Ferry Svan

Last updated

Ferry Svan
Ferry Svan 03.jpg
Personal information
National teamFlag of Sweden.svg  Sweden
Born (1996-10-02) 2 October 1996 (age 27)
Vansbro, Sweden
Occupation logging sportsman
Years active2014-present
Height178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight84 kg (185 lb)
Other interests hunting, cars
Website data.stihl-timbersports.com/Athlete/1492
www.axelent.co.uk/axel/an-axelent-athlete
Sport
CountrySweden
Sport loggersports
RankSenior
Achievements and titles
World finals1 gold
Regional finals3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze
Highest world ranking1 (Junior)
7 (Senior)

Ferry Svan is a Swedish professional woodchopper and logging sportsman, and the son of champion skier Gunde Svan. He is the first Swedish person to compete in a World Championship in logging sports, the first Swede to win a World Championship, and the youngest person to compete in logging sports as a Senior athlete. He has previously held four Swedish national records. He competes in the Stihl Timbersports Series.

Contents

Logging sports

Junior career

Svan was introduced to woodchopping as a sport when he was in high school, [1] attending a Skogsbruksskola  [ sv ], a special Swedish Forestry high school; [2] he had also spent time working on his father's "farm" — tending to 1000 hectares of forest — before he began it as a sport. [3] In 2014 he went to his first Nordic games for logging sports, where he took gold as a junior, repeating this feat in 2016. [1] It was at this point that Svan took up logging full-time, returning to his parents' farm to train. He said that full-time training is hard, but pays off, and that doing it alone he spends more time preparing his timber than he does actually practising chopping. His aim for 2017 was to become a professional logging athlete; though the sport has about 500 "active athletes" regularly competing, only a few of these can actually make money from it. He explained his reason for moving home was mostly financial, but did add that his father has good experience in training regimens that would be helpful. He also expressed an interest in attending training camps around the world to learn from pros. [4]

In 2017 he qualified for the World Junior Championship, which was held in Hamburg, Germany. [4] He was the first Swede to do so, and won the competition after having taken the lead after only two events, [5] also becoming the first Swede to win a World Championship. [6] Before the competition, he had said he was hoping to place in the top 5. [4] Later in 2017 he competed in the Italian junior championship, where he placed fourth. [1]

Senior career

Svan practicing the hot saw in Vansbro in 2017 Ferry Svan 01.png
Svan practicing the hot saw in Vansbro in 2017

To introduce his senior career, Svan appeared on the show Bingolotto on 11 June 2017, where he performed multiple woodchopping events. [7] [8]

In summer 2017 he again competed in the Nordic championship, now as a senior, and placed second. He was the youngest person to ever compete in the sport as a senior. [1] In October 2017, he competed in the European Champions Trophy Senior competition qualifiers, [9] but also was able to take an automatic wild card spot because of his World Championship title. [10] [11]

At the start of April 2018, Svan gained sponsorship from Swedish machine guarding safety company Axelent AB, which he explained he has a lot in common with because of both their focuses on precision work and safety. [10] With the sponsorship, because he still wasn't earning enough from wins to live off, he intended to move to New Zealand and train, because the sport is very popular there. [1]

In early April 2018, Svan experienced an injury while training. He dropped an axe after chopping down trees to prepare for training and, to save it from falling down a hill, instinctively tried to catch it on his ankle, in what he calls a "stupid move". Initially it looked like a surface wound, but after being unable to move his foot he returned to hospital. He had severed a tendon and required surgery, which was his first operation, and had to be put in a plaster cast for 6 weeks. [11] The Champions Trophy competition, held in Marseille, France, was in late May 2018, 6-7 weeks later. However, he still managed to compete. At this competition he also became the youngest person to compete as a senior in an international competition. [12]

In the first round of the Champions Trophy, Svan competed against Andrea Rossi, who ended up disqualified. In the quarterfinals, he competed against Martin Komarek, who beat his time, with Svan ultimately placing eighth. In each stage of this competition, he broke his own personal best. [12] He said that making it to the quarterfinals was beyond his expectations and he was proud of knocking 15 seconds off some of his personal records, calling himself a "giant" for the achievements; [13] in the heat he lost, he attained what was a new Swedish national record. [14]

Svan's performance at the 2019 Timbersports Champions Trophy competition, in Kungsbacka, saw him set a new personal best, but missing out on his target of a top-5 placement, losing to Michal Dubicki in the quarter finals. [15]

Competitions

YearCompetitionLevelLocationPositionPointsTime
2014Nordic ChampionshipJunior1st [1]
2016Nordic ChampionshipJunior1st [1]
2017World ChampionshipJuniorGermany1st261:17.80 [16]
2017Italian ChampionshipJuniorItaly4th201:39.26 [17]
2017Nordic ChampionshipSeniorSweden2nd583:19.97 [18]
2017European Champions Trophy QualifyingSeniorNetherlands13th4:55.39 [9]
2018Champions TrophySeniorFrance8th1:20.18 [14]
2018Nordic ChampionshipSeniorDenmark4th485:50.52 [19]
2018Helsingborg Cup Champions Trophy QualifyingSeniorSweden2nd2:42.17 [20]
2018Helsingborg Cup - ProSeniorSweden5th515:41.54 [21]
2018European TrophySeniorPoland12th1:26.12 [22]
2018Team World ChampionshipSeniorEngland8th (Sweden)1:04.44 [23]
2019Champions TrophySeniorSweden6th1:12.94 [24]
2019Trollhättan Cup - ProSeniorSweden2nd2050.68 [25]
2019Trollhättan Cup - Nordic TrophySeniorSweden3rd1:22.95 [26] [lower-alpha 1]
2019Nordic ChampionshipSeniorNorway1st742:34.05 [27]
2019World ChampionshipSeniorCzechia7th302:14.70 [28]

Statistics

As of December 2019, Svan's statistics are: [29]

DisciplinePBYearCompetitionComments
Hot Saw 8.502017Nordic Championship
Springboard1:04.852019World Championship
Standing Block Chop (rookie)22.652017World Championshipprevious national record
Standing Block Chop21.152019World Championship
Single Buck (rookie)12.022017World Championshipprevious national record
Single Buck15.612019Nordic Championship
Single Buck w/o Tools18.312019World Championshipnational record
Underhand Chop (rookie)31.812017World Championshipprevious national record
Underhand Chop19.282019World Championshipnational record
Stihl Stock Saw11.102018Helsingborg Cup - Pro
Champions Trophy1:12.942019has held a national record

Notes

  1. Though Svan had the best time at every stage of the competition and the best time overall, a bad cut in the semi-final resulted in disqualification and let his opponent go on to the final, while he competed in the battle for 3rd

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References

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  3. "Cross-country skiing legend Gunde Svan: "Forestry work is a nice counterbalance to TV work"". Valtra. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
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