Anders Gärderud

Sven Anders ("Anders") Gärderud (born 28 August 1946) is a Swedish former athlete, winner of 3000 m steeplechase at the 1976 Summer Olympics.

Born in Stockholm, Anders Gärderud experimented with several events without any success, before he rose to athletic greatness in the 3000 m steeplechase.

Gärderud's first major tournament were the 1968 Summer Olympics, where he was eliminated in the heats of 800 m and 1500 m. In the following years, Gärderud concentrated only to the 3000 m steeplechase, and was already a main favourite at the 1972 Summer Olympics, but unfortunately he was suffering from a bad cold, and was eliminated in his heat. Gärderud was also eliminated in the heats of the 5000 m at the Olympics, but only seven days later, he set a new 3000 m steeplechase world record of 8:20.8.

At the 1974 European Championships, Gärderud was narrowly beaten by Bronisław Malinowski from Poland, but managed to break the 3000 m steeplechase world record twice in 1975. At first he ran 8:10.4 and only six days later 8:09.8.

The culmination of Gärderud's career was at the 1976 Summer Olympics, where after a stirring contest with Malinowski and Frank Baumgartl, Gärderud won the gold medal in a new world record of 8:08.02. His stirring victory in that event would earn him a share of the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal with cyclist Bernt Johansson

Anders Gärderud is also an accomplished orienteer and was a member of the winning relay team at the 1977 Swedish Orienteering Championships.

He now regularly appears on Swedish TV as an athletics commentator and has also been national coach for the Swedish women's athletics team and Norwegian orienteering team.

References

• sports-reference