Christian Olsson (born 25 January 1980) is a former Swedish athlete competing in high jump and triple jump. He won an Olympic gold medal,^[1] one gold and one silver medal in the World Championships and two gold medals in the European Championships as well as a further two golds in the World Indoor championships. He also won the overall IAAF Golden League jackpot in 2004 where he cashed in 500,000 US dollars (after splitting the million dollar pot with Tonique Williams-Darling).

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Christian Olsson

Christian Olsson during the European Team Championships in Budapest, Hungary in June 2010
Personal information
Full name	John Christian Bert Olsson
Born	(1980-01-25) 25 January 1980 (age 44) Gothenburg, Sweden
Height	1.92 m (6 ft 3+1⁄2 in)
Weight	73 kg (161 lb)
Sport
Country	Sweden
Event(s)	Triple jump, High jump
Club	Örgryte IS
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	17.79 m 17.83 m (indoors)
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 1 0 0 World Championships 1 1 0 World Indoor Championships 2 0 0 European Championships 2 0 0 European Indoor Championships 1 0 0 Total 7 1 0 Olympic Games 2004 Athens Triple jump World Championships 2003 Paris Triple jump 2001 Edmonton Triple jump World Indoor Championships 2003 Birmingham Triple jump 2004 Budapest Triple jump European Championships 2002 Munich Triple jump 2006 Gothenburg Triple jump European Indoor Championships 2002 Vienna Triple jump

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From 2007 to his retirement in 2012, he was beset by injuries which left him largely on the sidelines and unable to compete at top level competitions.^[2]

Olsson was born in Gothenburg, and made his international breakthrough in 2001 when he won silver at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. He has the Swedish national record outdoors, 17.79 m (2004 Summer Olympics), and the Swedish national record indoors, 17.83 m (2004). Olsson has won the Swedish Championships seven times, and has also competed successfully on national level in high jumping.^{[citation needed]}

On 7 March 2004, at the 2004 World Indoor Championships in Athletics, he jumped 17.83 m and matched the World Record. On 23 August 2004, at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he jumped 17.79 m, broke the national record and won the gold medal as the first Swede since Gustaf Lindblom in 1912, 92 years earlier. Four of his six jumps were longer than the silver medalist's best jump.^{[citation needed]}

With the Olympic Gold he completed a rare international sweep, having the Olympic, World Indoor, Outdoor, Regional (European) Indoor and Outdoor titles.^{[citation needed]}

Olsson first became interested in triple jump after watching Jonathan Edwards set the world record at the World Championships in his hometown Gothenburg. Since 1999, Olsson has been trained by Yannick Tregaro. Before that, Olsson was trained by Viljo Nousiainen.^{[citation needed]}

During the autumn and winter 2004/2005 he injured his foot (an injury originating from the 2004 Olympic Final), preventing him from being able to do triple-jumping at full speed. Unfortunately the injury healed very slowly, and it was still in January 2006 hampering him. In his first competition after the injury, in June 2006, he jumped 17.09 and seem to be back into shape.^[3] A month later he won the gold medal at European Championships in his hometown Gothenburg, with a jump of 17.67 m.^{[citation needed]}

At the beginning of the 2007 indoor season, Olsson was injured yet again, and was unable to compete at the European indoor championships.^[4][5]

Olsson returned to competition in June at the IAAF Golden League event in Oslo, jumping 17.33 m. In July, he won Golden League event in Paris with 17.56 m.^[6] At the Golden League event in Rome, he retired after the second round due to a cramp.^[7]

Olsson went to the 2007 World Championships in Athletics but had to pull out before the competition due to an injury during training.^[8]

After almost one year of rehabilitation, he returned to competition in July 2008 at the annual event in Stockholm, "DN Galan", but had to pull out due to injury. Afterwards, he announced that he would not compete anymore during the 2008 season; hence he would not participate in the Beijing Olympics. He also suggested that he might retire from the sport.^[9][10] Upon a request from the Swedish Olympic team, Olsson agreed to carry the Swedish flag during the opening ceremony.^{[citation needed]}

In July 2009, Olsson made a comeback in a minor event arranged by Örgryte IS in Gothenburg. He then jumped 17.24 m.^[11]

On 3 August 2009 Olsson competed in Swedish Championships in Malmö. He won the competition with a jump at 16.72 m. This was the first competition Olsson failed to reach 17 m or more since he jumped in a competition in Birmingham in 2003.^[12]

On 14 May 2012, Olsson ultimately declared his intentions to retire from professional triple jump competitions.^[13]

Christian Olsson lives with his family in Lindome, south of Göteborg.^[14]

• Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year Trophy 2004
• Waterford Crystal European Athlete of the Year Trophy 2003

• Triple jump
  • Indoor - 17.83 metres
  • Outdoor - 17.79 metres
• High jump - 2.28 metres
• Long jump - 7.71 metres