Gustav Freij

Gustav Freij medal table
Gustav Freij
Wrestler
Sweden
Olympic games
gold	1948 London	Easily Greco
silver	1952 Helsinki	Easily Greco
bronze	1960 Rome	Easily Greco
World Championship
silver	1950 Stockholm	Easily Greco
gold	1953 Naples	Easily Greco

Gustav Freij (born March 17, 1922 in Silvåkra , † August 4, 1973 in Malmö ) was a Swedish wrestler .

Career

Gustav Freij started wrestling at the age of 16. He became a member of the IK "Sparta" wrestling club in Malmö. It developed continuously, but was initially in the shadow of other wrestlers in Sweden. In 1948, however, he managed to qualify for the Olympic Games in London in the Greco-Roman style, the style he exclusively wrestled. In London he proved to be the best lightweight wrestler and was deservedly Olympic champion with a final victory over the Hungarian Károly Ferencz . Gustav won his first Swedish lightweight championship only in 1950 at the age of 28. That year he also started at the World Championships in his native Stockholm. He completed a good tournament, scored five wins, but lost in the final battle to the Hungarian József Gál and had to be content with 2nd place.

Since no European championships were held at the time and world championships only every two years, Gustav Freij's next start at an international championship was at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki . For the first time, the Soviet Union took part in the Olympic Games and it was also a Soviet wrestler, Schazam Safin , who defeated Gustav in the final battle and relegated to 2nd place. Gustav Freij's silver medal, however, was highly deserved.

The next world championships took place in Naples in 1953 . Gustav Freij managed to triumph and become world champion. He suffered another defeat from Shazam Safin, but defeated the Finn Kyösti Lehtonen , who in turn defeated Safin. Since Gustav had the best points ratio from the preliminary fights, he became world champion.

In 1955 Gustav won his fifth medal in Karlsruhe when he took part in an international championship for the fifth time. This time it was the bronze medal. Against Kyösti Lehtonen he lost this time and also against the strong Soviet athlete Grigori Gamarnik , who became world champion.

For financial reasons, Sweden sent only a small team to the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956 . Olle Anderberg , who was able to compete in both styles, was nominated for the lightweight . Gustav Freij, who would have had a good chance of winning another medal, had to sit and watch from Malmö. He did not retire, however, but was back at the 1958 World Cup in Budapest . For the first time, however, he failed to win a medal with 5th place.

After all, Gustav Freij took part in the Olympic Games for the third time in Rome in 1960 at the age of 38 . His nomination by the Swedish Olympic Committee was controversial because he had only finished 2nd at the Swedish championships in 1960 in the lightweight. But in Rome he managed to win another medal and a great end to his long career. After these Olympic Games Gustav Freij resigned.

The results of the championships and some other events in which Gustav Freij participated can be seen in the following sections.

International success

(all competitions in Greco-Roman style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, = lightweight, then up to 67 kg body weight)

year	space	competition	Weight class
1948	gold	OS in London	Light	with victories over Raymond Myland, Great Britain , A. Falaux, France , Abraham Kurland , Denmark , Ahmet Şenol , Turkey and Károly Ferencz , Hungary
1950	1.	Intern. Tournament in Malmö	Light	before KE Andersson, Sweden and Jakob Kern , FRG
1950	2.	World Cup in Stockholm	Light	with wins over Charif Damage , Lebanon , Aage Eriksen , Norway , August Hojrup , Denmark, Paul Besson, Switzerland and Tevfik Yüce , Turkey and one loss against József Gál , Hungary
1952	silver	OS in Helsinki	Light	with wins over Jack-Finne Rasmussen, Denmark, Dumitru Cuc, Romania , Kalle Haapasalmi, Finland , Gyula Tarr, Hungary and Mikuláš Athanasov , Czechoslovakia and one defeat against Schazam Safin , USSR
1953	1.	World Cup in Naples	Light	with victories over Hojrup, Bartl Brötzner, Austria , Willi Mayer, FRG, Tevfik Yüce and Kyösti Lehtonen , Finland and despite a defeat against Safin
1955	3.	World Cup in Karlsruhe	Light	with victories over Bernard Philippe, Luxemburg , Dimitar Stojanow, Bulgaria , Athanasov and Cuc and defeats against Lehtonen and Grigori Gamarnik , USSR
1958	5.	World Cup in Budapest	Light	with victory over Karel Matoušek, Czechoslovakia, a draw against Gyula Toth, Hungary and a defeat against Rıza Doğan , Turkey
1960	bronze	OS in Rome	Light	with victories over Hernando Delgado, Spain and Matoušek and a draw against Branislav Martinović , Yugoslavia and Gheorghe Dumitru, Romania

Most important international battles

• 1952, Germany - Sweden , GR, Le, point defeat against Heinrich Nettesheim ,
• 1952, Germany - Sweden, GR, Le, victory over Werner Härtling ,
• 1954, Sweden - Finland, GR, Le, point defeat against Erkki Talosela,
• 1954, Sweden - Finland, GR, Le, point defeat against Kyösti Lehtonen,
• 1955, USSR - Sweden, GR, Le, point defeat against Jakov Punkin ,
• 1955, USSR - Sweden, GR, Le, point victory over Rosin,
• 1956, Sweden - USSR, GR, Le, point loss to Rosin,
• 1958, Sweden - USSR, GR, Le, point defeat against I. Korschunow,
• 1959, USSR - Sweden, GR, Le, draw against I. Korschunow,
• 1959, Sweden - Finland, points victory over Rauno Mäkinen ,
• 1959, Sweden - Finland, points victory over Alanen

Swedish championships

The Swedish lightweight championship, Greco-Roman style, was won by Gustav Freij in 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1958

swell

• DOCUMENTATION of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976
• International Wrestling Database of the University of Leipzig
• various issues of the specialist magazine "Athletik" from 1948 to 1960

Web links

• Profile of Gustav Freij at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Gustav Freij in the database of Sports-Reference (English; archived from the original )
• Gustav Freij on the Swedish Olympic Committee website