Thomas Lejdström (born 31 May 1962) is a former Swedish freestyle and medley swimmer, who competed for the University of California Berkeley. He competed in the 1980 Summer Olympics and won a bronze medal in the 4x100-freestyle relay at the 1984 Summer Olympics.

Thomas Lejdström
Personal information
Full nameLeif Thomas Lejdström
NicknameLejan
NationalitySwedish
Born (1962-05-31) 31 May 1962 (age 62)
Västerås, Västmanland, Sweden
Height1.89 m (6 ft 2 in)
Weight79 kg (174 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
StrokesFreestyle and medley
ClubVästerås SS, Västerås (SWE)
College teamUniversity of California, Berkeley
CoachNort Thornton Jr.
(U. Cal. Berkeley)
Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing Sweden
Olympic Games
Bronze medal – third place 1984 Los Angeles 4×100 m freestyle
European Championships (LC)
Silver medal – second place 1983 Rome 4×100 m freestyle
Bronze medal – third place 1981 Split 200 m freestyle
Bronze medal – third place 1981 Split 4×200 m freestyle

Lejdstrom attended University of California Berkeley and swam for Hall of Fame Coach Nort Thornton.[1]

1980-84 Olympics

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Nicknamed Lejan, Lejdström's best individual result at the 1980 Olympics was a 7th place in the 200-m freestyle.[2]

In the 1984 Olympics, Lejdström won a bronze medal in 4×100-m freestyle relay along with Swedish teammates Bengt Baron, Mikael Örn and Per Johansson. Both Bron and Johansson had swum as teammates with Lejdstrom at the University of California Berkeley. Their relay team's combined time of 3:22.69 was three seconds behind the powerful Australian team that won the silver medal, which had followed close on the heels of the gold medal winning American team. Mat Biondi, on the winning American relay team had also swum under Nort Thornton at the University of California Berkeley. Biondi would become one of the most successful Olympic male swimmers of the decade.[2][1]

Lejdström won two bronze medals at the 1981 Split European Aquatics Championships, and a silver in the 4x100-freestyle relay at the 1983 Rome European Aquatics Championships.[2]

He is the father of the Swedish Youth Olympics swimmer Gustav Åberg Lejdström.[3]

Personal bests

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Long course (50 m)

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Event Time


Date Meet Location Ref
100 m freestyle 50.90 25 August 1983 European Championships Rome, Italy
200 m freestyle 1:51.22 23 August 1983 European Championships Rome, Italy
400 m freestyle 3:55.30 16 July 1982 Swedish Championships Stockholm, Sweden
800 m freestyle 8:20.61 20 April 1980 - Blackpool, United Kingdom
1500 m freestyle 15:38.91 20 April 1980 - Blackpool, United Kingdom
100 m butterfly 55.48 4 July 1984 Swedish Championships Västerås, Sweden
200 m butterfly 2:01.70 6 July 1984 Swedish Championships Västerås, Sweden
400 m individual medley 4:29.28 1 August 1982 - Ronneby, Sweden
Legend: WRWorld record; EREuropean record; NRSwedish record;
Records not set in finals: h – heat; sf – semifinal; r – relay 1st leg; rh – relay heat 1st leg; b – B final; – en route to final mark; tt – time trial

References

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  1. ^ a b "Nort Thornton (USA): 1995 Honor Coach". International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c "Olympedia Olympic Bio, Thomas Lejdström". olympedia.com. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  3. ^ "Nolles Nötter – här är facit - hd.se". Archived from the original on 2013-04-18. Retrieved 2012-08-17.
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