Torbjörn Blomdahl (born 26 October 1962 in Gothenburg) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

professional

carom billiards Carom billiards, also called French billiards and sometimes carambole billiards, is the overarching title of a family of cue sports generally played on cloth-covered, billiard tables. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score ...

(and to a lesser extent

pool Pool may refer to: Bodies of water * Swimming pool, usually an artificial structure containing a large body of water intended for swimming * Reflecting pool, a shallow pool designed to reflect a structure and its surroundings * Tide pool, a roc ...

) player from

Helsingborg Helsingborg (, , ), is a Urban areas in Sweden, city and the seat of Helsingborg Municipality, Scania County, Scania (Skåne), Sweden. It is the second-largest city in Scania (after Malmö) and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, ninth ...

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 ...

who plays for

FC Porto Futebol Clube do Porto, Order of Prince Henry, MHIH, Order of Merit (Portugal), OM (), commonly known as FC Porto or simply Porto, is a Portuguese professional sports club based in Porto. It is best known for the professional association footbal ...

. He is a seven time World Champion in three-cushion billiards, having won the

titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify their generation, official position, military rank, professional or academic qualification, or nobility. In some languages, titles may be ins ...

in 1987, 1988, 1991, 1992, 1997, 2015 and in 2019.

Background

Torbjörn Blomdahl was born in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

bu
at age 11
he moved to

. He is the son of

three-cushion Three-cushion billiards, also called three-cushion carom, is a form of carom billiards. The object of the game is to the off both while contacting the at least three times before contacting the second object ball. A point is scored for each s ...

player Lennart Blomdahl, who was a driving force behind the local billiards club ''Borgen på Söder''. It was here Blomdahl learned to play three-cushion with his father as the teacher. His international breakthrough was at the European championships in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

in 1984. Starting in 1989 he was ranked the best three-cushion player in the world. Blomdahl has been a resident of

Backnang Backnang (; ) is a town in Germany in the Bundesland (Germany), Bundesland of Baden-Württemberg, roughly northeast of Stuttgart. Its population has increased greatly over the past century, from 7,650 in 1900 to 37,957 in 2022. Backnang was ce ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

since 1994.

Cue sports career

Blomdahl has won a total of 7 world UMB

world titles, placing him second to only

Raymond Ceulemans Raymond Ceulemans (born 12 July 1937) is a Belgian billiards player who won 21 UMB three-cushion World Championship titles, more than any other player. Along with 48 European titles ...

who won 21. He is also the only Swede to ever be world champion. He's made 6 successful defenses, won 8 CEB European

titles which he defended successfully 4 times, and won 18 Swedish titles. His highest is 26 and once made 50 in 9 (5.555 average). Other tournaments Blomdahl won include the 2004 Carom Café International Tournament against Ramon Rodriguez and the first

Sang Lee International Open The Verhoeven Open is a three-cushion billiards tournament held in Flushing, Queens in the US state of New York. The event is sanctioned by the Union Mondiale de Billard and the United States Billiard Association. The event was known as Sang Lee ...

, in 2005, by defeating Turkey's

Semih Saygıner Semih Saygıner (born 12 November 1964), nicknamed Mr. Magic or The Turkish Prince, is a Turkish world champion professional carom billiards player specialized in three-cushion event. Family life Semih Saygıner was born to a tailor father Fa ...

. In 2008 Blomdahl won the money-rich Agipi Masters tournament at the expense of

Dick Jaspers Dingeman Jacobus Johannes "Dick" Jaspers (pronounced yas-pers) (born 23 July 1965) is a Dutch professional carom billiards player who specializes in the three-cushion event. Early life Jaspers started playing billiards when he was three years o ...

. Blomdahl has also excelled at pocket billiards, once defeating Korean pro

Young Hwa-jeong Young may refer to: * Offspring, the product of reproduction of a new organism produced by one or more parents * Youth, the time of life when one's age is low, often meaning the time between childhood and adulthood Music * The Young, an America ...

and Filipino pro pool player

Efren Reyes Efren Manalang Reyes (born August 26, 1954) is a Filipino professional pool player. A winner of over 100 international titles, Reyes was the first player to win world championships in two different pool disciplines. Among his numerous title ...

in both

nine ball Nine-ball (sometimes written 9-ball) is a discipline of the cue sport pool. The game's origins are traceable to the 1920s in the United States. It is played on a rectangular billiard table with at each of the four corners and in the middle of e ...

, and

eight ball Eight-ball (also spelled 8-ball or eightball, and sometimes called solids and stripes, spots and stripes, bigs and smalls, big ones and little ones, or rarely highs and lows) is a discipline of pool played on a billiard table with six pockets, ...

. He's also run 100 in

straight pool Straight pool, which is also called 14.1 continuous and 14.1 rack, is a Cue sports, cue sport in which two competing players attempt to as many s as possible without playing a . The game was the primary version of Pool (cue sports), pool play ...

References

External links

Great shots by Torbjörn Blomdahl

Torbjörn Blomdahl's High Run of 15 Points at 2007 Sang Lee International Open
1962 births Living people Swedish carom billiards players Swedish pool players World champions in three-cushion billiards World Cup champions in three-cushion billiards World Games silver medalists for Sweden World Games medalists in cue sports Competitors at the 2005 World Games Sportspeople from Helsingborg 20th-century Swedish people 21st-century Swedish people Medalists at the 2009 World Games {{pool-bio-stub