Micha Østergaard
Quick Facts
Biography
Micha Kathrine Østergaard Jensen (born 31 January 1987) is a Danish former swimmer, who specialized in freestyle and butterfly events. She finished eleventh in the 200 m butterfly at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and has held two Danish and Nordic records in each of the butterfly events (50, 100, and 200).
Ostergaard competed for Denmark in the butterfly double and as a member of the nation's 4 × 200 m freestyle relay team at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to the Games, she posted FINA A-standard entry times of 58.87 (100 m butterfly) and 2:08.72 (200 m butterfly) at the Danish Open Championships in Gladsaxe. On the first night of the competition, Ostegaard closed out the field to last place and twenty-eighth overall in heat six of the 100 m butterfly by 0.07 of a second behind Slovak swimmer and five-time Olympian Martina Moravcová, dipping under a minute barrier at 59.10. In the 200 m butterfly, Ostergaard entered the semifinals with a Danish record and eighth-seeded time of 2:07.77, but missed out of the top 8 final after finishing her semifinal run in eleventh overall at 2:09.29. Hjorth-Hansen also teamed up with Louise Mai Jansen, Julie Hjorth-Hansen, and Lotte Friis in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay. Swimming the second leg, Ostergaard recorded a split of 2:01.67, and the Danish team finished the prelims in tenth overall with a new national record of 8:00.81.
At the 2009 FINA World Championships in Rome, Italy, Ostergaard broke two new Danish records. In the 200 m butterfly, she lowered her record time to 2:07.44 in the semifinals, but matched her position from the Olympics. She also helped her Danish team (Jansen, Hjorth-Hansen, and Friis) to dip under an 8-minute barrier and broke a new record of 7:55.56 in the 4 × 200 m freestyle relay, but finished in twelfth overall from the prelims.