Erik ADLERZ

Erik Adlerz was the first Olympic diver to win two gold medals at the same Olympics. He was only 16-years-old at his first Olympic Games in 1908, where he did not advance to the final. In front of his home crowd, he won both the platform event and the plain high diving at Stockholm. He again competed in those events at the 1920 and 1924 Games, winning a silver medal in Antwerp. Adlerz grew up swimming in the Strömbadet, Stockholm’s first major bathhouse. Nationally, he won 22 championships and another seven Nordic Championships in the period from 1910-22.

After the 1924 Olympics Adlerz was declared professional, and then took up coaching, first in Oslo and from 1932-57 as Sweden’s national coach. In 1986 he was posthumously inducted into the International Swimming Hall of Fame. For unknown reasons Adlerz’s two Olympic gold medals disappeared during the medal distribution at Stockholm in 1912. He only received new medals in 1967 at his 75th birthday. His younger sister Martha was also a diving Olympian in 1912 and 1920.