Strength athletics in Sweden explained

Strength athletics in Sweden refers to the participation of Swedish competitors and events in the field of strength athletics in association with the World's Strongest Man.

History

Sweden has a long and rich history of strength athletics dating back to the mid 1900s in the sport of Olympic weightlifting with Bo Johansson in the 1960s and 1970s, and several top ranked IPF Powerlifters such as Lars Hedlund and Lars Norén during the 1980s. Sweden has been at the top international level in World's Strongest Man since the very beginning in the late 1970s with Lars Hedlund achieving numerous podium finishes. Sweden struggled through the 1980s and early 1990s until the arrival of Magnus Samuelsson in 1995. Samuelsson would go on to win the 1998 World's Strongest Man, Sweden's only WSM title. Magnus continued to win major international contests and be a top podium finisher at WSM until his retirement in 2008. In recent years, Johannes Årsjö has continued to maintain Sweden's top position on the international scene with numerous podium finishes at major international contests.

National competitions

Sweden's Strongest Man

Sweden's Strongest Man
Location:Sweden
Establishment:1995
Format:Multi-event competition
Current Champion: Fredrik Johansson

Sweden's Strongest Man (Swedish: Sveriges Starkaste Man) is an annual Strongman competition held in Sweden and featuring exclusively Swedish athletes, to determine who the strongest Swede of the year is.

Magnus Samuelsson and Johannes Årsjö have both won the competition 9 times, thus sharing the record for most wins.

Top 3 placings

[1]

YearChampionRunner-Up3rd Place
1995
1996 Torbjörn Samuelsson
1997 Torbjörn Samuelsson
1998 Torbjörn Samuelsson[2]
1999 Torbjörn Samuelsson
2000 Anders Johansson
2001 Anders Johansson
2002 Jorma Paananen
2003 Kalle Lane
2004 Benny Wennberg
2005 Robert Brolin
2006 Tomas Karlsson
2007 Daniel Wiklund
2008 Stefan Bergqvist
2009 Mikael Hoffner
2010 Peter Rundberg
2011 Stefan Bergqvist
2012 Martin Forsmark
2013 David Nyström
2014 David Nyström
2015 Johnny Hansson
2016 Joachim Gustavsson
2017 Johnny Hansson
2018[3] Johan Espenkrona
2019 Johan Espenkrona
2020 [4] Fredrik Svensson
2021 Fredrik Svensson
2022 Joachim Kvick
2023 Cim Johansson

Regional Competitions

Nordic Strongman Championships

The Nordic Strongman Championships consists of athletes from Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.[5]

YearChampionRunner-Up3rd PlaceLocation
2005 IFSA Nordic Championships Kristiansand, Norway
2012 Michael Licht Nordic Championships Harstad, Norway
2013 Ole Martin Hansen Juha-Matti Järvi Giants Live Nordic Championships Norway

References

  1. Web site: davidhorne-gripmaster.com. 2010-08-25.
  2. Web site: magnus-samuelsson.net . 2010-08-25.
  3. Web site: Sveriges Starkaste Man 2018. 2 November 2018.
  4. Web site: Strength Results.
  5. http://www.ironmind.com/ironmind/opencms/Articles/2012/Jun/Nordic_Strongman_Championships-Viking_Loses_His_Title.html Nordic Strongman Championships: Viking Loses His Title!