Dagmar Hase (born 22 December 1969 in Quedlinburg, Saxony-Anhalt, East Germany) is a retired German swimmer. She was Olympic champion, World champion and European champion.
Career
Hase specialised in the freestyle and backstroke. She won seven Olympic medals in her career, including a gold medal in the 400 m freestyle at the 1992 Summer Olympics. Her defeat of American swimmer Janet Evans in the 400 metre freestyle at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics was Evans's only loss in a 400 or 800 metre freestyle between 1986 and 1994.
She also defeated the greatest backstroker ever, Hungary's Krisztina Egerszegi, in her strongest event the 200 metre backstroke at the 1989 European Aquatics Championships. This was Egerszegi's only defeat in a 200-metre backstroke from 1987 to her retirement in 1996, and her only defeat in any backstroke event from 1989 to 1994. Hase was a highly versatile swimmer, having won at least 1 Olympic and numerous other major event medals in each of the 200 freestyle, 400 freestyle, 800 freestyle, and 200 backstroke.
At the World Championships in 1994 she qualified for the 200 metre freestyle as the eight best swimmer, but her teammate Franziska van Almsick swam only the ninth best qualification time. Therefore Hase abandoned her start place and offered it to van Almsick, who then won the gold medal in the final bettering the world record.[1]
See also
References
- Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Dagmar Hase". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 7 November 2009.
External links
- Official website (in German)