Ragnheiður Ragnarsdóttir, also known as Ragga Ragnars (born 24 October 1984) is an Icelandic actress and former swimmer, who specialised in sprint freestyle events. She is a multiple-time Icelandic record holder in both long and short course freestyle (both 50 metres and 100 metres). After retiring from swimming, Ragnheiður studied acting and played the role of

Gunnhild Gunhild (with variants Gundhild, Gunhilda, Gunhilde, Gunhjild, Gunilda, Gunnhild, Gunnhildr, Gunnhildur) is a Germanic feminine given name composed of two words meaning "war" (gunn and hild/hildr). Notable people with these names include: * , al ...

on the TV series ''

Vikings Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

'' from 2018 to 2020.

Career

Swimming

Ragnheiður made her Olympic debut, as Iceland's youngest swimmer (aged 19), at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

. She qualified for two swimming events by attaining B-standard entry times of 26.34 (50 m freestyle) and 56.74 (100 m freestyle). In the 100 m freestyle, Ragnheiður finished last in heat three and fortieth overall with a time of 58.47 seconds. In the 50 m freestyle, Ragnheiður almost snared out of triumph in heat five by a hundredth of a second (0.01) behind Luxembourg's Lara Heinz, finishing second and thirty-first overall in 26.36 seconds. At the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, Ragnheiður qualified for the second time in the same swimming program as the previous Games. She cleared FINA B-cuts of 25.95 (50 m freestyle) from the Dutch Open Swim Cup in

Eindhoven Eindhoven ( ; ) is a city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, located in the southern Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Brabant, of which it is the largest municipality, and is also locat ...

and 56.06 (100 m freestyle) from

FINA World Championships The World Aquatics Championships, formerly the FINA World Championships, are the World Championships for six aquatic disciplines: Swimming (sport), swimming, Diving (sport), diving, high diving, open water swimming, artistic swimming, and water ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

. In the 100 m freestyle, she was reassigned in heat three against seven other swimmers, including Hong Kong's

Hannah Wilson Hannah Jane Arnett Wilson (; born 10 March 1989) is a Hong Kong retired amateur swimming (sport), swimmer. She is a three-time Olympic swimmer for Hong Kong, having swum at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, an ...

and Bahamas'

Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace Arianna Vanderpool-Wallace (born March 4, 1990) is a competitive swimmer and national record-holder from the Bahamas who has represented her country in international championships, including the Olympics, FINA world championships, and Pan Ameri ...

. She touched out Cyprus'

Anna Stylianou Anna Stylianou (; born May 20, 1986) is a Cypriot swimmer, who specialized in freestyle events. Stylianou made her official debut, as a 14-year-old, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where she placed forty-fourth overall in the women's 100 ...

to take the fifth spot and thirty-fifth overall by three hundredths of a second (0.03), in a time of 56.35 seconds. In the 50 m freestyle, Ragnheiður finished fourth in heat eight by 0.13 of a second behind Jamaica's

Natasha Moodie Natasha Moodie (born 8 October 1990) is a Jamaican competitive swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. She was a three-time national record holder and NCAA All-American champion, and a member of the Jamaican team at the 2008 Summe ...

, clocking at 25.82. Ragnheiður failed to advance into the semifinals, as she placed thirty-sixth out of 92 swimmers in the evening prelims. Ragnheiður did not compete at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

as she was pregnant with her son.

Acting

Ragnheiður has said that she always had a passion for acting; and after retiring from swimming, she decided to study acting. She took an eight-week "Acting for Film" course with

New York Film Academy New York Film Academy – School of Film and Acting (NYFA) is a Private college, private For-profit higher education in the United States, for-profit film school and Drama school, acting school based in New York City, Los Angeles metropolitan ar ...

in Los Angeles, which she "loved", and then enrolled for a one-year programme. She graduated in 2015. It was also announced in the 2020 Game Awards that she would star in an animated series based on the popular

Studio Wildcard Wildcard Properties, LLC (doing business as Studio Wildcard) is an American video game developer with offices in Redmond, Washington, and Gainesville, Florida. The company was founded in October 2014 by Doug Kennedy, Jesse Rapczak, Jeremy Stieg ...

game '' Ark: Survival Evolved'' in 2022 playing the role of Queen Sigrid. Ragnheiður had also starred as

on the TV series ''

''. She also played a supporting role in

The Wheel of Time ''The Wheel of Time'' is a series of high fantasy novels by the American author Robert Jordan, with American author Brandon Sanderson as co-writer of the final three installments. Originally planned as a trilogy, ''The Wheel of Time'' came to ...

in its 3rd and final season.

Personal life

Ragnheiður was married to Atli Bjarnason, a business administrator, from 2013 to 2017. Their son was born in 2013.

References

External links

*
NBC 2008 Olympics profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ragnarsdottir, Ragnheidur 1984 births Living people Olympic swimmers for Iceland Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Olympics Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Olympics Icelandic female freestyle swimmers Swimmers from Reykjavík Icelandic actresses