Einar Nilsson

All-round track and field athlete Einar Nilsson specialised in the shot put and discus, winning multiple Swedish titles and setting several national records. Nilsson won his first medal in the shot put at the Swedish championships in 1909 when he finished in second place. He then won five consecutive titles from 1910 to 1914 along with five silver medals (1916, 1919–22). In the shot put Nilsson won bronze in 1910, followed by back-to-back golds and a final bronze in 1913. He also became the AAA champion in England in the shot put in 1913. In 1910 Nilsson became the first Swede to throw the discus more than 40 metres, setting a national record that stood until 1912. A year earlier he set a Swedish record in the shot put with him holding that record until 1921.

Nilsson competed in six events at the 1912 Stockholm Olympics where he had four top-ten finishes. He finished in tenth place in the discus and just missed out on a medal in the discus throw with both hands when he came fourth. In the two shot put events Nilsson finished fifth and seventh, followed by a 14th-place finish in the pentathlon. He started in the decathlon, which included a second-place in the shot put, but withdrew from the competition after the high jump. After World War I Nilsson finished in fifth place in the shot put at the 1920 Antwerpen Olympics. He was scheduled to take part in the same event at the 1924 Paris Games but did not start.

Personal Bests: SP – 14.44 (1913); DT – 42.42 (1914); Dec – 6586.06* (1911).