Fritjof Svensson

Fritjof Svensson (born June 2, 1896 in Bälinge , Uppsala , Sweden , † March 5, 1961 in Stockholm ) was a Swedish wrestler . He became world champion in the Greco-Roman style in bantamweight in 1922 and won a bronze medal in the same style in featherweight at the Olympic Games in Antwerp in 1920 .

Career

Fritjof Konrad Martin Svensson started wrestling in 1914. He focused on the Greco-Roman style and belonged to the sports club Djurgårdens IF Stockholm throughout his career, which lasted until 1925 . He was a driver by profession.

In 1920 he became the first Swedish featherweight champion. He won this title in 1921, 1922 and 1923; In 1922, however, in bantamweight . As the best Swedish wrestler in his weight class and in his style, he was replaced by Erik Malmberg in 1924 .

Fritjof Svensson celebrated his first major international success at the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp, where he won a bronze medal in the featherweight division. In 1922 he started at the bantamweight championship in his native Stockholm. He defeated there u. a. Väinö Ikonen and Kaarlo Mäkinen from Finland as well as Eduard Pütsep from Estonia in the final fight and became world champion.

In 1924 he was able to qualify again for participation in the Olympic Games, which took place in Paris. In featherweight he won over Jenö Nemeth from Hungary, René Rottenfluc from France and Martin Egeberg from Norway. Against Aleksanteri Toivola and Kalle Anttila , both from Finland, he had to accept defeats and therefore only came in 5th place.

successes

Fritjof Svensson was Swedish champion in 1920, 1921 and 1923 in featherweight and in 1922 in bantamweight.

year	space	Weight class	Results
1920	bronze	OS in Antwerp	feather	after a defeat against Heikki Kähkönen, Finland, victories over Alexandre Boumans, Belfien, Aage Torgensen, Denmark and Edvin Jensen, Denmark and a defeat against Oskari Friman, Finland
1921	2.	Nordic championship	feather
1922	1.	World Cup in Stockholm	Bantam	after victories over Georg Gundersen, Denmark, Aage Torgensen , Denmark, Józef Pongrácz , Hungary, Väinö Ikonen , Finland, Kaarlo Mäkinen , Finland and Eduard Pütsep , Estonia
1923	1.	Nordic championship in Kristiana / Norway
1924	5.	OS in Paris	feather	after victories over Jenö Nemeth, Hungary, René Rottenfluc , France and Martin Egeberg, Norway and defeats to Aleksanteri Toivola and Kalle Anttila , both Finland

Explanations

• all competitions in Greco-Roman style
• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship
• Bantam weight from 1922 up to 58 kg, feather weight from 1920 to 60 kg and from 1922 up to 62 kg body weight

literature

• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships 1896 to 1976, 1976
• Anniversary volume “Svens Brottning 100 år”, editor Thure Petersson, 2009, ISBN 878-91-633-4730-6

Web links

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