World silver in 1983, Olympic bronze in 1984

After becoming a real medal threat at the European level, Bryggare decided to get better and pick some major medals. He couldn't have better chance for that feat because inaugural World Championships were held on his home soil, at Helsinki in 1983. Bryggare was in fine form at championships setting new personal best prior to the final and in the final he finished close second, beaten only by great Greg Foster from USA. At the 1983 World lists, Bryggare was at fourth place with 13.44s reached at semi-finals at Helsinki. Encouraged with that, he travelled to 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles as possible medal chance at 110mh. However the U.S. team consisted of three great high-hurdlers and Bryggare had to be at his best to win an Olympic medal. He started bravely setting new personal best in a time of 13.35s in the heats and easily advanced to the final. In the final, he didn't produce another PB, but finished at 3rd place, grabbing the bronze medal behind Kingdom and Foster, in another great time of 13.40secs. After he reached the only medal he missed, Bryggare continued to compete for several more years and picked up more medals. His third successive medal at the Europeans came in 1986, in Stuttgart, where he finished at second place taking the silver and at the European Indoor Championships held in 1987 in Lieven, he was the winner over 60m hurdles beating rising star, Colin Jackson from Great Britain. Later that year he tried to repeat his medal performance at the World Championships in Rome where he qualified for the final, but was unable to start the race while he injured himself in his semi-final. Following that, Bryggare competed for several more seasons without success he enjoyed in previous years.

Bryggare attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, which features a distinguished track program.^[1] He started his international career as a 20-year-old newcomer in the 1978 European Championships in Prague, barely winning bronze by just 2/100 seconds. This started a chain of victories still unique for a Finnish hurdler; for eight years Bryggare won a medal in every international race in which he participated. He ended his hurdling career in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, where he considered having been as a "tourist".