Ragnheiður Ragnarsdóttir

Who is Ragnheiður Ragnarsdóttir?

Ragnheiður Ragnarsdóttir is an Icelandic swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. She is a multiple-time Icelandic record holder in both long and short course freestyle.

Ragnarsdottir made her official debut, as Iceland's youngest swimmer, at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens. She qualified for two swimming events by attaining B-standard entry times of 26.34 and 56.74. In the 100 m freestyle, Ragnarsdottir finished dead-last on the third heat and fortieth overall with a time of 58.47 seconds. In the 50 m freestyle, Ragnarsdottir almost snared out of triumph in heat five by a hundredth of a second behind Luxembourg's Lara Heinz, outside her qualified entry time of 26.36 seconds. Ragnarsdottir failed to qualify for the semifinals, as she placed thirty-first overall in the preliminary heats.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Ragnarsdottir qualified for two swimming events, by clearing FINA B-cuts of 25.95 from the Dutch Open Swim Cup in Eindhoven and 56.06 from FINA World Championships in Melbourne. In the 100 m freestyle, Ragnarsdottir was reassigned on the third heat against seven other swimmers, including Hong Kong's Hannah Wilson and Bahamas' Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace. She touched out Cyprus' Anna Stylianou to take the fifth spot and thirty-fifth overall by three hundredths of a second, in a time of 56.35 seconds. In the 50 m freestyle, Ragnarsdottir finished behind Jamaica's Natasha Moodie in fourth place on the eighth heat by 0.13 of a second, clocking at 25.82. Ragnarsdottir failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed thirty-sixth out of 92 swimmers in the evening preliminaries.