Sverre Farstad
Farstad in 1949
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| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born |
8 February 1920 Trondheim, Norway |
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| Died | 27 March 1978 (aged 58) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Norway | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Speed skating | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Sportsklubben Falken | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 500 m: 41.8 (1949) 1000 m: 1:29.7 (1950) 1500 m: 2:13.6 (1949) 3000 m: 4:59.2 (1949) 5000 m: 8:15.4 (1949) 10 000 m: 17:39.7 (1949) |
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Medal record
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Sverre Farstad (8 February 1920 – 27 March 1978) was a speed skater representing Sportsklubben Falken, Trondheim, as part of the Falken Trio also including Henry Wahl and Hjalmar Andersen. Farstad won one Olympic gold medal and one European Championship in his three-year international career.
Before World War II, Farstad was active in workers races, and came second in the Norwegian Workers' Championship on the 5,000 m in 1940. During the war, he trained weightlifting and gymnastics in Trondheim, and returned to international competition by winning bronze at the European Championship 1947, where he won the 1,500 metres, and silver at the World Championship, where he won both 500 and 1,500 m, and was 2.2 seconds from becoming world champion by virtue of winning three distances. Instead, he finished second in the overall standings after finishing 30.9 seconds behind Lassi Parkkinen on 10,000 metres.
He was awarded Egebergs Ærespris in 1947, having won two silver medals in Norwegian weightlifting championships, and he also won a bronze in rowing. Farstad also competed in boxing, cycling, sport shooting, swimming and amateur wrestling.
Farstad was selected for the Norwegian team at the 1948 Winter Olympics at St. Moritz, and was a favourite on the 1,500 m. He won the race with a time of 2:17.6; though Swede Åke Seyffarth in a later pair was ahead on all three laps before the finish, but Farstad's final lap of 37.6 seconds was unbeatable, and Seyffarth finished 0.5 seconds behind. Farstad became the first person from Trøndelag to win Olympic gold. He also finished sixth on the 500 metres event. After the olympics, he received an overwhelming welcome in Trondheim, along with silver medalist Thomas Byberg and the other olympic skaters from Trøndelag.
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