Klas Lestander ( Swede. Klas Lestander , April 18, 1931 , Arjeplug , Norrbotten ) - Swedish biathlete , the first Olympic champion in biathlon. Lestander was born in the outback in northern Sweden to a hunter family. In the late 50s, he began to engage in biathlon and used his hunting skills to win Olympic medals. Hitting a target for him was as easy as shooting a lynx, elk, squirrel or hazel grouse. However, that historic victory remained the only one in Lestander’s sports biography and was accidental for a number of reasons.
 Klas Lestander | |||||||||||||
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 Klas Lestander at the 1960 Olympics | |||||||||||||
| general information | |||||||||||||
| Full name | Swede. Klas lestander | ||||||||||||
| Citizenship |  Sweden | ||||||||||||
| Date of Birth | April 18, 1931 (88 years old) | ||||||||||||
| Place of Birth | Arjeplug , Sweden | ||||||||||||
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| Olympic champion | 1 ( 1960 ) | ||||||||||||
| Medals | |||||||||||||
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Lestander was never an outstanding skier. In the Olympic individual race, he showed only the 15th move and lost almost five minutes to the move to the bronze medalist of those Games, Alexander Privalov. However, then the biathlon rules were different from modern ones. Shooting was carried out from military weapons at four different lines, with the latter necessarily from a standing position. Each miss was punished not by one, but by two minutes of a penalty. This was the key to the success of the Swede, because according to the current rules, Privalov would become the Olympic champion. In addition, the stars came together so that it was the best race in the career of Lestander.
Klas Lestander, having won a gold medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics , became the first Olympic biathlon champion in history. Until 2010, he remained the only Swede to win a gold medal in biathlon at the Olympic Games among men. He is rightfully considered the founder of the legendary Zero club, which includes nearly 60 athletes who won the World Championships and Olympic Games with flawless shooting. Lestander became a cult figure for the Swedish biathlon. At the Winter Olympics in Vancouver , Björn Ferry repeated his success. In 1958, Adolf Wicklund became the first world champion. Thus, the first Olympic champion and the first world biathlon champion are Swedish athletes.
In the unofficial relay race of 3 × 7.5 km at the 1961 World Cup, he took third place in the national team of Sweden.
Links
- Klas Lestander - Olympic statistics at Sports-Reference.com