Personal information | ||||||||||||
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Birth name | Leif Hilding Arrhenius | |||||||||||
Nationality | Sweden and United States [1] | |||||||||||
Born | Provo, Utah, U.S.A. | July 15, 1986|||||||||||
Alma mater | Mountain View High School Brigham Young University | |||||||||||
Height | 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in) [2] | |||||||||||
Weight | 115.5 kg (255 lb) | |||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||
Country | Sweden [3] | |||||||||||
Sport | Track and field / Athletics | |||||||||||
Event(s) | Discus throw and Shot put | |||||||||||
University team | Brigham Young University Cougars | |||||||||||
Club | Spårvägens FK [4] | |||||||||||
Coached by | Anders Arrhenius, [5] L. Jay Silvester [6] Nik Arrhenius [6] Vesteinn Hafsteinsson | |||||||||||
Achievements and titles | ||||||||||||
Personal best(s) | In International Competitions: Outdoor: [7] SP: 20.50 m (2013) DT: 64.46 m (2011) DT-1.75kg: 60.14 m (2005) HT: 62.77 m (2010) JT: 49.27 m (2020) Indoor: SP: 20.29 m (2013) SP-35lbs: 21.56 m (2010) Collegiate personal bests: [2] DT: 207 feet 0 inches SP: 65 feet 4.25 inches HT: 205 feet 11 inches JT: 163 feet 7 inches WT: 70 feet 9 inches | |||||||||||
Medal record
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Leif Hilding Arrhenius (born 15 July 1986) [8] is a professional American-Swedish athlete competing in the shot put and discus throw. [9] He represented Team Sweden at two World and three European Championships. In addition, he is the 2011 U.S. Collegiate Indoor Champion.
Born in Utah, Arrhenius has dual Swedish and American citizenship. Leif comes from a family of athletes and missionaries (see the "Family of athletes and missionaries" section below), where his great-grandfather, father and brother have all been Olympians. [8]
In 2003, Arrhenius was ranked 1st nationally in discus, 2nd in the shot put. In 2004, he was ranked 3rd in both discus and the hammer throw. [10] [2] By the end of the 2003 season, at the Utah State Track & Field Meet, he threw the discus 37 feet further than second place Kevin Smith of Box Elder High School. [11]
In 2004, Arrhenius, while attending Mountain View High School and competing for the Bruins, at the Simplot Games track and field competition in Pocatello, Idaho, he broke his own national high school record by 0.75 inches with a toss of his 25-pound weight throw of 82 feet 7.25 inches. He also set a new Utah state high school record, while he finished second in the shot put with a toss of 64 feet 3 inches. [12]
Arrhenius represented Brigham Young University and competed for the Cougars from 2005 and 2008-2011. He was a seven-time All-American. He was 2011 NCAA indoor champion in the shot put. [13]
In 2010, Arrhenius earned All-American honors at the NCAA Indoor Championships, when he obliterated his personal best in the weight throw, achieving a fourth place finish. [14]
In 2011, Arrhenius, at the NCAA Outdoor Track & Field Championships in Des Moines, Iowa, threw the discus, 201 feet 3 inches (or 61.36 meters), that got him second place, and earned him a first-team All-American. He also threw the shot put, 63 feet 6.75 inches (or 19.37 meters), where he also got second place and first-team All-America accolades. This helped to put BYU in first place at this event. [15] A week later and he was selected as the Mountain West Men's Outdoor Track & Field Student-Athlete of the Year. [16] About the event, BYU head track & field coach said, "He did incredible for us, it was an amazing throw and he really competed down to the end. To score 16 points at Nationals is pretty tough to do." [17]
Arrhenius was also recruited by the University of Kentucky Wildcats and University of Washington Huskies. [18] BYU head Track & field coach Mark Robison said that Leif was one of the best to ever come out of high school. [19]
In 2013, Leif Arrhenius has again followed in his father's and older brother's footsteps by becoming a coach at Park City High School. [20] Leif's older brother, Nik, was a throws coach/assistant coach at BYU. [21] [22] Leif's father, Anders Arrhenius, has been a volunteer throws coach at BYU. [5] Leif now works for Centennial Middle School in Provo, Utah, as the Boys' P.E. Coach. [23] [24]
