Michel Tornéus

Biography

He competed at the 2009 European Indoor Championships, the 2009 World Championships and the 2010 World Indoor Championships without reaching the final.

He made a name for himself in 2005 at 19 years of age when he jumped 7.94 meters, just 1 cm short of the Swedish junior record. He set a personal best jump of 8.11 metres in June 2009 at Ullevi.

He was first in the long jump for Sweden in the 2010 European Team Championships First League section and went on to finish ninth in the event final at the 2010 European Athletics Championships. He started his 2011 indoor season in strong form, taking four straight wins, including a personal best of 8.13 m to win in front of a home crowd at the XL Galan.

He won his first senior medal in 2012, a bronze at the 2012 European Athletics Championships in Helsinki. He then finished one centimetre behind a medal in the long jump at the 2012 Summer Olympics.

He began 2013 in fine form breaking the Swedish indoor long jump record. He competed at the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships on home soil in Gothenburg, jumping a new national record of 8.27 metres in the first round, before jumping 8.29 metres in the final round, only two centimetres behind winner Aleksandr Menkov.

At the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships Tornéus won his first international gold medal, after beating the Swedish indoor record in the final.

Personal life

His father was born in Democratic Republic of Congo and his mother is from the Finnish (Meänkieli) speaking region of Torne Valley in Sweden. Tornéus’ original athletics club is the Tullinge-Tumba finska förening (Finnish association of Tullinge-Tumba) track and field program.