New York, May 2: World champion swimmer Alexander Dale Oen of Norway has died of a heart attack after a practice session in Arizona. He was 26.
A silver medallist at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and winner of men's 100 metres breaststroke gold medal at last year's world championships in Shanghai, Dale Oen collapsed in a shower on Monday evening soon after his practice session.
He was one of Norway's top medal hopes in the forthcoming London Olympics.
Dale Oen had just finished a 'light' swim at a high-altitude training camp in the town of Flagstaff as part of his national team's preparations for July's Games.
The Norwegian Swimming Federation said Dale Oen had only a light training session on Monday and played golf earlier that day.
But teammates became worried when the swimmer spent an unusually long time in the shower and entered his bathroom after he failed to respond to their knocks on the door.
The federation said: 'They found Dale Oen laying partly on the floor, partly on the edge of his bathtub.'
Team doctor Ola Roensen was among the first on the scene and immediately began performing CPR until an ambulance arrived.
'Everything was done according to procedure, and we tried everything, so it is immensely sad that we were not able to resuscitate him,' Roensen said. 'It is hard to accept.'
He was taken to the Flagstaff Medical Centre, where he was pronounced dead.
Dale Oen won the 100-metre breaststroke in Shanghai last July and took silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
His triumph in China came just three days after the massacre in Norway by right-wing extremist Anders Breivik that killed 77 people.
Dale Oen dedicated the win to the victims of that massacre, pointing to the Norwegian flag on his cap after the finish to send a message to his countrymen back home.
'We need to stay united,' he said after the race.
'Everyone back home now is of course paralysed with what happened but it was important for me to symoblise that even though I'm here in China, I'm able to feel the same emotions.'
In his last tweet on Monday, Dale Oen said he was looking forward to going back home: '2 days left of our camp up here in Flagstaff, then it's back to the most beautiful city in Norway... #Bergen.'
'We're all in shock,' Norway Coach Petter Loevberg said. 'This is an out-of-the-body experience for the whole team over here. Our thoughts primarily go to his family who have lost Alexander way too early.'
'He died suddenly, without warning on Monday evening local time while with the swimming team in Flagstaff, USA,' the Olympic Committee and Norwegian Swimming Federation said in a statement.
'My thoughts go first and foremost to his family in Oygarden,' Per Rune Eknes, president of the Norwegian Swimming Federation said in a statement.
'This is the toughest day the sport of swimming in Norway has ever had.'
Hospital spokeswoman Starla Collins confirmed the death, but did not provide further details.
Dale Oen was born in Bergen, Norway's second largest city, on May 21, 1985. He was the second son of Mona Lillian Dale and Ingolf Oen.
He started swimming at age 4, and said on his website that the sport 'came very easy and natural for me.'
He is the second high-profile athlete to die from cardiac arrest recently, after Italian football player Piermario Morosini collapsed on the pitch during a Serie B game for Livorno last month.
That incident came just a month after Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba also collapsed during a game, but survived.
'It feels unreal that Alexander Dale Oen is no longer with us,' Norwegian skiing champion Aksel Lund Svindal, the two-time overall world Cup champion, said on Twitter. 'My thoughts go out to his family, friends and his whole team in Flagstaff.'
Keri-Anne Payne, the 10-kilometer open water world champion from Britain, said: 'Such sad news for swimming.'
