Anders Ahlgren

Anders Ahlgren started his wrestling career at GAK Enighet in 1907 in his hometown of Malmö. He had a long and successful career in Greco-Roman wrestling, still representing his club at the age of 47. At the end of his career, his weight had reached an impressive 140 kg. He had his last international contest against Finland in 1928 aged 40.

Ahlgren started his international career with a 4th place at the Unofficial European Championships in Dresden in 1909. He earned his first medal (silver) in 1910 at the Unofficial Europeans, followed by two more medals in 1911 at two of several Unofficial World Championships (one bronze in light heavyweight and silver in heavyweight). Maybe his most successful year was 1913 when he became both European and World Champion in the heavyweight at unofficial championships. After World War I, he took his last medal at the (unofficial) World Championships in 1922 with silver in the Heavyweight. Domestically, he won three Swedish Championship golds, in 1909 in the light heavyweight, 1911 and 1918 in the heavyweight class.

At the 1912 Olympics in Stockholm, Anders Ahlgren advanced to the final round to face the Ivar Böhling from Finland after winning five matches in Greco-Roman light-heavyweight. The final began at 9:20 in the morning and continued for nine hours, with no decision. The three judges then ruled the match a double loss and, as there was no winner, a gold medal was not awarded, and Ahlgren and Böhling were declared co-silver medalists. Eight years later at Antwerpen, he reached the semi-finals but lost after more than 47 minutes by fall against the eventual winner Adolf Lindfors. Due to the peculiar rules in 1920, he did not win a medal but was eliminated after withdrawing against the American Edward Willkie.

Ahlgren ran a canning business with ties to the slaughterhouse industry. For some time, he was co-owner of a mink farm.