Åke Seyffarth, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

    

Åke Seyffarth

Swedish cyclist and Olympic speed skater

Date of Birth: 15-Jan-1919

Place of Birth: Stockholm, Sweden

Date of Death: 01-Jan-1998

Profession: sport cyclist, speed skater

Nationality: Sweden

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn


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About Åke Seyffarth

  • Karl Åke Seyffarth (15 January 1919 – 1 January 1998) was a Swedish speed skater who specialised in long distance events.
  • He set new world records on the 5,000 m (8:13.7) in 1941 and on the 3000 m (4:45.7) in 1942.
  • He became European Allround Champions in 1947, winning both the 5,000 m and the 10000 m on his way to becoming European Champion.
  • In addition to speed skating, Seyffarth also was one of Sweden's leading cyclists, but this career was hampered by an injury in a dirt biking accident in 1943. Seyffarth participated in the 1948 Winter Olympics in St.
  • Moritz, the first Winter Olympic Games to be held in twelve years.
  • As a result of the lack of competition during, and shortly after, World War II, Seyffarth entered the 5,000 m as the world record holder, a record he had set almost exactly seven years earlier, in 1941.
  • During his heat, Seyffarth seemed to be winning until a photographer tried to take a picture of him and stepped onto the ice.
  • Seyffarth brushed the photographer, losing several seconds, and went on to lose his heat and finally come in seventh overall.
  • The winner of the race was Reidar Liaklev with a time of 8:29.4, well above Seyffarth's 1941 world record of 8:13.7.
  • Seyffarth's official 5,000 m time was 8:37.9.The day after his disappointing 5000 m race, Seyffarth won Olympic silver on the 1,500 m, half a second behind Norwegian skater Sverre Farstad.
  • The day after that, Seyffarth won Olympic gold on the 10000 m with a time of 17:26.30, not a particularly fast time considering that the world record at the time was 17:01.50.
  • He won with relative ease, however, almost ten seconds ahead of silver medallist Lassi Parkkinen from Finland.

Read more at Wikipedia

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