Vilhjálmur Einarsson (5 June 1934 – 28 December 2019) was an

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ic track and field athlete, and triple-jump silver medalist at the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XVI Olympiad and officially branded as Melbourne 1956, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December ...

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. Vilhjálmur grew up in the East-Icelandic fishing village of Reyðarfjörður and was the son of Einar Stefánsson and Sigríður Vilhjálmsdóttir. In 1956 Vilhjálmur set a new Olympic Record by jumping 16.26 m in the triple jump, only to be surpassed by

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's Adhemar da Silva in the same competition. This was the most unexpected result of the Olympics that year, and his silver medal was Iceland's first ever Olympic medal. In 1958 he took bronze in the triple jump at the

European Athletics Championships The European Athletics Championships is a biennial (from 2010) athletics event organised by the European Athletic Association and is recognised as the elite continental outdoor athletics championships for Europe. Editions First held, for me ...

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, with 16.00 m. His personal best was 16.70 m set in 1960 in Laugardalsvöllur, Iceland. He was named Icelandic Sportsperson of the Year five times, more times than anyone else."Handball Champion Icelandic Sportsman of the Year"
Iceland Review Online 6 January 2010. Vilhjálmur was also a headmaster of three schools: Héraðsskólinn in Laugarvatn, Reykholtsskóli in Reykholt, and Menntaskólinn in Egilsstaðir, where he later worked as a part-time

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

teacher. He also was a painter, specializing in

landscape painting Landscape painting, also known as landscape art, is the depiction in painting of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, rivers, trees, and forests, especially where the main subject is a wide view—with its elements arranged into a cohe ...

, and his work has been on display in several art galleries in Iceland. He attended

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. His son Einar Vilhjálmsson later represented Iceland in the men's javelin throw at the Summer Olympics (1984, 1988 and 1992).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Einarsson, Vilhjalmur 1934 births 2019 deaths Dartmouth College alumni Vilhjálmur Einarsson Vilhjálmur Einarsson Vilhjálmur Einarsson Icelandic landscape painters Athletes (track and field) at the 1956 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 1960 Summer Olympics Vilhjálmur Einarsson Vilhjálmur Einarsson European Athletics Championships medalists Medalists at the 1956 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists in athletics (track and field) 20th-century Icelandic sportsmen