Gunde Svan

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Medal record

Svan (center) in 1994.
Men's cross-country skiing
Competitor for  Sweden
Olympic Games
Gold 1984 Sarajevo 15 km
Gold 1984 Sarajevo 4 x 10 km
Gold 1988 Calgary 50 km
Gold 1988 Calgary 4 x 10 km
Silver 1984 Sarajevo 50 km
Bronze 1984 Sarajevo 30 km
World Championships
Gold 1985 Seefeld 30 km
Gold 1985 Seefeld 50 km
Gold 1987 Oberstdorf 4 x 10 km
Gold 1989 Lahti 15 km freestyle
Gold 1989 Lahti 50 km
Gold 1989 Lahti 4 x 10 km
Gold 1991 Val di Fiemme 30 km
Silver 1991 Val di Fiemme 15 km
Silver 1991 Val di Fiemme 50 km
Silver 1991 Val di Fiemme 4 x 10 km
Bronze 1985 Seefeld 4 x 10 km
European Championships
Bronze 1995 Rallycross EM

Gunde Svan (born 12 January 1962 in Dala-Järna, Dalarna County) is a former Swedish cross-country skier and auto racing driver. During his career he won a total of four gold, one silver and one bronze medals at the Winter Olympics. Svan won a total of seven golds (15 km - 1989; 30 km and 4 x 10 km - 1985, 1991; 50 km - 1985, 1989; and 4 x 10 km - 1987), three silvers (15 km, 50 km, 4 x 10 km (all 1991)), and one bronze (4 x 10 km - 1985) at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Svan also won the 15 km once (1983) and the 50 km twice (1986, 1990) at the Holmenkollen ski festival. In 1984, he earned the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal, and in 1985, he earned the Holmenkollen medal (shared with Anette Bøe and Per Bergerud). He is currently active as a board member of the International Ski Federation.

[edit] Biography

During his skiing career he became known for his dedication and attention to details. For instance he used a lighter alloy on the tips of his ski poles saving four grams. He won two golds (15 km and relay), one bronze (30 km) and one silver (50 km) at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, he won two golds for 50 km and relay. He also won the World championship gold six times and won the World cup five times.

As a competitor in rallycross he got one gold medal in the Swedish Championship and a bronze medal in the FIA European Championship for Rallycross Drivers (1995: Division 1 – Group N category; with a Toyota Celica GT-Four). One of the reasons for getting into another sport was that some people called him a natural skier while he himself maintained that it's just a matter of will and dedication, according to his famous tagline "nothing is impossible". He applied the same methods to his driving as his skiing and even built his own reaction-tester to practice the for rallycross eminently important starts.

After retiring from his athletic career he has worked as the host for some game shows such as the Swedish version of American Gladiators, Fort Boyard and Bingolotto. He has played a seductive lady in the short movie En handelsresandes nöd, directed by Svenne Rubin and starring Claes Månsson, Björn Skifs and Gert Klötzke. He has also appeared in numerous commercials including a famous commercial where he impersonated fellow skier Thomas Wassberg.

Svan resigned from his position as Chief of Cross-Country for Sweden on the week of 4 May 2009 after he was involved in its reorganization.

