Lennart Hedmark

Lennart Per-Olav Hedmark (born 18 May 1944 in Skellefteå) is a retired Swedish track and field athlete who competed in the decathlon. He represented his country three times at the Summer Olympics (1968, 1972 and 1976).

He started his career as a javelin throw specialist and claimed three straight titles in the event at the Swedish Championships from 1963 to 1965. He was selected to compete at the 1964 Summer Olympics, but did not start the competition. His first international medal came at the 1965 Summer Universiade, where he was the bronze medallist.

Hedmark changed his focus to combined events in 1967 and he was one of his region's dominant athletes over his career: he had four consecutive victories in the Nordic Combined Events Championships from 1967 to 1970, and in a decade of national competition he won seven Swedish decathlon titles in addition to five titles in the pentathlon. At the 1968 Summer Olympics he came eleventh in the decathlon. International medals came at the 1970 Summer Universiade, where he took the silver behind Mykola Avilov, and at the 1971 European Athletics Championships, finishing as runner-up to the defending champion Joachim Kirst.

He made his second Olympic appearance at the 1972 Munich Games, but he did not manage to finish the competition. The following year he was the inaugural winner of the European Combined Events Cup. His best performance of the year came in Bonn and his total of 8163 points was the best by any athlete that year. Hedmark's final major appearance came at the 1976 Summer Olympics and had his best Olympic outing with a score of 8002 for eighth place.

Although he never won a major title, Hedmark's career was one of the most prolific as he competed in a total of 76 combined events competitions. This was the greatest number ever for a top level athlete at the time and remains among the highest totals; Kip Janvrin bettered this achievement and was himself succeeded by Roman Šebrle, who completed over 100 appearances. Hedmark is now the fourth most prolific combined eventer after Janvrin, Šebrle and Tomáš Dvořák.

He married Briton Linda Knowles, a fellow top class European athlete.

See also
List of Pennsylvania State University Olympians

References

Category:Living people
Category:1944 births
Category:People from Skellefteå Municipality
Category:Swedish male javelin throwers
Category:Swedish decathletes
Category:Olympic athletes of Sweden
Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1968 Summer Olympics
Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1972 Summer Olympics
Category:Athletes (track and field) at the 1976 Summer Olympics
Category:European Athletics Championships medalists
Category:Universiade medalists in athletics (track and field)
Category:Universiade silver medalists for Sweden
Category:Universiade bronze medalists for Sweden