Lennart Hedmark
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | 18 May 1944 Skellefteå, Sweden | (age 79)||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 195 cm (6 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Weight | 90 kg (198 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Decathlon | ||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Skellefteå AIK | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Lennart Per-Olav Hedmark (born 18 May 1944) is a retired Swedish track and field athlete who competed in the decathlon. He represented his country at the 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics with the best result of eighth place in 1976.[1]
He started his career as a javelin throw specialist and claimed three straight titles in the event at the Swedish Championships from 1963 to 1965.[2] He was selected to compete at the 1964 Summer Olympics, but did not start the competition. His first international medal came at the 1965 Summer Universiade, where he was the bronze medallist.[3]
Hedmark changed his focus to
He made his second Olympic appearance at the
Although he never won a major title, Hedmark's career was one of the most prolific as he competed in a total of 76 combined events competitions. This was the greatest number ever for a top level athlete at the time and remains among the highest totals; Kip Janvrin bettered this achievement and was himself succeeded by Roman Šebrle, who completed over 100 appearances. Hedmark is now the fourth most prolific combined eventer after Janvrin, Šebrle and Tomáš Dvořák.[8]
He married Briton Linda Knowles, a fellow top class European athlete.[9]
See also
References
- Media related to Lennart Hedmark at Wikimedia Commons
- ^ a b c d Lennart Hedmark. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.
- ^ a b Swedish Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.
- ^ a b Summer Universiade (Men). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.
- ^ Nordic Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.
- ^ European Championships (Men). GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.
- ^ European Combined Events Cup. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.
- ^ Decathlon season's bests. Decathlon 2000. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.
- ^ van Kuijen, Hans (1 April 2010). Sebrle approaching unprecedented milestone – IAAF World Combined Events Challenge. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-05-07.
- ^ Linda Knowles. Sports Reference. Retrieved on 7 May 2011.