Ivar Sjölin

Ivar Sven Lennart "Koran" Sjölin (born September 28, 1918 in Lidköping , † September 10, 1992 ibid) was a Swedish wrestler . He won at the Olympic Games 1948 in London a silver medal in free style in the featherweight .

Career

Ivar Sjölin began wrestling as a teenager in 1931. During his entire wrestling career he always belonged to the same club, Lidköping AS.

Although he was among the top Swedish featherweight wrestlers in both styles (free style and Greco-Roman style) for many years, he only qualified for an international championship in 1948 and that was the Olympic Games in London that year. The reasons why it was not used more often in international championships were the circumstances of the time, because from 1940 to 1945 there were no international championships due to the Second World War and, moreover, in Sweden, as one of the leading wrestling nations in the world, the competition was very fierce . His main competitor in Sweden was Olle Anderberg , against whom he could not prevail. In 1948 Anderberg started at the Olympic Games in London in Greco-Roman style, paving the way for Ivar Sjölin in free style.

In London Ivar Sjölin defeated Paavo Hietala from Finland, Bernal Contreras from Mexico, Abd el Hamid from Egypt, Ferenc Tóth from Hungary and Adolf Müller from Switzerland. In the fight for the gold medal, he was defeated by the Turkish Gazanfer Bilge on points. He won the silver medal with it.

Ivar Sjölin won the Swedish championship in 1950 in the free style and in 1953 in the Greco-Roman style, each in featherweight.

International success

year	space	competition	style	Weight class	Results
1948	silver	OS in London	F.	feather	after victories over Paavo Hietala, Finland, Bernal Contreras, Mexico, Abd el Hamid, Egypt, Ferenc Tóth, Hungary and Adolf Müller, Switzerland and a defeat against Gazanfer Bilge, Turkey

Explanations

• F = free style, GR = Greco-Roman style
• Featherweight, then weight class up to 62 kg body weight
• OS = Olympic Games

literature

• Trade journal Athlik, years 1948 to 1953, Official. Organ of the German Athletes Association (DAB), Karlsruhe, publisher Werner Artmann
• Chronicle "Svensk Brottning 100 år", 2009, published by Thure Petersson
• Documentation of FILA's International Wrestling Championships, 1976

Web links

• Profile of Ivar Sjölin at the Institute for Applied Training Science
• Ivar Sjölin in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Portrait of Ivar Sjölin in Swedish
• Lidköping AS team photo from 1949; Ivar Sjölin is fourth from the right in the first row