Mats Larsson
Mats Arne Larsson ( born March 20, 1980 in Dala -Järna ) is a Swedish cross-country skier.
Life and career
Mats Larsson comes from a cross-country family. His father Gunnar " Hulan " Larsson won the bronze medal on the 15 km and the silver medal in the relay at the 1968 Olympic Winter Games in Grenoble. Like its siblings Carina and Tommy he was trained at a young age by his mother Karin and his father Gunnar.
On 27 November 1999 in Kiruna, Sweden Larsson launched in the national team for the first time in a World Cup competition. He finished in 50th place in a field of 83 athletes. At the Junior World Championships in 2000 in Štrbské Pleso he missed about the 10 km freestyle in the victory of the German Ron Spanuth fourth just short of the podium. Since the 2001/ 02 season, Larsson is a permanent member of the Swedish World Cup team. But he succeeded only at 21 December 2002 to fight for his first World Cup points in Ramsau. With tenth place in the Pursuit competition, he surpassed his achievements obtained so far clearly.
In the following years living in Östersund Larsson was able to increase its services primarily in sprint competitions. So he qualified in fourth place in the sprint in Reit im Winkl shortly before the 2005 Nordic World Ski Championships for the Swedish national team and competed at the World Championships in Oberstdorf. There he reached the sprint, which was held in the classical technique, the B-final and finished in sixth place in the final result. With the Swedish season he finished seventh. This result could significantly improve the Swedish team at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. Larsson, who was launched as a starter for the season, won the bronze medal with the Swedish team and thus his first international medal.
In the season 2006/ 07 Larsson, who is assisted by the mental coach Rune Gustafsson succeeded, finally the breakthrough into the world top. At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2007 in Sapporo, Japan, he reached the final round of the sprint competition and won behind Jens Arne Svartedal the silver medal. Furthermore it twice he managed to reach the podium in the World Cup. In the overall standings of the Sprint Cup, he finished at the end of the season in eleventh place. Also in the 2007/08 season Larsson was able to record another top - ten finishes. He was, among other third parties in the sprint in Kuusamo, fifth in the prologue of the Tour de Ski, reaching for distance races in the Tour de Ski over 15 km classic in fourth place. At the end of the season, his performance to be leveling out, so that he could not improve the overall World Cup last year's result.