Gunder Hägg

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Gunder Hägg (right) runs a world record in 4: 06.2 over an English mile in Slottskogsvallen in Gothenburg on July 1, 1942

Gunder Hägg (born December 31, 1918 in Albacken , Jämtland County , † November 27, 2004 in Malmö ) was a Swedish athlete .

Hägg was one of the dominant medium and long-distance runners in the world in the 1940s . Between 1941 and 1945 he set 16 world records. At the time, Hägg held all the records on routes from 1500 to 5000 meters .

At the age of sixteen he started running and two years later he was a world class runner. He only trained in forests on soft natural soil and in the snow to protect his tendons. He was trained by Gösta Olander, who kept a training camp in Vålådalen in the woods of northern Sweden . Hägg's training is characterized by driving play , which means that he did a large number of repetitive speed runs in the field, on cinder tracks he only ran in competitions.

On September 20, 1942, Hägg was the first person to run the 5000 meter distance under 14 minutes and was ten seconds faster than the previous record holder. For this achievement he was honored with the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal and with the Associated Press' Sportsman of the Year award . It was not until twelve years later that Emil Zátopek broke this record . Because of the war, Hägg could never take part in the Olympic Games.

Hägg, also known as "Wunder-Gunder" in Sweden, was banned for life in 1946. He was accused of having accepted money from organizers for starts at sports festivals.

He worked as a lumberjack, firefighter, tie seller and seller of women's hats and wrote souvenir volumes that were translated into German. His last autobiography was published in 1987. In recent years he has been living in seclusion near the southern Swedish city of Malmö.

Interesting facts about Hägg

Gunder Hägg

  • was the first under 14 minutes over 5000 m;
  • was world record holder over 5000 m for eleven years and eight months, longer than anyone else;
  • was the only runner besides the Finn Paavo Nurmi who broke all world records from 1500 m to 5000 m;
  • at the end of his career had achieved the six fastest 2 mile times and five of the six fastest 3000 m times in eleven different races;
  • was in his short international career in the 1500 m, 1 mile, 3000 m and 5000 m overall 10 times world best;
  • had run three of the four best times in the combined world best list over 1500 m and the mile at the end of the 45s season.

Curiosity

A successful Swedish band from the left-wing Progg movement called themselves "Gunder Hägg" at the end of the 1960s, but was not allowed to keep it after a legal dispute and therefore renamed themselves Blå tåget (The Blue Train) in 1972 .

literature

  • Gunder Hägg: That's how I broke world records. The Swedish wonder runner tells the youth about his life. Olympia-Verlag, Nuremberg 1948
  • Hans Gebhardt: The 80 days of Gunder Hägg. Bertelsmann, Munich 1976, ISBN 3-570-02278-1 ; Goldmann, Munich 1979, ISBN 3-442-07029-5
  • Arnd Krüger : Many roads lead to the Olympics. The changes in the training systems for middle and long distance runners (1850-1997), in: N. Gissel (Hrsg.): Sportliche Leistungs im Wandel. Hamburg 1998: Czwalina, pp. 41-56.

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hägg, Gunder
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swedish middle and long distance runner
DATE OF BIRTH December 31, 1918
PLACE OF BIRTH Albacken ( Jämtland County )
DATE OF DEATH November 27, 2004
Place of death Malmo