Erik August Larsson (12 April 1912 – 10 March 1982) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

cross-country skier Cross-country skiing is a form of skiing where skiers rely on their own locomotion to move across snow-covered terrain, rather than using ski lifts or other forms of assistance. Cross-country skiing is widely practiced as a sport and recreation ...

who competed in the 1930s. He won two medals at the

1936 Winter Olympics The 1936 Winter Olympics, officially known as the IV Olympic Winter Games (german: IV. Olympische Winterspiele) and commonly known as Garmisch-Partenkirchen 1936 ( bar, Garmasch-Partakurch 1936), were a winter multi-sport event held from 6 to 16 ...

Garmisch-Partenkirchen Garmisch-Partenkirchen (; Bavarian: ''Garmasch-Partakurch''), nicknamed Ga-Pa, is an Alpine ski town in Bavaria, southern Germany. It is the seat of government of the district of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (abbreviated ''GAP''), in the O ...

with a gold in the 18 km and a bronze in the 4 × 10 km relay. The same year he was awarded the

Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal The Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal ( sv, Svenska Dagbladets guldmedalj, but usually simply called ''Bragdguldet'', "The Feat Gold") is an annual award "for the most significant Swedish sports achievement of the year". It has been awarded by a jury le ...

. Larsson also won a bronze in the 4 × 10 km relay at the

1935 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1935 took place February 13–18, 1935 in Vysoké Tatry, Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , li ...

. Larsson was born as the second youngest of six siblings in a religious Finnish-speaking family. In 1935, he started working as a cleaner at the

Kiruna (; se, Giron ; fi, Kiiruna ) is the northernmost Stad (Sweden), city in Sweden, situated in the province of Lapland, Sweden, Lapland. It had 17,002 inhabitants in 2016 and is the seat of Kiruna Municipality (population: 23,167 in 2016) in Norr ...

iron ore mine in the summer and as a lumberjack in the winter. In 1939, after attending a prayer meeting in Kurravaara he gave up his sport career and became a

Laestadian Laestadianism, also known as Laestadian Lutheranism and Apostolic Lutheranism, is a pietistic Lutheran revival movement started in Sápmi in the middle of the 19th century. Named after Swedish Lutheran state church administrator and temperanc ...

Christian. He was later a preacher in the Firstborn Laestadian congregation in Kiruna. His son Lars became a preacher in

Luleå Luleå ( , , locally ; smj, Luleju; fi, Luulaja) is a city on the coast of northern Sweden, and the capital of Norrbotten County, the northernmost county in Sweden. Luleå has 48,728 inhabitants in its urban core (2018) and is the seat of Lu ...

, while his granddaughter

Åsa Larsson Åsa Larsson (born 28 June 1966) is a Swedish crime-fiction writer. Although born in Uppsala, she was raised in Kiruna in the far north. Prior to becoming a full-time writer, Larsson was a tax lawyer, a profession she shares with the heroine of h ...

was a tax lawyer and a writer of crime novels.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

* 2 medals – (1 gold, 1 bronze)

World Championships

* 1 medal – (1 bronze)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Larsson, Erik August 1912 births 1982 deaths People from Kiruna Municipality Swedish male cross-country skiers Cross-country skiers at the 1936 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Olympic bronze medalists for Sweden Olympic medalists in cross-country skiing FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing Medalists at the 1936 Winter Olympics Swedish Lutherans 20th-century Lutherans