[edit] References
18 km
15 km
1936: Finland (Sulo Nurmela, Klaes Karppinen, Matti Lähde & Kalle Jalkanen) * 1948: Sweden (Nils Östensson, Nils Täpp, Gunnar Eriksson & Martin Lundström) * 1952: Finland (Heikki Hasu, Paavo Lonkila, Urpo Korhonen & Tapio Mäkelä) * 1956: Soviet Union (Fyodor Terentyev, Pavel Kolchin, Nikolay Anikin & Vladimir Kuzin) * 1960: Finland (Toimi Alatalo, Eero Mäntyranta, Väinö Huhtala & Veikko Hakulinen) * 1964: Sweden (Karl-Åke Asph, Sixten Jernberg, Janne Stefansson & Assar Rönnlund) * 1968: Norway (Odd Martinsen, Pål Tyldum, Harald Grønningen & Ole Ellefsæter) * 1972: Soviet Union (Vladimir Voronkov, Yuri Skobov, Fyodor Simashev & Vyacheslav Vedenin) * 1976: Finland (Matti Pitkänen, Juha Mieto, Pertti Teurajärvi & Arto Koivisto) * 1980: Soviet Union (Vasily Rochev, Nikolay Bazhukov, Yevgeny Belyayev & Nikolay Zimyatov) * 1984: Sweden (Thomas Wassberg, Benny Kohlberg, Jan Ottosson & Gunde Svan) * 1988: Sweden (Jan Ottosson, Thomas Wassberg, Gunde Svan & Torgny Mogren) * 1992: Norway (Terje Langli, Vegard Ulvang, Kristen Skjeldal & Bjørn Dæhlie) * 1994: Italy (Maurilio De Zolt, Marco Albarello, Giorgio Vanzetta & Silvio Fauner) * 1998: Norway (Sture Sivertsen, Erling Jevne, Bjørn Dæhlie & Thomas Alsgaard) * 2002: Norway (Anders Aukland, Frode Estil, Kristen Skjeldal & Thomas Alsgaard) * 2006: Italy (Fulvio Valbusa, Giorgio Di Centa, Pietro Piller Cottrer & Cristian Zorzi) * 2010: Sweden (Daniel Richardsson, Johan Olsson, Anders Södergren & Marcus Hellner)
18 km
1925: Otakar Německý (TCH) * 1927: John Lindgren (SWE) * 1929: Veli Saarinen (FIN - 17 km) * 1930: Arne Rustadstuen (NOR - 17 km) * 1931: Johan Grøttumsbråten (NOR) * 1933: Nils-Joel Englund (SWE) * 1934: Sulo Nurmela (FIN) * 1935: Klaes Karppinen (FIN) * 1937: Lars Bergendahl (NOR) * 1938: Pauli Pitkänen (FIN) * 1939: Juho 'Jussi' Kurikkala (FIN) * 1950: Karl-Erik Åström (SWE)
15 km
1954: Veikko Hakulinen (FIN) * 1958: Veikko Hakulinen (FIN) * 1962: Assar Rönnlund (SWE) * 1966: Gjermund Eggen (NOR) * 1970: Lars-Göran Åslund (SWE) * 1974: Magne Myrmo (NOR) * 1978: Józef Łuszczek (POL) * 1982: Oddvar Brå (NOR) * 1985: Kari Härkönen (FIN) * 1987: Marco Albarello (ITA) * 1989 freestyle: Gunde Svan (SWE) * 1989 classical: Harri Kirvesniemi (FIN) * 1991: Bjørn Dæhlie (NOR) * 2001: Per Elofsson (SWE) * 2003: Axel Teichmann (GER) * 2005: Pietro Piller Cottrer (ITA) * 2007: Lars Berger (NOR) * 2009: Andrus Veerpalu (EST) * 2011: Matti Heikkinen (FIN)
1926: Matti Raivio (FIN) * 1954: Vladimir Kuzin (URS) * 1958: Kalevi Hämäläinen (FIN) * 1962: Eero Mäntyranta (FIN) * 1966: Eero Mäntyranta (FIN) * 1970: Vyacheslav Vedenin (URS) * 1974: Thomas Magnusson (SWE) * 1978: Sergey Savelyev (URS) * 1982: Thomas Eriksson (SWE) * 1985: Gunde Svan (SWE) * 1987: Thomas Wassberg (SWE) * 1989: Vladimir Smirnov (URS) * 1991: Gunde Svan (SWE) * 1993: Bjørn Dæhlie (NOR) * 1995: Vladimir Smirnov (KAZ) * 1997: Alexey Prokurorov (RUS) * 1999: Mika Myllylä (FIN) * 2001: Andrus Veerpalu (EST) * 2003: Thomas Alsgaard (NOR)

