Off the Deep End: Top 10 Royal Olympians, Featuring Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock

On April 29th, there was a royal wedding (you may have heard about it, if only because the great Ian Thorpe was on the guest list) between the future King of England, Prince William, and his bride, Princess Catherine (formerly Kate Middleton). But that’s not the only royal wedding that will take place this summer: Prince Albert the II of Monaco (son of famous actress Grace Kelly) and Charlene Wittstock will tie the knot on June 2nd (civil ceremony) and 3rd (religious ceremony).

While William and Catherine’s wedding had only one high-profile swimmer in attendance, I’d expect Albert and Charlene’s to be much more heavily stocked with those of the aquatic disciplines. That’s because Wittstock is a former Olympic swimmer from South Africa, including a 5th-place finish at the 2000 Olympics as a part of their 400 medley relay team and a 6th-place finish at the 2002 Short Course World Championships in the 200 backstroke.

Prince Albert himself is an Olympic athlete, as he competed in the bobsled at every Olympic Games from 1988 in Calgary to 2002 in Salt Lake City (a total of five Games). He is also a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

This got us thinking, how many other of the world’s royals are also elite-level athletes? So we did a search, and came up with our top-10 Royal-Olympians. Enjoy!

10. Queen Sofia of Spain (sailing) – Most of the Olympic Royals, you will notice, participated in sailing, which begins with Queen Sofia of Spain. Prior to her marriage to King Juan Carlos, she competed for her native Greece in the 1960 Olympics in sailing. She’s sort of double-royalty, as she was born as Princess Sofia of Denmark and Greece (prior to Greece abolishing their monarchy in 1973), and her brother King Constantine is also on this list. It’s no wonder as she married into the Spanish monarchy, which has a masterful Olympic tradition as will be seen at several points on this list.

9. King Harald V of Norway (yachting) – Similarly to his father King Olav V, who also is on this list, the current King of Norway is a boating-Olympian. He competed in the 1964 Olympics in Tokyo in the 5.5 metre class, and helmed a team of three that placed 8th in the event. When Norway landed the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, it was a bitter-sweet moment for King Harald, who presided over the Games. The bid was something that his father had worked on passionately for 10 years until his death in 1991, and three years after that, Harald was lucky enough to see them come to fruition.

8. Princess Anne (Equestrian) – Princess Anne is the only member of the most famous Royal Family, that that rules Britain, to ever compete at the Olympics. She competed in both the individual and Team eventing competition. In the individual, she palced 24th overall, and as a team Great Britain placed 9th. In those Games, she rode her mother, Queen Elizabeth II’s, horse named Goodwill. She also took silver in both the individual and team events at the 1975 European Eventing Championship. Her daughter, Zara Phillips, won the European Eventing Championship (team and individual) in 2005, and another team title in 2007. She was twice supposed to take part in the Olympics (2004 and 2008), but injuries to her horse Toytown prevented her from competing in either event. Princess Anne currently sits 10th in the succession to the British throne.

7. Prince Albert II (bobsledding) – The Prince, who is the sovereign royal of Monaco, competed in the bobsled at five separate Olympic Games. His first appearance in 1988 would have probably brought a lot more attention, except that it ran up against the media-train that was the Jamaican bobsled team that made its debut that year (which was the basis for the film Cool Runnings). He competed at more Olympics than anyone else on this list, though he never challenged for a medal (he usually ranked around the mid 20’s in both the two-man and four-man bobsled). He remains active as a member of the IOC, which includes voting rights on Olympic venues.

6. Infanta Cristina, Duchess of Palma de Mallorca (sailing) – Prince Albert and Wittstock are not the only Olympic Royal family. Infanta Cristina, who is the daughter of the current King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia of Spain, currently stands as 7th in the line of succession to the Spanish throne (after her two siblings and their children). She is quite athletic, but her premier sporting passion is in sailing, where she participated with the Spanish Olympic sailing team at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, just like her brother Felipe.

5. Felipe, Prince of Asturais (sailing) – Felipe had an incredible Olympic lineage, so his participation in elite athletics was almost a given. His mother, father, uncle, and sister were all Olympic sailors, so naturally he was driven to that sport. He was, in fact, the most successful among the direct descendents to the throne, with a 6th-place finish in the Soling Class event at the 1992 Olympics (competed in front of his home crowd in Barcelona, which means he’s the only Royal on the list to compete an Olympics in front of their home subjects). Besides having the distinction of being the highest-placing out of the by-blood Spanish Royals, he’s also the highest ranked in terms of accession as the King and Queen’s only son. That means that he is first in line to the throne, followed by his two daughters Leonor and Sofia.

4. Charlene Wittstock (swimming) – This one’s jumping the gun a little, but this weekend Charlene Wittstock will become Princess consort of Monaco when she marries Albert II in the Palace Throne Room and Courtyard. So dedicated are the Prince and future Princess to the Olympic movement that they actually rescheduled the wedding to be sure that members of the Olympic family would be able to attend (the IOC meeting is scheduled to take place in Durban the following week). She is also a global ambassador for the Special Olympics, which has become her patron cause in her international stardom. In the pool, Wittstock scored a 5th-place finish in the women’s 400 medley relay in Sydney in 2000, and also competed individually in the 100 and 200 backstrokes (the latter of which is her specialty, and she finished 14th in the semi-final). Later, a shoulder injury would derail her career and prevent a successful bid for the 2008 Games. There’s much pressure on her to quickly have children with the Prince, as his two children out of wedlock have no right to the throne. If Albert II dies without him and Wittstock having any children, the royal line will revert to his siblings instead.

3. King Olav V of Norway (sailing) – Olav was the King of Norway from 1957-1991 (though he was born Prince of Denmark to a British Princess and Danish Prince). In 1928, however, when he was the Crown-Prince of Norway, he competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics where he was part of a Norwegian team that won Olympic gold in the 6 metre class. That makes him one of only two Royals in the modern Olympics to have won a gold medal.

2. Iñaki Urdangarin, Duke of Palma de Mallorca (handball) – Handball is a sport not common in the United States, though I sometimes wish it would be. While visiting my parents in Azerbaijan, where the sport is as visible on TV as basketball or baseball is here, I fell in love with the game that is similar to basketball with a smaller ball and a soccer goal. Urdangarin earned his royal status by marriage to Infanta Cristina, the Duchess of Palma Mallorca (see #6), but was best known as an elite handball player. He played professionally for FC Barcelona from 1986 until his retirement after the 2000 Olympics, and competed in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 Olympics. In the last of those events, which were his first as a royal, he was named a team captain. In all, Urdangarin won over 40 handball trophies as one of Spain’s most decorated athletes ever. He’s also the only Royal on this list to earn two Olympic medals – bronze in both the 1996 and 2000 Games. He did compete in front of the Spanish public at the 1992 Barcelona games, but at that point he had not even met Infanta Cristina yet.

1. King Constantine II of Greece (sailing) – Constantine II was the last King of Greece before he was forced to flee his country in 1967 (he sat as the head of state until 1973, when a junta established Greece as a republic). Prior to that time, he was a 1960 Olympic sailor in the Dragon Class. At those games in Rome, he earned a gold medal, making him one of only two Royals on this list to have earned Olympic gold in