George Hodgson
Hodgson in 1912
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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | George Ritchie Hodgson | |||||||||||||||
| National team |  Canada |
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| Born | October 12, 1893 Montreal, Quebec |
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| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Montreal, Quebec |
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| Sport | ||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Swimming | |||||||||||||||
| Strokes | Freestyle | |||||||||||||||
| College team | McGill University | |||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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George Ritchie Hodgson (October 12, 1893 – May 1, 1983) was a Canadian competition swimmer of the early 20th century, and considered by many to be the greatest swimmer in Canadian history. Hodgson won the two longer freestyle swimming gold medals at the 1912 Olympics, the only categories in which he competed, and was undefeated in his swimming career.
Contents
Personal life
George Hodgson was born in 1893 in Montreal, Quebec. He matriculated at McGill University in 1912, competing in swimming and water polo for the school. While there, he was admitted to the Zeta Psi fraternity, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in applied science in 1916. He was inducted into the Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 1955, the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1968, into the McGill University Sports Hall of Fame in 1996, and died in Montreal in 1983.
International career
George Hodgson, Canada's only Olympic gold medal winner in swimming until 1984, did not stay in competition very long, but during the three years he swam, he never lost a race, including the two gold medals he won at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, with times of 5:24.4s in the 400-metre and 22:00.0s in the 1500-metre freestyle. He had already set a world record of 22:23.0 in the first round of the race. He was eighteen at the time and retired immediately after one of the great races of all time. His unprecedented success was widely attributed to his innovation of the trudgen stroke, a hybrid between the front crawl and sidestroke.
It was for the 1500 meter Olympic championship and Hodgson broke world and Olympic records for 1000 yards and meters, and 1 mile in addition to the prescribed 1500 meter race distance. His Olympic record at 400 meters stood until 1924 when Johnny Weissmuller broke it at Amsterdam. He was Canada's lone swimmer in 1912.
Records
Olympic records
- 1912 gold (400 m freestyle)
- 1912 gold (1500 m freestyle)
Fastest freestyle mile in the 1911 Festival of Empire Games (now the Commonwealth Games)
See also
External links
- George Hodgson (CAN) – Honor Swimmer profile at International Swimming Hall of Fame
- George Hodgson Class of 1916 – Athlete profile at McGill University's Hall of Fame
| Records | ||
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| Preceded by | Men's 1500-metre freestyle world record-holder (long course) July 10, 1912 – July 8, 1923 |
Succeeded by Arne Borg |
| 440 yards | |
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| 400 metres |
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| 1 mile |
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| 1500 metres |
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| Intercalated Games |
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- Pages using Infobox sportsperson with module2 parameter
- Pages using infobox swimmer with national team parameter
- Pages with broken file links
- 1893 births
- 1956 deaths
- Anglophone Quebec people
- Canadian male freestyle swimmers
- Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame inductees
- Former world record holders in swimming
- International Swimming Hall of Fame inductees
- McGill University alumni
- Medalists at the 1912 Summer Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists for Canada
- Olympic medalists in swimming
- Olympic swimmers of Canada
- Sportspeople from Montreal
- Swimmers at the 1912 Summer Olympics
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