Name Erik Larsson | Role Olympic athlete | |
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Died March 10, 1982, Jukkasjarvi, Sweden Olympic medals Cross-Country Skiing at the 1936 Winter Olympics - Men\'s 18 km | ||
Erik August Larsson (12 April 1912 – 10 March 1982) was a Swedish cross-country skier who competed in the 1930s. He won two medals at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen with a gold in the 18 km and a bronze in the 4×10 km. The same year he was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal. Larsson also won a bronze in the 4×10 km relay at the 1935 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships.
Larsson was born as the second youngest of six siblings in a religious Finnish-speaking family. In 1935, he started working as a cleaner at the Kiruna iron ore mine in the summer and as a lumberjack in the winter. In 1939, after attending a prayer meeting in Kurravaara he gave up his sport career and became a Laestadian Christian. He was later a preacher in the Firstborn Laestadian congregation in Kiruna. His son Lars became a preacher in Luleå, while his granddaughter Åsa Larsson was a tax lawyer and a writer of crime novels.