HIGH JUMPER • SWEDEN • 1976

Olympic and four-time indoor World Champion athlete

Best results

Personal best:

237 cm
2008, Athens
(outdoor)

240 cm
2005. Madrid
(indoor)

Olympic Games:

1x 1. place
2004, Athens: 236 cm

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World Championships:

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1x 2. place
2003, Paris: 232 cm

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Indoor World Championships:

4x 1. place
2001, Lisbon: 232 cm
2003, Birmingham: 235 cm
2004, Budapest: 235 cm
2008, Valencia: 236 cm

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At the Jumping Gala:

2x participant
1997 – 217 cm – 5. place
2004 – 230 cm – 1. place

The personal story of museum founder János Angyal about this pair of sport shoes

2004 was the year of Swedish-Hungarian rendezvous: picture the “Swesome” (Svédületes in Hungarian) program series as a four-legged Swedish table where one of the legs is political dialogue, another is portraying the contemporary Swedish culture, the third is deepening financial-business relations, while the fourth is developing the regional cooperation. The media publicity of the 18th Jumping Gala and Stefan Holm contributed to the success of the project.

The 181-centimetre-tall Swedish high jumper cleared cosmic heights compared to his own height thanks to remarkably spectacular jumps. According to his fellow competitors, he is the uncrowned king of vertical lifting, as his personal best of 240 centimetres is 59 centimetres higher than Holm himself.

As part of the Salgótarján and Nógrád county leg of the “Swesome” program series I met the deeply honoured His Excellency Bengt Lundborg, Ambassador of Sweden to Hungary, who personally assured me of his support. The cooperation was set and with the help of manager Daniel Wessfeldt, we could greet another Swedish high jumper who cleared 230 centimetres: Carl L Thörnblad. At the press conference in Hotel Stadion I placed the golden “altius” labelled cross bar at 236 centimetres: it was an incredible success! It might have been the most spectacular press conference of the Jumping Galas and the presence of Jenny Bergström, project coordinator of “Swesome” further added to its prestige.

Holm won the Jumping Gala with a result of 230 centimetres and signed the posters with him on the cover to his fans, then gifted his signed spike shoes to our Museum of Sport Shoes. He wore those shoes while he won the World Indoor Athletics Championships in Budapest in March with 235 centimetres.

The opening of the Jumping Gala was also very memorable for me as after the amazing exhibition of Péter Besenyei aerobatics World Champion, Ágoston Schulek President of the Hungarian Athletics Association and Vice President of the European Athletics Association greeted the competitors in English as well, and Gyula Zsivótzky Olympic Champion hammer throw athlete and Hungarian Athlete of the 20th century kindly praised the success of the Jumping Gala.