Hodgson, George
Swimming
b. Oct. 12, 1893, Montreal, Quebec
d. May 1, 1983
Hodgson won gold medals in the 400- and 1,500-meter freestyle races at the 1912 Olympics, but his finest performance came the year before at the Festival of Empire Games in London. In the first heat of the 1,500-meter event, Hodgson set a world record of 22:23.0. He lowered that to 22:00.0 in the final. Along the way, he also set a world record in the 1,000-meter, and he continued past the finish to the 1-mile mark, setting a third world record at that distance.
During World War I, Hodgson was an officer in the British Royal Navy Air Service and he was honored for making a number of rescues at sea.