Hakan Malmrot (SWE)

Honor Swimmer (1980)

FOR THE RECORD:  OLYMPIC GAMES: 1920 gold (200m, 400m breaststroke).

First of the great Swedish swimmers was Hakan Malmrot, who won two gold medals in individual events (no man or woman up to that time had ever won more) as a surprise winner in the 1920 Olympic Games at Amsterdam.  When breaststroke was king he was king of the breaststroke just as his Hall of Fame countrymen Arne Borg and Gunnar Larsson would later rise above the crowd; Arne in middle distance freestyle and Gunnar in the individual medley.  Malmrot was the last of the European classic above-water Olympic 400 breaststrokers, the event no longer held after his Olympic record in the 1920 Games.