Historical Women - Greta Johansson

The Olympics were held in Stockholm in 1912 and for the first time, women were allowed to compete in swimming and diving. Star of the games was 17-year-old Greta Johansson, but lets take it from the beginning.

Anna Theresa Margareta (Greta) Johansson was born in Stockholm on 9 January 1895, the youngest of four siblings in a working class home. Her father was the janitor at the steam-driven mill Eldkvarn (situated where the Stockholm town hall is today). She got her education in Klara folkskola and is said to have been a pretty good student. When she was not in school, she spent a lot of time at the Stockholm muncipal bath Strömbadet where she learned to both swim and dive. 

She won her first competition in 1908 and went on to compete for Sweden in the Stockholm olympics in 1912 where she won the diving competition. With her victory, she became the first ever female Swedish Olympic gold medallist.

Left: Stockholm City Hall; Upper right: Strömbadet;
Lower right:Eldkvarn

In 1912, she also met the Swedish diver Ernst Brandsten. He had emigrated to the US where he was part of a dare devil diver's team called The Flying Vikings. Greta fell in love with him and would join him in America two years later where they married and started training new swimmers and divers at Standford university in California for some years developing the sports to what they are today. They worked side by side, but of course Ernst was the one gaining most fame. (Even though Greta was the only won out of the two who had won the Olympics. Ernst only came on 6th place in Stockholm in 1912.)

In 1923 they started up their own swimmer's paradise, Searsville Lake Park in Searsville Lake in California, USA. Greta's husband was also appointed to train the American swimming and diving team for the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics where they won every medal.

Greta was elected into the International Swimming Hall of Fame in 1973 and died peacefully in her sleep in 1978.





Photos from Wikipedia and Stockholmskällan.