Henrik Sjöberg

Henrik Sjöberg (20 January 1875 in Stockholm – 1 August 1905 in Helsingør) was a Swedish athlete, gymnast and medical student.[1] He competed as the only Swedish participant at the 1896 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Henrik Sjöberg
Personal information
Born(1875-01-20)20 January 1875
Stockholm, Sweden
Died1 August 1905(1905-08-01) (aged 30)
Helsingør, Denmark
Sport
SportAthletics Track & Field, Gymnastics

Sjöberg from 1892 competed for Stockholm AF, and in the same year he held the unofficial Swedish record for the long jump with 6.09 metres,[1] even though he completely lacked the support from the Swedish Sports Confederation he refused to see himself omitted from the first Olympic Games.[2]

At the 1896 Summer Olympics, Sjöberg competed in five different events, one on the athletics track, three in the athletics field and one as a gymnast,[3] on the track he competed in the 100 metres, his time is unknown and records only show he finished in fourth or fifth place in his heat so didn't qualify for the final.[4] In the athletics field he competed in the discus, his distance is unknown and finished outside the top four,[5] in the long jump, again his distance is unknown and was placed outside the top four,[6] his best result was in the high jump where he cleared 1.60 metres to finish in fourth place just 5 centimetres short of a medal.[7]

Sjöberg also competed in the vault event in the gymnastics with 14 other competitors, in which they had two minutes to carry out as many jumps as they wished, again no score or position is recorded for his efforts.[8]

Tragically Sjöberg drowned in the eastern Denmark town of Helsingør in 1905.[1]

References
  1. "Henrik Sjoberg". sok.se. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  2. "Summer Olympics in Athens 1896". sommaros.se. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  3. "Henrik Sjoberg, bio". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  4. "Athletics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's 100 metres Round One". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  5. "Athletics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Discus Throw". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  6. "Athletics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Long Jump". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  7. "Athletics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's High Jump". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
  8. "Gymnastics at the 1896 Athina Summer Games: Men's Horse Vault". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 15 March 2017.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.