As a sporting nation Denmark had an outstanding Olympic Games in London. The country saw it’s athletes collect nine medals (2 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze) which is the highest total since 1948 when the Danes earned 20 (5 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze).
Unfortunately for the Danish swimmers they did not contribute to that success. Their performances in London were seen as a disappointment, with their top placing being fourth, which was achieved by Lotte Friis in the 400 freestyle and Rikke Moller Pedersen in the 200 breaststroke.
When evaluating 2012 the Danish brass not use the Olympics results to determine their success, but they also take into account the total number of international medals, which was the lowest they had seen in five years.
That statistic would have been much worse if it wasn’t for the swimmers who have performed extremely well since the Olympics.
Going into the European Short Course Championships the team’s goal was five medals, they left Chartres with 12 (6 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze).
Their goal for the World Short Course Championships was two medals, they came home from Istanbul with 10 (3 gold, 2 silver and 5 bronze) which placed them fourth in the medal standings.
At the European Championships Rikke Moller Pedersen broke the European Record in the 100 breaststroke in a time of 1:04.12.
That was followed up by two European Records being broken at the World Championships. Rikke Moller Pedersen broke the 200 breaststroke record in a time of 2:16.08, while the women’s 4 x 100 medley relay team comprised of Mie Nielsen, Rikke Moller Pedersen, Jeanette Ottesen Gray and Pernille Blume set the record by posting a time of 3:49.87.
These results were very encouraging to the manager for the Danish Swimming Federation Mikkel von Seelen. In an interview with the Danish newspaper the Politiken von Seelen felt the team’s recent success “was an important step after getting back from the Olympics” and that the future of Danish swimming “looks bright.”
