Sven Tomas Gustafson (born 28 December 1959) is a retired Swedish

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in travelling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating. ...

, and one of the most successful distance skaters of the 1980s.

Early career

Born in

Katrineholm Katrineholm (pronunciation: or ) is a locality and the seat of Katrineholm Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 24,271 inhabitants in 2018. It is located in the inland of Södermanland and is the third largest urban area in the county ...

, he won the World Junior Championships title, in

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, in 1979. One year later, at the European Championships of seniors, he finished 4th. One month after that, he participated in the

1980 Winter Olympics The 1980 Winter Olympics, officially the XIII Olympic Winter Games and also known as Lake Placid 1980, were an international multi-sport event held from February 13 to 24, 1980, in Lake Placid, New York, United States. Lake Placid was elected ...

Lake Placid, New York Lake Placid is a village in the Adirondack Mountains in Essex County, New York, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 2,303. The village of Lake Placid is near the center of the town of North Elba, southwest of Plattsburgh. ...

, with a 7th place on the 1500 m as his best performance. In that same month, he defended his Junior World title.

1982 to Sarajevo leadup

In 1982, he became allround European Champion in

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of ...

, where he set the 10,000 m

world record A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

. this is the last outdoor World record for men on a lowland track. Because of this performance, he was awarded the

Oscar Mathisen Award Since 1959, the Oscar Mathisen Award (also known as the Oscar Mathisen Memorial Award, the Oscar Mathisen Memorial Trophy, and sometimes the Skating Oscar) is awarded annually for outstanding speed skating performance of the season. The award was in ...

, an award for the best skating performance of the season. One year later, on the same track, he won silver at the World Allround Championships, finishing second behind

Rolf Falk-Larssen Rolf Falk-Larssen (born 21 February 1960) is a former speed skater. __NOTOC__ Representing Trondhjems Skøiteklub, Rolf Falk-Larssen made his international debut at the European Allround Championships of 1982 and he was in the lead after three ...

. Gustafson had the best allround point-sum (''

samalog Samalog (or samalogue in UK spelling; sometimes sammenlagt in both Norwegian and Danish: "put together", "total sum") is a scoring system in speed skating. It is used in allround tournaments to convert results at various distances into points in or ...

''), but Falk-Larssen won by the rule that a skater winning three distances, and merely having finished the fourth, is automatically pronounced the champion. This caused a renewed debate about the three-distance-wins rule which was subsequently abolished. From 1984 onwards, the champion was to be the skater with the best allround point-sum.

Sarajevo to Calgary leadup

One year later, his focus was not on the world allround championships, but on the

1984 Winter Olympics The 1984 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XIV Olympic Winter Games (Serbo-Croatian and Slovene: ''XIV. Zimske olimpijske igre''; Cyrillic: XIV Зимске олимпијске игре; mk, XIV Зимски олимписки игр ...

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

. He won Olympic gold in the 5,000 m, ahead of Soviet skater

Igor Malkov Igor Alekseyevich Malkov (russian: И́горь Алексе́евич Малко́в) (born 9 February 1965 in Pervouralsk, Russian SFSR) is a former Speed skating, speedskater. Igor Malkov trained at Voluntary Sports Societies of the USSR, VSS ...

by a mere two hundredths of a second. In the 10,000 m, he once more found himself again in a close finish with Malkov, this time losing by five hundredths of a second. After these Olympics, Gustafson struggled through a knee surgery,

meningitis Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or ...

, and the death of his father.

Calgary glory

In the Olympic year 1988, he had regained his form. In January, he won the European Allround Championships in

The Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

, winning all four distances, an achievement no one else has been able to reach in post-war speedskating. With his nemesis Malkov retired, Gustafson knew he had to focus on outpacing long-distance skaters like Dutchmen

Leo Visser Leendert "Leo" Visser (born 13 January 1966) is a Dutch former speed skater, who in 1989 won the World Allround championships and European championships. At the 1988 Olympics in Calgary he won a silver medal in the 5000 m and a bronze medal i ...

and

Gerard Kemkers Gerard Kemkers (born 8 March 1967) is a former speed skating, speed skater from the Netherlands, who represented his native country at the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. There he won the bronze medal in the 5000 metres. Kemkers retired ...

and Austrian skater

Michael Hadschieff Michael Florian Hadschieff (born 5 October 1963) is a former speed skater from Austria. Biography At the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Michael Hadschieff participated in all five distances (500 m - 1,000 m - 1,500 m - 5,000&n ...

. Gustafson managed to do so first in the 5000 m. He trailed Leo Visser's pace by eight hundredths of a second with only 400 m to go. However, he skated a strong final lap to win by one third of a second. Four days later, he won Olympic gold again, this time in the 10,000 m, setting a new world record time of 13:48.20. This record lasted for three years, when it was broken by

Johann Olav Koss Johann Olav Koss, (born 29 October 1968) is a former speed skater from Norway. He won four Olympic gold medals, including three at the 1994 Winter Olympics in his home country. Biography Johann Olav Koss was born in Drammen, Buskerud County, N ...

. Gustafson received the Oscar Mathisen Award again for his performances in 1988. He also earned 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 ...

Late career

Gustafson's only notable achievement after the

1988 Winter Olympics The 1988 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XV Olympic Winter Games (french: XVes Jeux olympiques d'hiver) and commonly known as Calgary 1988 ( bla, Mohkínsstsisi 1988; sto, Wîchîspa Oyade 1988 or ; cr, Otôskwanihk 1998/; srs, Guts� ...

in Calgary was a second-place finish behind

Bart Veldkamp Bart Veldkamp (; born 22 November 1967) is a retired speed skater, who represented the Netherlands and later Belgium in international competitions, including the Winter Olympics. He currently is the national speed skating coach of Belgium. Spe ...

in the 1990 European Allround Championships. At the

1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

Albertville Albertville (; Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a subprefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. It is best known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. In 2018, the commune had ...

, he only participated in the 5000 m, finishing 13th. This was Gustafson's last international race.

Personal life

Gustafson is married to curler

Elisabet Gustafson Karin Elisabet Gustafson (born 2 May 1964) is a retired Swedish curler, world champion and Olympic medalist. She has won four World Championships, more World Championships than any other women's curler. Career Gustafson made her debut onto the ...

Records

World records

Gustafson skated two

world records A world record is usually the best global and most important performance that is ever recorded and officially verified in a specific skill, sport, or other kind of activity. The book ''Guinness World Records'' and other world records organization ...

: Source: SpeedSkatingStats.com

Personal records

Gustafson has an Adelskalender score of 157.701 points. In March 1988 he put himself in third place of the ranking, behind

Eric Flaim Eric Joseph Flaim (born March 9, 1967) is an American former speed skater. He became a world champion in 1988, as well as capturing Olympic silver medals, namely in speed skating at the 1988 Winter Olympics and in short track speed skating at ...

and

. After improving his personal best time in the 1500 metres distance in December 1990, he reached second place. Gustafson was ranked among the top 3 for 1468 days.

References

Tomas Gustafson at SpeedSkatingStats.comOfficial website of the Olympic Movement
*Tomas Gustafson (1994) ''Mål, vilja och seger'' Sportförlaget

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gustafson, Tomas 1959 births Living people People from Katrineholm Municipality Swedish male speed skaters Olympic speed skaters of Sweden Speed skaters at the 1980 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1984 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1988 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 1992 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Olympic silver medalists for Sweden World record setters in speed skating Olympic medalists in speed skating Medalists at the 1984 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1988 Winter Olympics World Allround Speed Skating Championships medalists Sportspeople from Södermanland County 20th-century Swedish people