Rudolf Svensson

Rudolf Svensson medal table
Rudolf Svensson
Wrestler
Sweden
Olympic games
silver	1924 Paris	Semi-difficult GR
silver	1924 Paris	Semi-difficult F
gold	1928 Amsterdam	Difficult GR
gold	1932 Los Angeles	Semi-difficult GR
World Championship
silver	1921 Helsinki	Semi-difficult GR
silver	1922 Stockholm	Semi-difficult GR
European Championship
gold	1925 Milan	Difficult GR
silver	1929 Dortmund	Difficult GR
silver	1931 Prague	Semi-difficult GR
gold	1933 Helsinki	Semi-difficult GR
silver	1934 Rome	Difficult GR

Rudolf Svensson (born March 27, 1899 in Gudhem , † December 4, 1978 in Bromma ) was a Swedish wrestler .

Life

Svensson learned to wrestle in Falköping . During the First World War he served his military service as a dragoon in Stockholm . In 1920 he joined the club Djurgårdens IF , got a job as a fire fighter in Stockholm and promoted wrestling training. From 1921 to 1934 he took part in an international championship almost every year with great success. He was a light heavyweight who competed again and again in the light heavyweight division. Svensson was a specialist in standing combat and an excellent tactician. He wrestled mostly in the Greco-Roman style, but also freestyle if necessary . Svensson won two gold and two silver medals at the Olympic Games and is still one of the most successful wrestlers of all time at the Olympic Games. In September 2005 he was inducted into the FILA International Wrestling Hall of Fame for his services to wrestling .

successes

year	space	competition	style	Weight class	Results
1921	2.	World Cup in Helsinki	GR	Semi-difficult	after a victory over Veikko Vihanta, Finland, a defeat against Emil Wecksten, Finland, victories over Johann Gallen, Finland and Jan Muijs, Netherlands and a defeat against Edil Rosenqvist , Finland
1922	2.	World Cup in Stockholm	GR	Semi-difficult	after victories over Arthur Kukk, Estonia, Stefan Dömeny, Hungary and Svend Nielsen, Denmark and a defeat against Edil Rosenqvist
1924	silver	OS in Paris	GR	Semi-difficult	after victories over Emile Walhem, Belgium, Seyfi Berksoy, Turkey, Svend Nielsen, Emil Wecksten, Ibrahim Mustafa , Egypt and Onni Pellinen , Finland and a defeat against Carl Westergren , Sweden
1924	silver	OS in Paris	F.	Semi-difficult	after victories over J. Hutmacker, Belgium, Iisakki Mylläri, Finland, Charles Courant , Switzerland, a defeat against John Spellman , USA and victories over Carl Westergren and G. Wilson, Great Britain
1925	1.	EM in Milan	GR	Heavy	win over Edmond Dame, France, Aleardo Donati, Italy and Raymond Badó , Hungary
1927	2.	Intern. Tournament in Stockholm	GR	Heavy	behind Willi Müller u. before Georg Gehring , bde. Germany u. in front of Emil Larsen , Denmark
1928	gold	OS in Amsterdam	GR	Heavy	after victories over Hjalmar Nyström , Finland, Josef Urban , Czechoslovakia, J. Simonis, Netherlands and Georg Gehring
1929	2.	EM in Dortmund	GR	Heavy	after victories over de Jong, Netherlands, Aleardo Donati, Hjalmar Nyström and Josef Urban and a defeat against Georg Gehring
1929	1.	Intern. Tournament in Stockholm	GR	Heavy	before Hjalmar Nyström u. Georg Nilsson, Sweden
1929	1.	Intern. Tournament in Stockholm	GR	Semi-difficult	before Onni Pellinen, Ibrahim Mustafa , Egypt , Thure Sjöstedt , Sweden a. Robert Rupp , Germany
1931	2.	EM in Prague	GR	Semi-difficult	after victories over Josef Vávra, Czechoslovakia, August Neo , Estonia, Jurai Metzner, Yugoslavia and Anton Vogedes, Germany and a defeat against Onni Pellinen
1931	1.	Intern. Tournament in Linköping	GR	Semi-difficult	before August Neo u. Einar Hansen , Denmark
1932	gold	OS in Los Angeles	GR	Semi-difficult	after victories over Onni Pellinen and Mario Gruppioni , Italy
1933	1.	EM in Helsinki	GR	Semi-difficult	after defeating Josef Taranyi, Hungary, defeating Väinö Kokkinen , Finland and defeating Olaf Luiga , Estonia
1934	2.	EM in Rome	GR	Heavy	after victories over Arvo Niemelä , Finland and Josef Klapuch , Czechoslovakia, a defeat against Kurt Hornfischer , Germany and victories over Alberts Zwejnieks , Latvia and Aleardo Donati

National successes

Rudolf Svensson won seven Swedish championships between 1926 and 1936. In his country he often had tougher competition at these championships than at the Olympic Games, World and European Championships. In view of names like Carl Westergren, Johan Richthoff , Ernst Nilsson , Claes Johansson , Thure Sjöstedt , Georg Nilsson and John Nyman , this is understandable.

Explanations

• OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, EM = European Championship
• GR = Greco-Roman style, F = free style
• Lightweight until 1929 up to 82.5 kg, from 1930 up to 87 kg, heavyweight until 1929 over 82.5 kg, from 1930 over 87 kg body weight
• FILA = World Wrestling Federation (now UWW)

literature

• Athletics magazine
• Documentation of FILA's international Wrestling Championships 1986 to 1976, publisher FILA 1976

Individual evidence

1. ↑ TheMat.com of September 13, 2005 ( memento of January 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on July 8, 2010 (English)

Web links

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