Carl Westergren

Carl Westergreen medal table
Carl Westergren
Wrestler
Sweden
Olympic games
gold	1920 Antwerp	medium
gold	1924 Paris	Semi-difficult
gold	1932 Los Angeles	Heavy
World Championship
gold	1922 Stockholm	medium
European Championship
gold	1925 Milan	Semi-difficult
gold	1930 Stockholm	Semi-difficult
gold	1931 Prague	Heavy
bronze	1933 Helsinki	Heavy

Carl Oscar Westergren (born October 13, 1895 in Malmö ; † August 5, 1958 there ) was a Swedish wrestler .

Life

Carl Westergren began wrestling at the IK Sparta Malmö sports club in 1911 at the age of 16 and soon reached the national top. As a result of the First World War , however, he had to wait until 1920 for his first international success, which was then an Olympic victory. From then on, success followed success. With one exception, at the 1924 Olympic Games in Paris , he wrestled invariably in the Greco-Roman style. His specialties were the rush from the front, as the inventor of which he is considered, and the lateral spin. He began his career as a middleweight and grew over the years into the light and heavyweight division. He was of a stocky build, but very agile and mastered all tactical refinements. Carl Westergren was first a bus driver and then a rental car company. After completing his career, he enjoyed trotting and appeared as an artist in theaters. In September 2003 he was one of the first to be inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame for his services to wrestling .

International success

year	space	competition	style	Weight class	Results
1919	1.	Nordic Championship in Copenhagen	GR	medium
1920	1.	Nordic championship in Stockholm	GR	medium
1920	gold	OS in Antwerp	GR	medium	with victories over Matti Perttilä , Finland , Arthur Lindfors , Finland, Maurice Van der Leenden , Belgium , Johannes Eillebrecht , Netherlands and Michel Dechmann , Luxembourg
1922	1.	World Cup in Stockholm	GR	medium	with victories over Charles Frisenfeldt , Denmark , Einar Petersen , Denmark, Harald Christensen , Denmark, Endrédy, Hungary and Oskar Friman , Finland
1923	1.	Intern. Tournament in Malmö	GR	Semi-difficult	in front of Dr. Bela Varga, Hungary and H. Nilsson, Sweden
1923	1.	Nordic Championship in Oslo	GR	Semi-difficult
1923	1.	Intern. Tournament in Malmö	GR	Semi-difficult	before Rudolf Svensson and Malmberg, both Swedes
1923	2.	Intern. Tournament in Stockholm	GR	Semi-difficult	behind Robert Oksa, Finland, in front of Forsberg, Sweden
1924	1.	Intern. Tournament in Berlin	GR	Heavy	in front of Grüneisen, Germany and Hansen, Denmark
1924	gold	OS in Paris	GR	Semi-difficult	with victories over Berksoy, Turkey , František Tázler , Czechoslovakia , Béla Varga , Hungary , Emil Wecksten , Finland, Ibrahim Mustafa , Egypt and Rudolf Svensson , Sweden
1924	4th	OS in Paris	F.	Semi-difficult	with wins against Frederico Del Genovese, Italy , Emil Wecksten and losses against John Spellman , USA and Rudolf Svensson
1925	1.	EM in Milan	GR	Semi-difficult	with victories over László Papp , Hungary, Renato Campagnoli, Italy and Robert Rupp , Germany
1925	1.	Nordic Championship in Copenhagen	GR	Semi-difficult	off Onni Pellinen, Finland
1928	unpl.	OS in Amsterdam	GR	Semi-difficult	Retired after losing shoulders to Onni Pellinen , Finland
1930	1.	EM in Stockholm	GR	Semi-difficult	after victories over Willi Müller , Germany, Einar Hansen , Denmark and Edil Rosenqvist , Finland
1931	1.	EM in Prague	GR	Heavy	after victories over Otto Viikberg , Estonia , Josef Urban , Czechoslovakia , Hjalmar Nyström , Finland and Georg Gehring , Germany
1931	3.	Intern. Tournament in Gothenburg	GR	Heavy	behind Hjalmar Nyström u. before Johan Richthoff , Sweden
1931	1.	Intern. Tournament in Malmö	GR	Heavy	before Johan Richthoff u. Hjalmar Nyström
1932	gold	OS in Los Angeles	GR	Heavy	make a win over Josef Urban, Czechoslovakia, a defeat against Georg Gehring, Germany and a win over Nikolaus Hirschl , Austria
1933	3.	EM in Helsinki	GR	Heavy	after victories over Kristjan Palusalu , Estonia and Kurt Hornfischer , Germany and a defeat against Arvo Niemelä , Finland

Explanations

• GR = Greco-Roman style, F = free style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship
• Weight classes up to 1929: medium up to 75 kg, semi-heavy up to 82.5 kg, heavy weight over 82.5 kg
• Weight classes since 1930: medium up to 79 kg, semi-heavy up to 87 kg, heavy weight over 87 kg body weight

National successes

Carl Westergren was Swedish middleweight champion in 1917, 1919, 1920 and 1921, in 1922, 1923, 1924, 1927, 1928, 1930 and 1931 in light heavyweight, and in 1932 and 1933 in heavyweight. So a total of 13 titles. He won all titles in the Greco-Roman style. In addition, he won many international tournaments on the mats of Scandinavia, which at that time always gathered the world's elite. His main Swedish opponents were Gustav Lindquist , Claes Johansson , Ragnar Bohm , Ernst Nilsson , Thure Sjöstedt , Olle Hansson, Rudolf Svensson and Johan Richthoff , who mostly avoided each other at the Swedish championships.

literature

• Documentation of FILA International Wrestling Championships, published by FILA 1976
• various issues of the specialist magazine " Athletik " from the years 1929 to 1933
• Svensk Brottning 100 år, anniversary band for the 100th anniversary of the Swedish Wrestling Association, 2009

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Baumgartner and Smith among charter FILA 2003 Hall of Fame class ( Memento of the original from July 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed on July 11, 2010  

Web links

• Profile of Carl Westergren at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Carl Westergren in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )