PHOTO: Bildbyrån
Sweden’s very best track and field athlete of all time has been named.
But it is neither Armand Duplantis, Stefan Holm nor Kajsa Bergqvist who takes first place.
When the respected magazine Track&Field lists the best Swedes, it is a completely different blue-yellow hero at the top of the list.
We have had many Swedish athletics heroes throughout the ages. The most clearly shining right now is of course the pole vaulting king Armand Duplantis which collects gold in heaps and breaks new world records on a continuous basis.
Mondo crushed
But when the respected US magazine Track&Field lists Sweden’s best track and field athletes of all time, the young “Mondo” is crushed in the top list, reports the Swedish site friidrottaren.com. The American newspaper stands for the most prestigious world ranking in athletics of all time and weighs heavily in this context.
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The male leaderboard started as early as 1947 and the female version came in 1956. The world ranking lists the top ten in each standard discipline based on championship merits, results and head-to-head meetings.
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She is a winner
Since the start 75 years ago, a total of 21 Swedes have topped their event at least once and together they have a whopping 64 top 3 placements over the years. Armand Duplantis can only boast one first place from 2021 so far, but will most likely get his second first place for 2022 as well.
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Therefore, the 23-year-old comes far down the list of Swedes with first places in the world ranking. The higher up we find legendary names such as Patrik Sjoberg in fifth place, Stefan Holm and Christian Olsson in shared third place and Kajsa Bergqvist in second place with four first places.
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But the very best Swede in the last 75 years, according to Track&Field’s world ranking, is the heptathlete Carolina Klüft with a total of six first places from the successful career. There are also six consecutive first places in the years 2002-2007, which is even more impressive.
– A country as small as Sweden has had a fantastic peak for the past 75 years, states the athletics expert Birger Fogelberg according to friidrottaren.com.
Full list:
1. Carolina Klüft, 6 (2002-2007), heptathlon
2. Kajsa Bergqvist, 4 (2000, 2002, 2005-2006), high jump
3. Stefan Holm, 3 (2001-2002, 2004), high jump
= Christian Olsson, 3 (2003-2004, 2006), three-step
5. Thore Sjöstrand, 2 (1947-1948), 3000 m hurdles
= Anders Gärderud, 2 (1975-1976), 3000 m hurdles
= Patrik Sjöberg, 2 (1985, 1987), high jump
= Ludmila Engquist, 2 (1996-1997), 100 m hurdles
= Daniel Ståhl, 2 (2019, 2021), discus
10. Lennart Strand, 1 (1947), 1500 m
= Lennart Moberg, 1 (1947), three steps
= Henry Eriksson, 1 (1948), 1500 m
= Sven Daleflod, 1 (1948), spear
= Curt Söderberg, 1 (1949), 3000 m hurdles
= Arne Åhman, 1 (1949), three steps
= Stig Pettersson, 1 (1958), high jump
= Kjell Isaksson, 1 (1972), pole vault
= Ricky Bruch, 1 (1973), discus
= Ann-Louise Skoglund, 1 (1982), 400 m hurdles
= Abeba Aregawi, 1 (2013), 1500 m
= Armand Duplantis, 1 (2021), pole vault
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