Erik Elmsäter

Fritz Erik Elmsäter , until 1939 Erik Pettersson , (born October 7, 1919 in Stockholm ; † March 9, 2006 ibid) was a Swedish athlete and Nordic combined athlete . In 1948 he won Olympic silver in the 3,000-meter obstacle course .

Erik Elmsäter was an officer in the Swedish infantry. In the 1960s he became administrative director of the sports department at Swedish radio and television.

Career as a track and field athlete

In the 3,000-meter obstacle course, official world records were only recognized after the introduction of the standard dimensions in 1954. Elmsäter, who won four Swedish championship titles from 1943 to 1946, set two unofficial world records in 1943 with 9: 03.4 minutes and in 1944 with 8: 59.6 minutes. He was the first to stay below the nine-minute limit, skipping 37 obstacles as opposed to the 35 obstacles that have been mandatory since 1954.

At the first European championships after the Second World War, which were held in Oslo in 1946, 37 obstacles also had to be crossed. The Frenchman Raphaël Pujazon won the title with a ten second lead . Elmsäter was second in 9: 11.0 minutes before his compatriot Tore Sjöstrand .

At the Olympic Games in London in 1948 , Elmsäter was still the holder of the unofficial world record. The prelims were won by Elmsäter, Pujazon and Sjöstrand. In the final, the French gave up on the way. Sjöstrand won in 9: 04.6 minutes, 3.8 seconds ahead of Elmsäter. The bronze medal went to the third Swede, Göte Hagström .

Career as a winter sportsman

Half a year before the Summer Games in London, Elmsäter had already competed in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. In the 18-kilometer cross-country skiing, he finished 19th. His performance from this competition he took with him in the ski jumping of the Nordic combined, where he fell behind against some other combined. In the end, he finished 9th in the combined ranking.

In 1952 Elmsäter drove to the Olympic Winter Games in Oslo as the Swedish champion in Nordic combined . After he had only achieved 56th place in the 18-kilometer run, he had no chance in the combined classification either. In the end, he finished 13th.

literature

• Volker Kluge : Summer Olympic Games. Chronicle II. London 1948 - Tokyo 1964. Sportverlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 3-328-00740-7 .
• Volker Kluge: Olympic Winter Games. Chamonix 1924 - Lillehammer 1994. The Chronicle. 2nd expanded edition. Sportverlag, Berlin 1994, ISBN 3-328-00631-1 .
• Peter Matthews (Ed.): Athletics 2007. SportsBooks, Cheltenham 2007, ISBN 978-1-899807-49-9 .

Web links

• Erik Elmsäter in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )