Gunnar Samuelsson

Gunnar Samuelsson started racing in 1946 and went under the nickname “Kometen.” At the 1956 Olympic Winter Games at Cortina d’Ampezzo he won a bronze medal in the relay race running the second leg. In the individual races, he ranked 15th in the 15 km and 11th in the 30 km. Nationally, he was part of Sixten Jernberg’s dreaded ski team from Lima that swept home four Swedish Championships in the 4 x 10 km relay (1956-57, 1959-60) and eight team titles! In 1959, he won in Klosters, Switzerland, and especially at the Gamla Karleby Games where he beat the entire Finnish elite in a sprint race. In 1957 he was also close to winning the Norwegian classic Monolit run, but lost to Jernberg by 13 seconds, and in 1960 Samuelsson won the Skinnarlopp. Samuelsson finished his career as a biathlete, where he won silver and bronze in the Swedish Championships and won a relay title in an international against East Germany.