Otto Hagborg

After studying at Uppsala University, Otto Hagborg left Sweden in the 1880’s to join his brother August in Paris where August Hagborg was already achieving success as an impressionist painter. Although he himself exhibited paintings at the Salon des Artistes Français in Paris and at the Royal Academy in London, Otto’s artistic career was overshadowed by his brother. Sometime around 1890 he relocated to London and, along with fellow Swede Hjalmar Johannson, did much to introduce the concept of artistic diving to Great Britain.

Hagborg married fellow artist Hannah Posener in 1905 and the following year travelled to Athens to compete for Sweden in the 1906 Olympic Games and finished in a respectable twelfth position despite, at 51 years and nine months, being the oldest person to compete in either swimming or diving at any Olympic Games. He became a British subject in 1926 just twelve months before his sudden death.