Egon Svensson

Egon Svensson (born November 17, 1913 in Malmö ; † June 12, 1995 there ) was a Swedish wrestler . He won a silver medal at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.

Career

Egon Svensson grew up in Central Sweden and began as a teenager with the rings . He soon joined the IK "Sparta" Malmö wrestling club and developed into one of the best Swedish wrestlers in the Greco-Roman style in the light weight classes. He started out as a bantamweight but grew into featherweight over time.

In 1935 Svensson was the first Swedish bantamweight champion in the Greco-Roman style and also prevailed in the Swedish Olympic elimination for the Berlin bantamweight games in 1936 . He performed well at the Olympics itself. He won three fights and lost to the 1932 bantamweight Olympic champion Jakob Brendel from Germany and Márton Lőrincz from Hungary . But he was lucky in that Jakob Brendel was given a surprising and undeserved defeat against the Czech Ferdinand Hyža , which resulted in his departure, whereby Svensson won the silver medal.

In 1937 Egon Svensson came in at the European Championships in Greco-Roman style in Paris in bantamweight also on the 2nd place. After five convincing victories, he lost in the final against Väinö Perttunen from Finland. Also in 1938 he reached 2nd place at the European Championships in the Greco-Roman style in Tallinn . He had switched to featherweight and was only defeated by the invincible Kustaa Pihlajamäki from Finland.

At the last major international wrestling event before the outbreak of the Second World War , the European Championship in Oslo in 1939 , Egon only came in 4th place. He lost again to Kustaa Pihlajamäki and also suffered a defeat against Ferdinand Schmitz from Germany. Shortly before these European championships, Egon had won a double international match against Germany in Stockholm against Ferdinand Schmitz and Willi Möchel from Mülheim .

With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, the international championships also ended. After the end of the war, Egon was no longer active, although he was only 31 years old.

International championships

(OS = Olympic Games, EM = European Championship, Ba = bantamweight, Fe = featherweight, at that time up to 56 kg and 61 kg body weight)

• 1936, silver medal , OS in Berlin , GR, Ba, with victories over Franz Christen, Switzerland , Ivar Stokke, Norway and Antoni Rokita, Poland and defeats against Jakob Brendel , Germany and Márton Lőrincz , Hungary ;
• 1937, 2nd place , EM in Paris , GR, Ba, with victories over Dimitrios Salis, Greece , Eigil Johansen, Denmark , Antonín Nič , Czechoslovakia , Imrei, Hungary and Josif Tojar, Romania and a defeat against Väinö Perttunen , Finland ;
• 1938, 2nd place , EM in Tallinn , GR, Fe, with victories over Robert Voigt, Denmark, Egil Solsvik, Norway and Marian Swietoslawski, Poland and one defeat against Kustaa Pihlajamäki , Finland;
• 1939, 4th place , EM in Oslo , GR, Fe, with victories over Krisjanis Kundzins, Latvia and Denis Perret , Switzerland and defeats against Ferdinand Schmitz , Germany and Kustaa Pihlajamäki

Swedish championships

Egon Svensson became Swedish bantamweight champion in 1935 and featherweight champion in 1938, both in Greco-Roman style.

swell

• Documentation of FILA International Wrestling Championships, 1975.
• various issues of the specialist magazine " Athletik " from the years 1934 to 1936 and the specialist magazine "Kraftsport" from the years 1937 to 1939.

Web links

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