John Albrechtson (22 July 1936 – 27 August 1985) was a Swedish

sailor A sailor, seaman, mariner, or seafarer is a person who works aboard a watercraft as part of its crew, and may work in any one of a number of different fields that are related to the operation and maintenance of a ship. While the term ''sailor'' ...

. Between 1968 and 1978 he won one Olympic gold medal and three gold, one silver and one bronze medals at the world championships.

Biography

Albrechtson started his sailing career in the Stjärnbåt class and moved on to

Star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...

class in 1957. He won his first Star Swedish Championships in 1966. The same year, together with Paul Elvstrøm, he won the Star World Championship. Between 1971 and 1978 Albrechtson competed in the Tempest class. At the

1976 Summer Olympics The 1976 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Montreal 1976 (), were an international multi-sport event held from July 17 to August 1, 1976, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Montreal ...

he won the Olympic gold medal together with Ingvar Hansson. He also competed at the

1968 Events January–February * January 1968, January – The I'm Backing Britain, I'm Backing Britain campaign starts spontaneously. * January 5 – Prague Spring: Alexander Dubček is chosen as leader of the Communist Party of Cze ...

and

1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and officially branded as Munich 1972 (; ), were an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. It was the ...

, placing ninth and fourth, respectively. At the 1980 Games he was part of Swedish reserve team. Albrechtson committed suicide in Västra Frölunda aged 49.

References

External links

* 1936 births 1985 suicides 1985 deaths Sailors (sport) from Gothenburg Swedish male sailors (sport) Olympic sailors for Sweden Sailors at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Star Sailors at the 1972 Summer Olympics – Tempest Sailors at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Tempest Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Olympic medalists in sailing World champions in sailing for Sweden Tempest class world champions Star class world champions Royal Gothenburg Yacht Club sailors Medalists at the 1976 Summer Olympics Suicides in Sweden 20th-century Swedish sportsmen {{Sweden-yachtracing-bio-stub