Alexander Dale Oen

Dale Oen won his first international medal when he placed second in the 100 m breaststroke at the 2003 European Junior Championships in Glasgow, becoming the first Norwegian male swimmer to win a medal at an international championship.^[2] He made his senior European Championships debut at the 2004 championships in Madrid and competed in the 100 m breaststroke event at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.^[1]

In 2005, Dale Oen got his international breakthrough when he placed seventh and fourth in the 100 m breaststroke at the 2005 World Championships in Quebec and 2005 European Short Course Championships in Trieste respectively.^[13][14] He set a new Nordic Record in the event at the latter championship with a time of 59.05 seconds during the qualification heats and became the first Norwegian to swim the distance in less than 1 minute.^[15]

At the 2006 World Championships (25m) in Shanghai, Dale Oen won a bronze medal in the 100 m breaststroke and became the first Norwegian swimmer to win a World Championships medal in 28 years.^[16][17] He followed up the achievement at the 2006 European Championships in Budapest, where he won the silver medal in the 100 m breaststroke, setting a new Nordic record in long course with a time of 1:00.63, and became the first Norwegian male swimmer in history to win a European Championships individual medal.^[18][5] Dale Oen won his first short course medal at the 2006 European Short Course Championships in Helsinki, taking bronze in the 100 m breaststroke and setting a new personal best and Nordic record with a time of 58.70.^[19]

During the 2007 World Championships in Melbourne, Dale Oen was the second fastest in the qualification heats of the 100 metre breaststroke, setting a new Nordic record with the time of 1:00.34, and third fastest in the semifinal, but finished last in the final.^[20][21] At the 2007 European Short Course Championships in Debrecen, he set a new personal best and finished second in the semifinals with a time of 58.60, but finished placed fifth in the final.^[22]

Dale Oen won the gold medal in the 100 m breaststroke, setting a new European record with a time of 59.76, and the silver medal in the 50 m and 200 m breaststroke at the 2008 European Championships in Eindhoven.^[7][2] He won the silver medal in the 100 m breastroke event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, earning Norway's first ever Olympic medal in swimming and setting new Olympic records during the qualification heats and semifinals.^[3][23]

In 2010, Dale Oen successfully defended his European title in the 100 m breaststroke and won the silver medal in the 200 m breaststroke at the 2010 European Championships in Budapest.^[24][25] During the 2011 World Championships in Shanghai, he won the gold medal in the 100 m breaststroke and set a new Nordic record with the time of 58.71.^[26][8] The medal was Norway's first World Championship gold medal in swimming.^[4] Dale Oen's win came three days after the Oslo attacks and he dedicated his medal to the victims of the attacks.^[27][28][29] At the 2011 European Short Course Championships in Szczecin, Dale Oen won the gold medal in the 100 m breaststroke and the bronze medal in the 50 m breaststroke.^[30]

On 30 April 2012, Dale Oen collapsed in the shower during a training camp in Flagstaff, Arizona.^[8][3] He was found by teammates who began administering CPR until paramedics arrived.^[3] Dale Oen was transferred to a hospital, but pronounced dead on arrival, aged 26.^[3] Following his death, tributes were made by friends and swimming rivals Cameron van der Burg and Kosuke Kitajima.^[31] An initial autopsy was inconclusive, but a second revealed that Dale Oen suffered from severe atherosclerotic coronary artery disease, with the three main coronary arteries feeding his myocardium up to 90 percent occluded by atherosclerotic plaque, as well as an enlarged heart, and that he died of a myocardial infarction.^[10] The autopsy also revealed that Dale Oen had suffered a series of small heart attacks in the months prior to his death, which went unrecognized.^[32] He had experienced pain that radiated down his arm, and into his shoulder, face and chest, but this was attributed to a shoulder injury and a pinched nerve.^[32] The only conventional risk factors Dale Oen had for heart disease were a "slightly elevated cholesterol level" and the fact that his grandfather died suddenly at 42, of an unknown cause.^[33] Dale Oen's funeral was held on 11 May 2012, in Øygarden, Norway.^[34]

Italian swimmer Fabio Scozzol dedicated his gold medal in the 100 m breaststroke at the 2012 European Championships to Dale Oen.^[35] At the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, South African swimmer Cameron van der Burgh and Hungarian swimmer Dániel Gyurta, who won the men's 100 m breaststroke and the men's 200 m breaststroke respectively and both set new world records, dedicated their swims and medals to Dale Oen due to their close friendship with the Norwegian.^[36][37][38] Gyurta originally intended to gift a copy of his gold medal to Dale Oen's family, but due to the rules of the International Olympic Committee forbidding replicas of Olympic medals, he later gifted a special medal to the family and held a speech in Norwegian during the Norwegian Sports Gala in order to honor their friendship.^[38][39][40] The new public swimming pool in Bergen that opened in 2014 was named Alexander Dale Oen Arena (AdO Arena) in his honour.^[41] Among others, then-Norwegian prime minister Erna Solberg held a speech at the opening of the pool, naming Dale Oen as "perhaps the greatest athlete of the country."^[42] In May 2015, a statue of Dale Oen made by sculptor Arne Mæland was unveiled at the Coastal Museum in Øygarden.^[43] The unveiling was attended by a crowd of one thousand people, which included then-Mayor of Bergen Trude Drevland and Dániel Gyurta, who placed a flower wreath on behalf of the international swimming community.^[44]