Göthe Hedlund

Göthe Hedlund (31 July 1918 – 15 December 2003) was a Swedish speed skater who was at the world top around World War II.

Hedlund made his international debut at the 1939 European Allround Championships of Riga, Latvia, finishing 16th. Two weeks later, he participated in the World Allround Championships held in Helsinki, but his times on the first three distances were not good enough to qualify him for the final distance. The start of World War II meant that only very few tournaments were organised, so Hedlund could not compete very often during those years.

When the war was over, Hedlund participated in the first European Allround Championships after the war and promply became the 1946 European Allround Champion. There were no official World Allround Championships that year, but unofficial World Championships were held in Oslo and Hedlund won silver there. In 1947, Hedlund won European silver behind compatriot Åke Seyffarth. At the 1948 Winter Olympics of St. Moritz, Hedlund won bronze on the 5,000 m behind Norwegian skaters Reidar Liaklev and Odd Lundberg. His last international medal came two weeks later at the European Allround Championships where he won silver, again behind Liaklev.

Hedlund competed internationally until 1952. He died in Lidingö in 2003 at the age of 85.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Hedlund at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

Note that the World Allround Championships of 1946 were unofficial.

In addition, Hedlund won a total of 12 Swedish National Championships titles:
* Swedish Championships 1,500 m: 1947 and 1949.
* Swedish Championships 3,000 m: 1947 and 1949.
* Swedish Championships 5,000 m: 1939, 1947, and 1949.
* Swedish Championships 10,000 m: 1939, 1944, 1945, 1949, and 1950.

Note that Sweden did not have any National Allround Championships from 1935 to 1962 – only National Single Distance Championships.

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the "WR" column lists the official world records on the dates that Hedlund skated his personal records.

Hedlund has an Adelskalender score of 192.698 points.

References

* [http://www.desg.de/skater.php?anzeige=skater&skater=3775 Göthe Hedlund] . "Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft e.V." (German Skating Association).
* [http://web.telia.com/~u46130641/adel.htm Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages]
* [http://www.isu.org/vsite/vfile/page/fileurl/0,11040,4844-181536-198754-94643-0-file,00.pdf Historical World Records] . "International Skating Union".
* [http://www.skridsko.se/t3.asp?p=139102 National Champions] . "Svenska Skridskoförbundet" (Swedish Skating Association).