Pál Joensen

Who is Pál Joensen?

Pál Joensen is a Faroese elite swimmer. He was born in Vágur, Suðuroy, Faroe Islands. In August 2012 he moved to Copenhagen, where he swims at the Danish National Training Centre. He is now swimming for Aalborg Svømmeklub and for the Faroe Islands. Earlier, before moving to Denmark, he was training in a short pool 25 m, because there is no 50 m pool in the Faroe Islands yet. He was training with Susvim. His trainer in the Faroe Islands was Jón Bjarnason. In August 2010 Joensen won silver in the men's 1500m Freestyle at the 2010 European Aquatics Championships in Budapest with the time 14:56.90, which was new Nordic record. In 2011 at 2011 World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai he swam with the second best time of all the heats and made it for the final in the men's 800m freestyle. He set a new Nordic record with the time 7:45.55. One of Joensen's biggest dreams was to swim at the Summer Olympics, and that dream did come true. He was competing at the 2012 Summer Olympics for Denmark in three events: 400 metre freestyle, 4 x 200 metre freestyle relay and 1500 metre freestyle. In December 2012 he won his first medal at a World Swimming Championship, when he took silver in the men's 1500 meter freestyle at the 2012 FINA World Swimming Championships in Istanbul. It was the first medal for his country, the Faroe Islands, which was won at a World Swimming Championship. Joensen holds many of the national swimming records of his country; and these records are not only in freestyle. On short course he holds most of the records in breaststroke, butterfly and individual medley too.