Ulrika Knape (SWE)

Honor Diver (1982)

FOR THE RECORD:  OLYMPIC GAMES: 1972 gold (platform), silver (springboard); 1976 silver (platform); AAU NATIONALS: 1 (platform); EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1974 gold (springboard, platform); WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: 1973 gold (platform), silver (springboard); 1975 bronze (platform); NATIONAL SWEDISH Titles: 38; EUROPEAN DIVING CUPS: 1969 gold (springboard); 1975 gold (springboard, platform); Platform Diver of the Year: 1972, 1973, 1974.

Beautiful Ulrika Knape and her glamorous coach, the late Gunnel Weinas, were a class act on the world diving circuit, which they dominated for 5 years in the early 1970s.  Ulrika won 38 national Swedish titles.  In 2 European and 2 World Championships as well as in 2 Olympics, she won more total medals than any other diver, male or female.  She was World Platform Diver of the Year for three straight years, 1972-1973 and 1974.  She was the first Swede to win an Olympic diving gold medal in 60 years (since Hall of Famer Greta Johansson) and was hailed as the blonde queen of diving that the Swedes had dominated in the Olympics prior to 1912.  Ulrika is married to Mathz Lindbert, Sweden’s top male diver during the same period and currently their national diving coach.