1925: František Donth (TCH) • 1926: Matti Raivio (FIN) • 1927: John Lindgren (SWE) • 1929: Anselm Knuuttila (FIN) • 1930: Sven Utterström (SWE) • 1931: Ole Stenen (NOR)  • 1933: Veli Saarinen (FIN)  • 1934: Elis Wiklund (SWE)  • 1935: Nils-Joel Englund (SWE)  • 1937: Pekka Niemi (FIN)  • 1938: Kalle Jalkanen (FIN)  • 1939: Lars Bergendahl (NOR)  • 1950: Gunnar Eriksson (SWE)  • 1954: Vladimir Kuzin (URS)  • 1958: Sixten Jernberg (SWE)  • 1962: Sixten Jernberg (SWE)  • 1966: Gjermund Eggen (NOR)  • 1970: Kalevi Oikarainen (FIN)  • 1974: Gerhard Grimmer (GDR)  • 1978: Sven-Åke Lundbäck (SWE)  • 1982: Thomas Wassberg (SWE)  • 1985: Gunde Svan (SWE)  • 1987: Maurilio De Zolt (ITA)  • 1989: Gunde Svan (SWE)  • 1991: Torgny Mogren (SWE)  • 1993: Torgny Mogren (SWE)  • 1995: Silvio Fauner (ITA)  • 1997: Mika Myllylä (FIN)  • 1999: Mika Myllylä (FIN)  • 2001: Johann Mühlegg (ESP)  • 2003: Martin Koukal (CZE)  • 2005: Frode Estil (NOR)  • 2007: Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset (NOR)  • 2009: Petter Northug (NOR)  • 2011: Petter Northug (NOR)
1933: Sweden (Per-Erik Hedlund, Sven Utterström, Nils-Joel Englund & Hjalmar Bergström) * 1934: Finland (Sulo Nurmela, Klaes Karppinen, Martti Lappalainen & Veli Saarinen) * 1935: Finland (Mikko Husu, Klaes Karppinen, Väinö Liikkanen & Sulo Nurmela) * 1937: Norway (Annar Ryen, Oskar Fredriksen, Sigurd Røen & Lars Bergendahl) * 1938: Finland (Juho 'Jussi' Kurikkala, Martti Lauronen, Pauli Pitkänen & Klaes Karppinen) * 1939: Finland (Pauli Pitkänen, Olavi Alakulppi, Eino Olkinuora & Klaes Karppinen) * 1950: Sweden (Nils Täpp, Karl-Erik Åström, Martin Lundström & Enar Josefsson) * 1954: Finland (August Kiuru, Tapio Mäkelä, Arvo Viitanen & Veikko Hakulinen) * 1958: Sweden (Sixten Jernberg, Lennart Larsson, Sture Grahn & Per-Erik Larsson) * 1962: Sweden (Lars Olsson, Sture Grahn, Sixten Jernberg & Assar Rönnlund) * 1966: Norway: (Odd Martinsen, Harald Grønningen, Ole Ellefsæter & Gjermund Eggen) * 1970: Soviet Union: (Vladimir Voronkov, Valery Tarakanov, Fyodor Simashev & Vyacheslav Vedenin) * 1974: East Germany (Gerd Hessler, Dieter Meinel, Gerhard Grimmer & Gert-Dietmar Klause) * 1978: Sweden (Sven-Åke Lundbäck, Christer Johansson, Tommy Limby & Thomas Magnusson) * 1982: Norway (Lars-Erik Eriksen, Ove Aunli, Pål Gunnar Mikkelsplass & Oddvar Brå) and Soviet Union (Vladimir Nikitin, Alexander Batyuk, Yuriy Burlakov & Alexander Zavyalov) * 1985: Norway (Arild Monsen, Pål Gunnar Mikkelsplass, Tor Håkon Holte & Ove Aunli) * 1987: Sweden (Erik Östlund, Gunde Svan, Thomas Wassberg & Torgny Mogren) * 1989: Sweden (Christer Majbäck, Gunde Svan, Lars Håland & Torgny Mogren) * 1991: Norway (Øyvind Skaanes, Terje Langli, Vegard Ulvang & Bjørn Dæhlie) * 1993: Norway (Sture Sivertsen, Vegard Ulvang, Terje Langli & Bjørn Dæhlie) * 1995: Norway (Sture Sivertsen, Erling Jevne, Bjørn Dæhlie & Thomas Alsgaard) * 1997: Norway (Sture Sivertsen, Erling Jevne, Bjørn Dæhlie & Thomas Alsgaard) * 1999: Austria (Markus Gandler, Alois Stadlober, Mikhail Botvinov & Christian Hoffmann) * 2001: Norway (Frode Estil, Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, Thomas Alsgaard & Tor Arne Hetland) * 2003: Norway (Anders Aukland, Frode Estil, Tore Ruud Hofstad & Thomas Alsgaard) * 2005: Norway: (Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, Frode Estil, Lars Berger & Tore Ruud Hofstad) * 2007: Norway (Eldar Rønning, Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, Lars Berger & Petter Northug) * 2009: Norway: (Eldar Rønning, Odd-Bjørn Hjelmeset, Tore Ruud Hofstad & Petter Northug) * 2011: Norway: (Martin Johnsrud Sundby, Eldar Rønning, Tord Asle Gjerdalen & Petter Northug)
Preceded by
Håkan Carlquist		 Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal
1984		 Succeeded by
Patrik Sjöberg
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gunde_Svan&oldid=468680237"
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