Gustav Freij
Gustav Freij ( born March 17, 1922 in Silvåkra; † August 4, 1973 in Malmö) was a Swedish wrestler.
Career
Gustav Freij began at age 16 with the rings. He became a member of the wrestling club IK " Sparta " in Malmö. He developed continuously, but was initially in Sweden or in the shade of other wrestlers. In 1948, however, he made it for the London Olympics in Greco -Roman style, to qualify the style that he wrestled exclusively. In London, he proved to be the best wrestler in the lightweight and was deservedly Olympic champion with a final victory over Hungary Károly Ferencz. His first Swedish championship in the lightweight Gustav won in 1950 at the age of 28 years. In this year he also launched at the World Championships at home in Stockholm. He graduated from a good tournament, scored five victories, but was defeated in the final battle the Hungarian József Gál and had to settle for second place finish.
Since that time no European Championships and World Championships were conducted only every two years, was the next start of Gustav Freij at an international championship. During the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki For the first time, the Soviet Union participated in the Olympic Games and it was a Soviet wrestler, Schazam Safin, who defeated Gustav fight for victory and pointed to the 2nd place. The silver medal by Gustav Freij was, however, deserves high.
The next world championships were held in 1953 in Naples. Gustav Freij was able to triumph here and become world champion. Although Shazam Safin He had again been defeated, but defeated the Finns Kyosti Lehtonen, who in turn beat Safin. Since Gustav had the best ratio of points from the preliminaries, he became world champion.
In 1955, Gustav won in Karlsruhe with its fifth participation in an international championship his fifth medal. This time it was the bronze medal. Counter Kyosti Lehtonen he lost this time and also against the strong Soviet athletes Grigori Gamarnik who was world champion.
At the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne seconded Sweden for financial reasons only a small crew. The lightweight case was Olle Anderberg, who could start in two styles, nominated. Gustav Freij, the good chance of winning a new medal would have had, had to sit idly by Malmö. He sat down not to rest, but was at the World Cup 1958 in Budapest again with it. However, he succeeded in 5th place no medal win.
After Gustav Freij took 38 years in 1960 in Rome for the third time in the Olympic Games in part. His nomination by the Swedish Olympic Committee was present controversial because he had only occupies the second place in the lightweight at the Swedish Championships in 1960. In Rome, but he then managed a re- medal win and a great end to his long career. After these Olympics Gustav Freij resigned.
The results of the Championships and some other events in which Gustav Freij participated are to be seen in the following sections.
International success
(all competitions in the Greco-Roman style, OS = Olympic Games, WM = World Championship, = Lightweight, then to 67 kg body weight)
Main countries fighting
Swedish Championships
The Swedish Championship in the Lightweight, Greco-Roman style, Gustav Freij won in 1950, 1952, 1954, 1955, 1956 and 1958
Swell
- DOCUMENTATION of International Wrestling Championships FILA, 1976
- International Wrestling Database of the University of Leipzig
- Various editions of the journal " Athletics " from the years 1948 to 1960