Martin Johan Lidberg (born 1 February 1973) is a Swedish former professional

wrestler Wrestling is a martial art, combat sport, and form of entertainment that involves grappling with an opponent and striving to obtain a position of advantage through different throws or techniques, within a given ruleset. Wrestling involves diffe ...

. He is a world champion, two-time European champion as well as 19-time Swedish champion. He has competed in the olympics three times (last time in

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

). In 2007 he won ''Let's Dance'' 2007 in

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

together with his dancing partner Cecilia Ehrling, defeating

Tobbe Blom Tobias Peter "Tobbe" Blom (born 28 September 1975) is a Swedish TV host on TV4 and magician. He is well-known under his stage name Tobbe Trollkarl. Tobbe was the host of Idol 2005 along Johan Wiman and has also done a kids show for morning T ...

, host of '' Idol 2005''. Lidberg and Ehrling represented Sweden in the

Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 The Eurovision Dance Contest 2007 was the inaugural edition of the Eurovision Dance Contest, a dance competition co-production between the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster BBC. The first ever pan-European dance competition w ...

, where they placed 14th. Lidberg defeated MMA fighter

Dan Henderson Daniel Jeffery Henderson (born August 24, 1970) is an American former mixed martial artist and Olympic wrestler, who last competed as a Middleweight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. He was the last Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champi ...

at the 1996 Olympics. In the 2004 Olympic Games in

, he failed to qualify for the Wrestling semi-finals when he was beaten by

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

wrestler Gogi Koguashvili. He decided to retire from wrestling at the conclusion of the 2004 Olympics. In 2017, he participated in '' Mästarnas mästare'', and won. Lidberg participates in Bahador Shahidi's documentary film ''Jimmy the Wrestler'' (2021) about his younger brother, fellow wrestler Jimmy Lidberg. His son, Isac Lidberg, is a professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a forward for 2. Bundesliga club

Darmstadt 98 Sportverein Darmstadt 1898 e.V., commonly known as Darmstadt 98 (), is a German professional association football club based in Darmstadt, Hesse. The club was founded on 22 May 1898 as FC Olympia Darmstadt. Early in 1919, the association was bri ...

and the Sweden national team.

Accomplishments

Greco-Roman Wrestling

*2004 Gold medal (96 kg) - European championships *2003 Gold medal (96 kg) - World championships *2000 Gold medal (85 kg) - European championships *2000 Sixth place - the Olympics *1999 Fifth place - World championships *1999 Silver medal - European championships *1998 Bronze medal - European championships *1998 Bronze medal - World championships *1997 Fourth place - World championships *1996 Sixth place - the Olympics

References

External links

Recent InterviewMartin about shattered olympic medal dream from athensMartin's let's dance page, Tv4.se
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lidberg, Martin 1973 births Swedish television personalities Dancing with the Stars winners Living people Olympic wrestlers for Sweden Wrestlers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Wrestlers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Swedish male sport wrestlers Wrestlers at the 2004 Summer Olympics European Wrestling Champions Sport wrestlers from Stockholm