Anselm Ahlfors

Anselm Ahlfors (* 29. December 1897 in Kotka , † 13. August 1974 in Jyväskylä ) was a Finnish wrestler and winner of an Olympic silver medal in wrestling in 1924 in Paris .

Career

Anselm Ahlfors comes from Kotka and started wrestling there as a teenager. He became a member of the sports club Kotkan Riento , which belonged to the Finnish Workers' Sports Association (TUL). Anselm wrestled exclusively in the Greco-Roman style. In 1921 he was the first Finnish featherweight champion (TUL). In 1924 he moved to Helsingin Kisa-Veikot and in 1927 to Jyväskylän Voimailijat , wrestling clubs that belonged to the national wrestling federation, which was affiliated with the world federation.

His international wrestling career began in 1924 when he won the silver medal in the Greco-Roman style bantamweight in Paris . After five victories over difficult opponents, he was defeated in the final against Eduard Pütsep from Estonia .

In 1928 Anselm took part in the Olympic Games for the second time in Amsterdam . This time it was not as successful as four years before. He won his first two fights, but then lost to Giovanni Gozzi from Italy and Ödön Zombori from Hungary and ended up in 8th place.

Anselm did not take part in any other international championships.

International success

• 1924, silver medal , Olympic Games in Paris , Greco-Roman style, bantamweight (up to 58 kg body weight), with victories over József Tasnady , Hungary , G. Appunzese, France , Sigfrid Hansson , Sweden , Giovanni Gozzi , Italy and Väinö Ikonen , Finland and a loss to Eduard Pütsep , Estonia ;
• 1928, 8th place , Olympic Games in Amsterdam , Greco-Roman style, bantamweight (up to 58 kg body weight), with victories over A. Aria, France and Piet Mollin, Belgium and defeats against Giovanni Gozzi and Ödön Zombori , Hungary

Finnish championships

TUL Championships:

• 1921, 1st place , GR, featherweight up to 60 kg, ahead of T. Savolainen and Eino Nuutinen
• 1922, 1st place , GR, featherweight up to 60 kg, ahead of U. Saarela and K. Sulkunen

Championships of the national wrestling association:

• 1924, 1st place , GR, bantam weight up to 58 kg, ahead of Kalle Immonen and Kaarlo Mäkinen
• 1926, 1st place , GR, featherweight up to 62 kg, ahead of R. Renquist and M. Lindgren
• 1927, 2nd place , GR, bantam weight up to 58 kg, behind Urho Pappinen and in front of Osvald Lahtinen

swell

• Documentation of FILA International Wrestling Championships, 1975
• Website of the Finnish Workers Sport Federation TUL
• Statistics from the Finnish Wrestling Federation on the Finnish championships

Web links

• Portrait of Anselm Ahlfors in Finnish
• Anselm Ahlfors in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )