Erik August LARSSON

"Kiruna Lasse" Larsson won his first international medal at the 1935 World Skiing Championships in Vysoke Tatry with the Swedish relay team, when they took the bronze medal. Later that year he won the 17 km in Rovaniemi and later the Kiruna Games, which qualified him to participate in the Olympic Games. A year later, in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, he won gold in the 18 km race and a bronze medal in the relay, where he was the fastest Swede, running the second leg. For his achievements at the Winter Olympics he was awarded the Svenska-Dagbladet gold medal. His only Swedish Championship also came in 1936, in the 15 km run, and 1936 was his greatest year, winning 12 of 19 races.

Larsson, whose native tongue was Finnish, and whose taciturnity became his trademark, was born as the second youngest of six siblings in a religious family. In 1935, he began his professional career as a cleaning worker in the Kiruna iron ore mine and in the winter as a lumberjack. Three years after his Olympic victory, he participated in a prayer meeting in Kurravaara, after which he quit competitive sport almost immediately and joined the Firstborn Laestadian Christian. He started working again for the mining company and in later years became a preacher for the congregation in Kiruna. His son Lars also became a preacher in Luleå. Erik Larsson's granddaughter Åsa Larsson was a well-known lawyer specializing in tax matters, and later became a full-time writer of crime novels.