Jan Niklas Patrik Sjöberg (; born 5 January 1965) is 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 ...

former

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

er. He broke the world record with in Stockholm on 30 June 1987. This mark is still the European record and ranks him third on the world all-time list behind

Javier Sotomayor Javier Sotomayor Sanabria (; born October 13, 1967) is a Cuban retired track and field athlete, who specialized in the high jump and is the current world record holder. The 1992 Olympic champion, he was the dominant high jumper of the 1990s; hi ...

and Mutaz Essa Barshim. He twice held the world indoor record holder with marks of 2.38 m (1985) and 2.41 m (1987). He was the 1987 World Champion and three-times an Olympic medallist.

Early life

Sjöberg was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

, Västra Götaland and was a member of the Örgryte IS club.

Career

Sjöberg has a gold medal from the World Championships in Rome 1987 and has three Olympic medals: silver medals from

Los Angeles 1984 The 1984 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXIII Olympiad and also known as Los Angeles 1984) were an international multi-sport event held from July 28 to August 12, 1984, in Los Angeles, California, United States. It marked the secon ...

and Barcelona 1992, and a bronze medal from

Seoul 1988 The 1988 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXIV Olympiad () and commonly known as Seoul 1988 ( ko, 서울 1988, Seoul Cheon gubaek palsip-pal), was an international multi-sport event held from 17 September to 2 October ...

. Sjöberg is the only high jumper to have won medals in more than two Olympic Games. He won the 1985 World Indoor Games, is a four-time European Indoor champion and twice won the World Cup title. Sjöberg received the ''Svenska Dagbladet'' Gold Medal in 1985. He has inspired many later Swedish high jumpers, most notably

Kajsa Bergqvist Kajsa Margareta Bergqvist (; born 12 October 1976 in Sollentuna, Stockholm) is a Swedish former high jumper. She won one bronze medal in the Olympic Games, one gold and two bronze medals in the World Championships in Athletics and one gold and ...

Linus Thörnblad Linus Thörnblad (born 6 March 1985) is a Swedish former track and field athlete competing in high jump. He won the bronze medal at the 2006 IAAF World Indoor Championships and a silver medal at the 2007 European Athletics Indoor Championships. He ...

, Staffan Strand, and

Stefan Holm Stefan Christian Holm (born 25 May 1976) is a retired Swedish high jumper. He won an Olympic Games, Olympic gold medal, a silver medal, silver in the World Championships in Athletics, World Championships, and one silver and one bronze medal in ...

. His world record of 2.42 m was broken 15 months later, when, on the eve of the Seoul Summer Olympics,

jumped 2.43 m in September 1988 at a meet in Spain. Sjöberg competed as a celebrity dancer in ''

Let's Dance 2014 Let's Dance 2014 was the ninth season of the Swedish celebrity dance show Let's Dance. The show was broadcast on TV4 and the hosts were David Hellenius and Jessica Almenäs. Couples Scoring Chart Highest and lowest scoring performances ...

'', finishing fourth. Sjöberg, who is a survivor of child sexual abuse, is co-founder of the website Dumpen.se. They chat with pedophiles and child groomers online posing as underage (under 15, the

age of consent The age of consent is the age at which a person is considered to be legally competent to consent to sexual acts. Consequently, an adult who engages in sexual activity with a person younger than the age of consent is unable to legally claim ...

in Sweden) children. If the predator wants to meet the ”child”, Sjöberg and his associate Sara Nilsson travel to confront him, then post the chat logs and the video of their confrontation on the website.

Personal life

In his 2011 autobiography, Sjöberg revealed that he had been sexually molested as a child by Viljo Nousiainen, a prominent Swedish athletics coach. He has a daughter, Isabelle.

Competition record

¹Representing Europe
²No mark in the final

References

External links