Arvid Andersson (weightlifter)

Olof Arvid Andersson (born May 19, 1919 in Bäckebron , Värmland , Sweden ; † September 20, 2011 in Kristinehamn , Värmland) was a Swedish weightlifter . He became world featherweight champion in 1946 .

Career

Arvid Andersson started lifting weights as a teenager at Kristinehams ABK Sports Club . He was a firefighter in Kristinehamn. As early as the early 1940s he became a Swedish and soon also an international top lifter. Because there were no Olympic Games and no World and European Championships between 1939 and 1945 because of the Second World War , he had to wait until 1946 before he could take part in an international championship.

This year he started at the World Championships in Paris , where he won the featherweight title with 320 kg (90-100-130) in the Olympic three-way fight. He referred Mahmoud Fayad from Egypt and Moissei Kasjanik from the Soviet Union to the next places. Arvid Andersson was the first weightlifter to become world champion after World War II. The Soviet weightlifters appeared quite surprisingly at the World Championships in Paris in 1946, although their association was not yet part of the World Weightlifting Federation. The World Weightlifting Federation let the Soviet lifters start.

At the World Championships in Philadelphia in 1947, Arvid Andersson was not at the start. But that year he won the European featherweight title in Helsinki in front of Yevgeny Lopatin and Moissei Kasjanik. He achieved 320 kg again in the Olympic three-way fight.

In the Olympic year of 1948, of all places, Arvid Andersson was unable to prepare well for the Olympic Games in London due to an injury . The consequence of this was that he stayed in London with a three-way performance of 292.5 kg (85-92.5-115) far below his possibilities and only came in 13th place in featherweight.

In 1949 he switched to the lightweight and scored 322.5 kg (90-102.5-130) in the Olympic triathlon at the World Championships in Scheveningen . With this performance he finished third behind the Egyptian Ibrahim Shams and the American Joe Pitman . At the same time he won the European title.

In 1950 and 1951 Arvid Andersson did not start at the World and European Championships. At the Olympic Games in Helsinki he took part in the lightweight again. With a performance of 317.5 kg (92.5-102.5-122.5) he only reached 12th place. Olympic champion was Tamio Kono from the United States ahead of Ewgeni Lopatin.

Arvid Andersson was also six times Nordic champion in his career, the exact results of 1950 and 1953 are known, and ten times Swedish champion. He also achieved a total of 21 Swedish records in the various disciplines.

In 1946 he was honored in Sweden with the gold medal of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet, the most famous award for Swedish athletes.

After completing his active career, Arvid Andersson was "Union Captain" of the Swedish weightlifters from 1955 to 1957.

International success

year	space	competition	Weight class	Results
1946	1.	World Cup in Paris	feather	with 320 kg (90-100-130), before Mahmoud Fayad , Egypt, 317.5 kg and Moissei Kasjanik , USSR, 307.5 kg
1947	1.	EM in Helsinki	feather	with 320 kg, ahead of Yevgeny Lopatin , USSR, 312.5 kg and Moissei Kasjanik, 310 kg
1948	13.	OS in London	feather	with 292.5 kg (85-92.5-115); Winner: Mahmoud Fayad, 332.5 kg (92.5-105-135), ahead of Rodney Wilkes , Trinidad, 317.5 kg (97.5-97.5-122.5)
1949	3. (1.)	World Cup in Scheveningen	Light	with 322.5 kg (90-102.5-130), behind Ibrahim Shams , Egypt, 352.5 kg (97.5-112.5-142.5) and Joe Pitman , USA, 342.5 kg (100 -105-137.5); in the European championship ranking, Arvid Andersson took 1st place
1950	1.	Nordic championship in Stockholm	Light	with 322.5 kg (92.5-102.5-127.5), ahead of Johan Runge , Denmark, 322.5 kg
1952	12.	OS in Helsinki	Light	with 317.5 kg (92.5-102.5-122.5); Winner: Tamio Kono , USA, 362.5 kg (105-117.5-140), ahead of Yevgeny Lopatin, 350 kg (100-107.5-142.5)
1953	1.	Nordic championship in Larvik	Light	with 325 kg (92.5-102.5-130), ahead of Tuure Tanni, Finland, 322.5 kg

Explanations

• all competitions in the Olympic three-way fight, consisting of two-armed pushing, snatching and pushing
• OS = Olympic Summer Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship
• Feather weight, weight class up to 60 kg, lightweight, up to 67.5 kg body weight

literature

• Athletics magazine

Web links

• Arvid Andersson in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Arvid Andersson at Top Olympic Lifters of the 20th Century