Thomas Wassberg

Thomas Wassberg

Thomas Wassberg
Full name Lars Thomas Wassberg
Born (1956-03-27) 27 March 1956
Lennartsfors, Värmland, Sweden
Ski club Åsarna IK
World Cup career
Seasons 1977-1988
Individual wins 6
Indiv. podiums 18
Overall titles 1 (1976/77)

Thomas Wassberg (born 27 March 1956 in Lennartsfors, Värmland) is a Swedish former cross-country skier. A fast skating style - push for every leg - is still called "Wassberg" after him in several countries.

Wassberg's skiing idols when growing up were Sixten Jernberg and Oddvar Brå. He has described his mental strength and physical fitness as his greatest abilities as a skier, with his main weakness being a lack of sprinting ability.[1]

He won the World Cup in 1977. In 1980 he received Bragdmedaljen, an award given to the best Swedish sportsman/sportswoman each year. He did however for many years refuse to accept the award in protest to an earlier decision by the award committee, but finally in 2013 he accepted the medal.

Wassberg won four gold Medals at the Winter Olympics: in 15 km (1980), 50 km (1984), and the 4 x 10 km relay (1984, 1988). At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, he earned three golds (50 km: 1982, 30 km: 1987, and 4 x 10 km: 1987), three silvers (15 km: 1985, 1987; 50 km (1987), and one bronze (4 x 10 km: 1985). Additionally, Wassberg won the 50 km at the Holmenkollen ski festival three times (1980, 1982 and 1987) and the 15 km twice (1979, 1985).

At the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, Wassberg edged out Finland's Juha Mieto by 0.01 seconds in the 15 km, the closest cross-country skiing race in Olympic history. Wassberg subsequently suggested to Mieto that the gold medal should be split between them "as one one-hundredth of a second is nothing in a 15-kilometer race". This incident led the FIS to change their timing to the nearest one-tenth of a second. It also resulted in an apocryphal urban legend that Wassberg and Mieto's medals were cut in half and re-welded into half-gold, half-silver medals.[2] At the 1984 Winter Olympics, Wassberg beat out fellow Swede Gunde Svan by 4.9 seconds in the 50 km, the closest margin of victory ever in that event until Giorgio Di Centa (Italy) edged out Yevgeny Dementyev (Russia) by 0.8 seconds at the 2006 Winter Olympics though the 2006 event was a mass start event while the 1984 event was an interval start event.

Wassberg was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1980.

According to Bengt Erik Bengtsson, Chief of the Nordic Office of the International Ski Federation (FIS) from 1984 to 2004, Thomas Wassberg was the first to suggest in 1984 the splitting of the sport of cross country skiing into classic and free style disciplines. This was subsequently implemented by FIS in 1986.[3]

Wassberg participated in Let's Dance 2016 which was broadcast on TV4.[4]

References

  1. ↑ "Cross Country Legend Thomas Wassberg (SWE) in Interview". Fischer Sports. 14 November 2014. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  2. ↑ Perman, Cindy (2013). New York Curiosities, 2nd: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. p. 151. ISBN 9780762774968. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  3. ↑ Bengt Erik Bengtsson (2010). "Cross country skating: how it started". Retrieved 27 March 2016.
  4. ↑ "Deltagare i Let's dance - tv4.se". tv4.se. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
Preceded by
Malmö FF		 Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal
1980 		Succeeded by
Annichen Kringstad
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