fullname skis club birth_place additionalpodiums seasons article_title birth_date wctitles wins image totalpodiums name
lars thomas wassberg fischer Åsarna ik lennartsfors , värmland , sweden 12 1977-1988 thomas wassberg
 27 march 1956 1 -lrb- 1976/77 -rrb- 6 thomas wassberg 2011 royal palace sprint.jpg 18 thomas wassberg
thomas wassberg

thomas wassberg -lrb- born 27 march 1956 in lennartsfors , värmland -rrb- is a swedish former cross-country skier .
a fast skating style - push for every leg - is still called `` wassberg '' after him in several countries .
wassberg 's skiing idols when growing up were sixten jernberg and oddvar brå .
he has described his mental strength and physical fitness as his greatest abilities as a skier , with his main weakness being a lack of sprinting ability .
he won the world cup in 1977 .
in 1980 he received bragdmedaljen , an award given to the best swedish sportsman/sportswoman each year .
he did however for many years refuse to accept the award in protest to an earlier decision by the award committee , but finally in 2013 he accepted the medal .
wassberg won four gold medals at the winter olympics : in 15 km -lrb- 1980 -rrb- , 50 km -lrb- 1984 -rrb- , and the 4 x 10 km relay -lrb- 1984 , 1988 -rrb- .
at the fis nordic world ski championships , he earned three golds -lrb- 50 km : 1982 , 30 km : 1987 , and 4 x 10 km : 1987 -rrb- , three silvers -lrb- 15 km : 1985 , 1987 ; 50 km -lrb- 1987 -rrb- , and one bronze -lrb- 4 x 10 km : 1985 -rrb- .
additionally , wassberg won the 50 km at the holmenkollen ski festival three times -lrb- 1980 , 1982 and 1987 -rrb- and the 15 km twice -lrb- 1979 , 1985 -rrb- .
at the 1980 winter olympics in lake placid , wassberg edged out finland 's juha mieto by 0.01 seconds in the 15 km , the closest cross-country skiing race in olympic history .
wassberg subsequently suggested to mieto that the gold medal should be split between them `` as one one-hundredth of a second is nothing in a 15-kilometer race '' .
this incident led the fis to change their timing to the nearest one-tenth of a second .
it also resulted in an apocryphal urban legend that wassberg and mieto 's medals were cut in half and re-welded into half-gold , half-silver medals .
at the 1984 winter olympics , wassberg beat out fellow swede gunde svan by 4.9 seconds in the 50 km , the closest margin of victory ever in that event until giorgio di centa -lrb- italy -rrb- edged out yevgeny dementyev -lrb- russia -rrb- by 0.8 seconds at the 2006 winter olympics though the 2006 event was a mass start event while the 1984 event was an interval start event .
wassberg was awarded the holmenkollen medal in 1980 .
