Clas Thunberg

	Clas Thunberg
Full name	Arnold Clas Robert Thunberg
nation	Finland
birthday	April 5, 1893
place of birth	Helsinki
size	167 cm
Weight	67 kg
date of death	April 28, 1973
Career
discipline	Speed skating
Medal table
winter Olympics
All around world championships
All-around European Championships

Arnold Clas Robert Thunberg (born April 5, 1893 in Helsinki , † April 28, 1973 there ) was a Finnish speed skater . With five Olympic victories and five titles in the all- around world championships , he is one of the most successful speed skaters in history.

Career

Clas Thunberg only started speed skating at the age of 18. Before that, he was considered a notorious party-goer who was inclined to alcohol and cigarettes. From the age of 28, when he played his first European championship, he was by far the most successful speed skater for a decade. Its greatest strengths were the shorter distances. So he could never win an international race over 10,000 meters. Nevertheless, he was all-rounder enough to win Olympic silver over this distance in 1924. At the Olympic Games in Chamonix in 1924 , Thunberg also won the bronze medal over 500 meters and became Olympic champion over 1500 meters, 5000 meters and the all-around competition that was held once at the Olympics. Two more gold medals followed at the 1928 Olympic Games in St. Moritz , over 500 meters and 1500 meters. At the age of 34, he is still the oldest Olympic champion in speed skating to this day. He was also the most successful athlete at both Olympic Games, and in 1928 he shared this honor with Johan Grøttumsbråten . With a total of five gold medals and one silver and one bronze medal, Thunberg is the most successful male speed skater in Olympic history . He refused to participate in the 1932 Lake Placid Olympics because the organizers ran the races as mass starts rather than tackles.

In the period from 1923 to 1931 the Finn won the all-around world championships five times . He set Oscar Mathisen's record and even surpassed it thanks to another silver and bronze medal. Until 2013, when the Dutchman Sven Kramer won his sixth title, Thunberg was the most successful speed skater at world championships. He was also victorious at European championships four times .

Thunberg set a total of four world records, of which the best time over the rarely run distance of 1000 meters from 1930 was only improved 25 years later by Yevgeny Grischin .

Despite his impressive career statistics, Thunberg never led the nobility calendar . This lists speed skaters based on their best times over all relevant distances and converts them into an all-around sum. Thunberg's highest value in the nobility calendar was 192.633 points. Oscar Mathisen's best time on the longest route was out of reach for Thunberg. Mathisen, although only five years older than Thunberg, switched to the professional camp after the First World War , so that the two speed skating greats never met in an ISU competition.

Thunberg was also called "Nurmi of the ice", alluding to Paavo Nurmi , his fast compatriot without ice skates.

Personal bests

route	time	date	place
500 m	42.6 sec -1	January 13, 1931	St. Moritz
1000 m	1: 27.4 min-1	March 4, 1931	Oslo
1500 m	2: 18.1 min	January 11, 1930	Davos
3000 m	5: 00.6 min²	February 12, 1933	Davos
5000 m	8: 32.6 min	February 4, 1928	Davos
10,000 m	17: 34.8 min	February 5, 1928	Davos

¹ = world record at the time of the run; ² = unofficial world record at the time of the run

Web links

Statistics at speed skating news
Clas Thunberg in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )

Individual evidence

Clas Thunberg, in Oslo around 1925

personal data
SURNAME	Thunberg, Clas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Thunberg, Arnold Clas Robert
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Finnish speed skater
DATE OF BIRTH	April 5, 1893
PLACE OF BIRTH	Helsinki
DATE OF DEATH	April 28, 1973
Place of death	Helsinki

[1] ttp://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/athletes/_/athlete/32565/clas-thunberg

[2] ttp://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/athletes/_/athlete/32565/clas-thunberg

[3] ttp://espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/athletes/_/athlete/32565/clas-thunberg