Svend Langkjær

In addition to having a successful athletics career Denmark’s Svend Langkjær was a lawyer and international diplomat who became the head of the Danish Olympic Committee. In 1904 Langkjær began to study law at the University of København, going on to be a consular secretary in Rotterdam after his graduation. From 1912 to 1920 he worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark before becoming a diplomatic envoy in Bern. In 1921 Langkjær had moved to London where he worked as an embassy secretary before doing the same role in Washington. While in the United States Langkjær worked as the consul general continuing in the role in Shanghai from 1925 to 1929. On returning home from China he worked as a lawyer in a district court in København.

As an all-round track and field athlete Langkjær set 11 Danish records and won five national titles during his career. He was a three-time national high jump champion (1909–10, 1912) in addition to being the champion in the hammer in 1910 and the shot put in 1924. Langkjær improved the Danish high jump record on five occasions, and set four national records in the shot put and two records in the standing long jump.

At the 1908 London Olympics Langkjær finished in joint-eighth place in the standing high jump with five other athletes after they all cleared 1.42 metres. He also competed in the standing long jump but his result was not recorded. Four years later at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics Langkjær took part in the decathlon but pulled out after the third discipline the shot put. Langkjær was listed to compete in the standing high jump and the pentathlon in Stockholm but did not start either event.

In 1913 Langkjær was one of the founders of the Academic Sports Association in København and was the club’s chairman from 1914 to 1915. In 1931 he became a member of the Danish Olympic Committee before ultimately chairing the organisation from 1938 to 1946. During this time Langkjær was the manager of the Danish team at the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics.