William Grut

Grut in 1948 at the Olympic gold medal in modern pentathlon

William Oscar Guernsey "Willie" Grut (born September 17, 1914 in Stockholm , † November 20, 2012 in Östersund ) was a Swedish modern pentathlete . In 1948 he was the sixth Swede to win the individual ranking in the modern pentathlon at the Olympic Games.

Career

William Grut, who started for A1 Idrottsförening (A1 sports association) in Stockholm, was a quite successful swimmer who won 25 Swedish championship titles from 1931 to 1936. In 1935 he became the Swedish water polo champion with SK Neptun Stockholm . At the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin , Grut took part with the Swedish swimming team, but was not used. So he was there as a spectator when the Swedes went without a medal in the modern pentathlon for the first time in Olympic history. His sporting career as a swimmer was ended by World War II, but he began modern pentathlon around that time.

At the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz , Grut was a participant for Sweden, when a competition in the Winter Pentathlon was held as a demonstration competition for the only time . The competition consisted of the disciplines of cross-country skiing , downhill skiing , shooting , riding and fencing and was considered the winter equivalent of modern pentathlon. Grut won the silver medal behind Gustaf Lindh and in front of Bertil Haase , both also from Sweden.

Grut had won the Swedish championship title in modern pentathlon five times between 1938 and 1948. He won his first championship in 1938, and he defended that title in the following two years. In the war years 1944 and 1948 he was twice more Swedish champion. So he drove to London for the 1948 Summer Olympics with great confidence . Back then, riding was carried out as a military competition and Grut was lucky with the horse, Clarian Boy , which was drawn for him . He was the fastest of a total of nine riders without penalty points on the Tweseldown Racecourse . In fencing, he shared first place with the Brazilian Aëcio Coelho . With a fifth place in the shooting, he extended his lead significantly to the American George Moore, who had been just behind him until then , Moore was only 21st in this discipline. He was also unbeatable in his specialty, swimming. In the Aldershot Public Bath he won the 300 meter freestyle in 4: 17.0 minutes with a lead of over four seconds. After an eighth place in the cross-country run, Grut had a lead of 31 points over Moore, two points behind was his compatriot Gösta Gärdin . There has never been such a superior victory before or after in the history of modern pentathlon. For this achievement he was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet gold medal in 1948 .

After the Olympic Games in 1948, Grut ended his active sports career. Until 1960 he was in charge of the Swedish modern pentathlon as head of the delegation. He was the standard bearer for the Swedish team at the 1960 Olympic Games . From 1960 to 1962 he was Secretary General of the umbrella organization Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne . For his services to the Olympic movement, he was awarded the Olympic Order in Silver in 1988 . The professional officer in the Royal Swedish Sea Artillery rose to the rank of colonel. In 1939 Grut married Agneta Gyllenstierna , and the marriage resulted in six children.

William Grut's father, Torben Grut (1871–1945), was the architect of the Olympic Stadium for the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. The Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag Berlin, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .

Web links

• William Grut in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

1. ^ Profile of Gruts at the Swedish Olympic Committee ( Memento from November 29, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Modern Pentathlon Newsletter - August 2004 edition ( English , PDF) September 15, 2004. Accessed on April 23, 2010.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
3. ↑ According to Volker Kluge Summer Olympics I , the Swedish freestyle relay swam in 1936 with Borg , Bolldén , Pettersson and Werner . There is also no Willie Grut in the individual start lists.