Discussion: Johansson

I am not exactly youn, but no--I haven't heard of him. Is he still the most famous orienteer you have ever met, because then I am really stumped.

Suppose I suggest a competitor of his -- Floyd Patterson? And yes, he's clearly the most famous, though also clearly he is not famous for the orienteering he did, though he did get a lot of media attention for marathons he ran after he was done with his primary sport.

Famous depends on your perspective, of course. How do you figure Peter Snell stacks up? Second place at least?

(At one point the most famous orienteer Charlie had ever met was Fred Pilon.)

I know what Johansson and Snell are famous for. But Fred??

Well, he hadn't met many orienteers at that point. But I guess he was pretty excited to meet Fred.

Are you guys talking about Ingo? The one and only Champ. He died some months ago, being sick for years. I thought of him when the train was passing Yankee Stadium the other week.

There was a big article about him in Skogssport recently - about how O-Ringen organizers paid him lots of money one year to run O-Ringen to raise the popularity of orienteering. And also how a lot of the Swedish elites were upset that all the reporters were flocking around Ingemar at the finish line!

Wikipedia completely fails to mention his orienteering prowess. Maybe one of us should remedy that.

Famous depends on your perspective, of course. How do you figure Peter Snell stacks up? Second place at least?

I don't think, when you are talking about world-wide fame (as opposed to athletic ability), that Snell comes anywhere close. Heavyweight boxing was a really big deal back then.

There was a big article about him in Skogssport recently - about how O-Ringen organizers paid him lots of money one year to run O-Ringen to raise the popularity of orienteering. And also how a lot of the Swedish elites were upset that all the reporters were flocking around Ingemar at the finish line!

Boris, what year was that? I think I was there. I certainly remember the deal, Ingo was in all the stories and people were pissed.

I remember that he ran O-ringen but not what year. Google says 1984 in Blekinge and that 384 journalists were there (record for O-ringen). 1984 is 25 years ago. I mean it was much later. Was Boris even born in 1984? But I can be wrong. Times pass by...

Ingo was at the 1984 Oringen in Blekinge. Probably it turned out to be a complete publicity failure because the press was so focused on Andy Gagarin's fine runs.