for a person of his age and fitness. He was found in his bathroom by one of his teammates, and CPR was performed before Dale Oen was brought to Flagstaff Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 21:00 MST. Dale Oen was attending a training camp with the Norwegian swimming team in Flagstaff, Arizona at the time of his death.[4][5][6]
Competitions
This section needs additional citations for verification. (May 2012) |
At the 2006 FINA Short Course World Championships in Shanghai, Dale Oen won a bronze medal in the 100-m breaststroke, behind Oleg Lisogor and Brenton Rickard. Oen became the first Norwegian male to win a World Championships medal in swimming. Four months later, Oen followed that up with success at the 2006 European Swimming Championships, winning the silver medal in the 100-m breaststroke and setting a new Nordic record (long course), with 1:00.63.
Dale Oen won his first short-course medal at the 2006 Short Course European Championships in Helsinki, taking bronze behind two Ukrainians in the 100-m breaststroke in a new personal best of 58.70. In the 2007 World Championships, Dale Oen was second fastest in the heats (in another Nordic record, 1:00.34) and third fastest in the semifinal, but failed in the final, clocking well above 1:01.
Dale Oen repeated the feat of doing better in the semifinal than the final at the 2007 European Short Course Championships. After 58.60, a new personal best and the second-fastest time, in the semifinals, Dale Oen finished in 58.81, fifth place and 0.24 seconds behind the gold medal. However, Dale Oen dominated the 2008 European Championships. Setting a record time of 1:00.11 in the heats, and being fastest in both the heats and the semifinal, Dale Oen swam the final in a European record time of 59.76, and won the gold by 0.02 seconds ahead of Hugues Duboscq, who also swam a personal best.
At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Dale Oen earned Norway's first ever Olympic medal in swimming, placing second in the 100-m breaststroke final.
During the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, Dale Oen won the gold medal in the 100-m breaststroke with the time 58.71, 0.71 seconds ahead of Fabio Scozzoli. This was Norway's first gold medal at a World Championship in swimming. Dale Oen's win was highly publicized because of his emotional response at the award ceremony because of the Oslo attacks a few days earlier.[7]
Personal bests
Long course (50 m)
Event | Time |
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Date | Meet | Location | Ref |
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50 m breaststroke | 27.20 | NR(†) | 25 Jul 2011 | World Championships | Shanghai, China | |
100 m breaststroke | 58.71 | NR | 25 Jul 2011 | World Championships | Shanghai, China | |
200 m breaststroke | 2:09.74 | NR | 21 Mar 2008 | European Championships | Eindhoven, Netherlands |
Records not set in finals: h – heat;
Short course (25 m)
Event | Time |
|
Date | Meet | Location | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
50 m breaststroke | 27.13 | (h) | 12 Apr 2008 | World SC Championships | Manchester, United Kingdom | |
100 m breaststroke | 58.14 | NR | 10 Apr 2008 | World SC Championships | Manchester, United Kingdom | |
200 m breaststroke | 2:08.28 | NR | 16 Dec 2007 | European SC Championships | Debrecen, Hungary | |
100 m individual medley | 55.34 | 20 Apr 2008 | Norwegian SC Championships | Stavanger, Norway |
Records not set in finals: h – heat;
Tribute
On August 2, 2012, Hungarian swimmer Dániel Gyurta, who won the men's 200m breaststroke at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, offered a copy of his gold medal to Dale Oen's family in order to honor their friendship.[8] Cameron van der Burgh of South Africa, who won the men's 100m breaststroke and broke the World Record dedicated the swim to Oen because Oen was one of his close friends and greatest rival.
References
- ^ "Dale Oen takes Silver in 100 metre breaststroke". Retrieved 21 August 2007.
- ^ "Shanghai 2006 results". Retrieved 24 July 2007.
- ^ "Svømmeren Alexander Dale Oen er død | Aftenbladet.no". Sport.aftenbladet.no. 21 May 1985. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Liss Goril Anda Norwegian journalist. "BBC News – Norwegian swimming champion Alexander Dale Oen dies". BBC. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Associated Press. "Alexander Dale Oen dies after cardiac arrest at training camp | Sport | guardian.co.uk". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ Post Comment. "Olympic swimmer Alexander Dale Oen found dead at age 26". Msn.foxsports.com. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ "Norwegian Swimmer Alexander Dale Oen Dies After Cardiac Arrest At US Training Camp | World News | Sky News". News.sky.com. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
- ^ "Gyurta elküldi aranya másolatát elhunyt társa családjának". nso.hu. 2 August 2012. Retrieved 2 August 2012.
- Use dmy dates from May 2012
- 1985 births
- 2012 deaths
- Olympic silver medalists for Norway
- Norwegian swimmers
- Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics
- Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics
- Olympic swimmers of Norway
- Olympic medalists in swimming
- World Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
- Deaths from heart failure
- People from Øygarden
- Male breaststroke swimmers
- Sportspeople from Bergen
- Medalists at the FINA World Swimming Championships (25 m)
- European Aquatics Championships medalists in swimming
- Medalists at the 2008 Summer Olympics