Where Are They Now? Gustav Hokfelt

Gustav Hokfelt made the journey from Stockholm, Sweden, to Foggy Bottom to chase his dual dreams.

The former GW swimmer left an indelible legacy at Smith Center Pool in a decorated career capped with a trip to the 2018 NCAA Championship meet, while his diligence in the classroom paid off with CSCAA Scholar All-America honors and a Public Health degree.

Two years later, Hokfelt is back in his hometown and still pursuing both passions. The 25-year-old backstroke standout is training alongside world-class swimmers at the National Elite Center with an eye on the Tokyo Olympics while attending medical school at the Karolinska Institute.

Hokfelt is exactly where he wants to be, even though he can admit it's a serious challenge to balance it all.

"I wouldn't necessarily recommend combining the two," Hokfelt said with a laugh at the end of a recent three-workout day. "It can be a lot from time to time."

Hokfelt leans on lessons learned at GW to keep pushing forward.

Known for his technical precision, Hokfelt made tremendous progress in the pool over his four years in Buff and Blue to put himself in this position.

When he joined the Colonials in 2014, his times were barely good enough to qualify for Sweden's national meet. By the time he graduated, he was the national long-course record holder in both the 50m and 100m backstroke.

"It takes a lot of work," said Hokfelt, who totaled 13 gold medals over his final two trips to the A-10 meet to help the Colonials claim team titles in 2017 and 2018. "I think that work ethic is something that I got from GW. The school really helped me to get where I am today and to be able to achieve what I have. I wouldn't have gotten the same experience at any other school, I don't think."

Still, Hokfelt needs to keep dropping time to realize his Olympic dream.

At the National Elite Center, he trains with a group of about 10 swimmers under coach Johan Wallberg. He shares a pool with Sweden's top talents, including Sarah Sjostrom, who won gold in the 100m butterfly and two other medals at the 2016 Rio Games.

Hokfelt's usual regimen includes up to 10 swimming practices and four lifting sessions per week, including three-a-days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There can be humbling days in that high-intensity environment.

"I'm used to being among the top swimmers," said Hokfelt, whose international appearances have included the 2018 European Championships and 2019 World University Games. "Now, I'm almost at the bottom."

For Hokfelt, the path to the Tokyo Games is fairly clear-cut: Sweden's qualifying standard in the 100m back is 53.50 seconds, even faster than the Olympic A-cut time of :53.85.

Right now, Hokfelt's personal best is :54.76, set at the 2018 Stockholm Open, but he's feeling as good physically as he has since that national record swim after recovering from a shoulder injury that hampered his training for more than a year.

"It's a pretty hefty time, but it's close enough for me to try," Hokfelt said. "That's kind of a good thing because it means I know I have to work very hard. It's a good motivator for me."

Before the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the Tokyo Games, Hokfelt had been set for a busy spring with a racing schedule that included Swedish Nationals, European Championships and a last-chance meet in Italy.

Instead, all of those competitions have been tentatively rescheduled for next year, leaving Hokfelt to continue his training while social distancing. He and the rest of his group are preparing to swim an unofficial in-house meet next month and then take a short break before ramping up preparations for 2021.

"I'll get to see where I'm at," Hokfelt said. "We have something to train for, which is nice. Especially looking around the world, we're very fortunate to have a place to train and swim."

All the while, Hokfelt makes time to study to become a doctor.

His experience in GW's Milken Institute School of Public Health confirmed this was the career path for him.

"I tried to keep an open mindset and test out a couple things," Hokfelt said. "That's what I'd say college is great for, just trying to figure out what you want to do in life. For me, I leaned more and more toward medicine."

So far, Hokfelt is about a third of the way through Karolinska Institute's five-and-a-half-year program.

He relaxed his academic load this spring with so much training and travel on his original schedule, but it's still been an ambitious undertaking that has tested his organization and planning skills.

"Thankfully, GW really taught me how to study, how I learn the best and how to manage my time, as well," Hokfelt said. "I think compared to a lot of my classmates I spend a lot less time studying, but I still manage my academics fine. That's a lot because of GW. I've studied a lot before, and I've got the hang of it."

It won't get any easier going forward, but Hokfelt is ready for what figures to be an even more packed year ahead.

He plans to spend even more time in the pool preparing for his Olympic bid now that he's back feeling fully healthy while also logging more hands-on hours at the hospital as his med school program progresses.

"I'm excited for it," Hokfelt said. "This gives me time to actually practice as I should for a whole year. There's a lot more time to prepare, which is a good thing. I just need to figure things out in terms of life and school."

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