The great-grandfather of Leif Arrhenius, Bror Aron Axel Arrhenius, started this Legacy, when he took the family name Arrhenius on the 5th of December, 1901. He was conducting the Olympic choir at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm and he participated on the Swedish tug of war team that won gold medal. It was an exhibition sport for all of the musicians that participated from different countries. [25]
In another account, Bror Arrhenius, was the anchor of Team Sweden’s tug-of-war team at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm. [26]
Here is an external link to a 43-second video of the 1912 Tug of War competition: [27]
Anders Arrhenius, was born in Sweden in 1947. [28] Then, in 1975, he threw for BYU and received All-American honors. Anders also went on to qualify for Sweden in the 1972 Summer Olympics. [5] [29]
In the early 1970s, Kristine Fowler, who is from Rose Park, Salt Lake City, went to Stockholm, Sweden, on a church mission, where she first met Anders Arrhenius. [30]
Like Leif, Dan Arrhenius was born in Provo, Utah in 1978. He went to Mountain View High School, where he earned all kinds of awards, honors and championships in the discus and shot put, just like Leif. Dan also did very well at BYU adding the hammer throw to the list of events. [31] Dan went on a church mission to Stockholm, Sweden, just like his mother and younger brother, Nik. [5] Dan graduated with his degree in Exercise Science, and continued with his schooling to eventually become a Doctor of Podiatric Medicine (DPM). [32]
Like Leif, Nik Arrhenius was born in Provo, Utah, and went to Mountain View High School, where he earned all kinds of awards, honors and championships in the discus and shot put. [5] Nik graduated from BYU in 2006. [26] Niklas is the current throws coach at Brigham Young University.
In 2004, Leif's brother, Nik, married Tiffany Rasmussen, from Oregon, [33] who was also an athlete at BYU. She threw the Javelin and graduated in 2007. [26] [34]
Arrhenius is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served as a church missionary in the Taichung Taiwan Mission. [10] [2] [18] [6]
Year | Competition | Venue | Position | Event | Notes |
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Representing Sweden | |||||
2011 | World Championships | Daegu, South Korea | 22nd (q) | Discus throw | 61.33m |
2012 | European Championships | Helsinki, Finland | 13th (q) | Shot put | 19.33m |
17th (q) | Discus throw | 60.49m | |||
2013 | European Indoor Championships | Gothenburg, Sweden | 10th (q) | Shot put | 19.61m |
World Championships | Moscow, Russia | 14th (q) | Shot put | 19.53m | |
2014 | European Championships | Zürich, Switzerland | 17th (q) | Shot put | 19.54m |
2015 | European Indoor Championships | Prague, Czech Republic | 19th (q) | Shot put | 19.07m |
2016 | European Championships | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 23rd (q) | Shot put | 18.64m |
Outdoor
Indoor
LaVell Edwards Stadium is an outdoor athletic stadium in the western United States, on the campus of Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah. Primarily used for college football, it is the home field of the BYU Cougars, a member of the Big 12 Conference in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Opened as "Cougar Stadium" in 1964, its seating capacity is 62,073. Following the 2024 departure of Oklahoma and Texas for the Southeastern Conference, it is the largest permanent stadium in the Big 12.
The Brigham Young University (BYU) Cougars and the University of Utah (Utah) Utes have a longstanding intercollegiate rivalry. The annual college football game is frequently referred to as the Holy War. In the 1890s, when BYU was still known as Brigham Young Academy (BYA), the two schools started competing athletically. The schools have met continually since 1909 in men's basketball, and met once a year in football from 1922 to 2013, with the exception of 1943–45 when BYU did not field a team due to World War II. Both schools formerly competed in the Mountain West Conference, but both teams left the MWC in 2011—Utah joined the Pac-12 Conference and BYU became a football independent while joining the West Coast Conference for other sports.
Mountain View High School (MVHS) is located in Orem, Utah, United States. It is part of Utah County's Alpine School District. The school first opened its doors to the graduating class of 1980–81. Every year students from Orem Junior High and Lakeridge Junior High enter MVHS.
L. Jay Silvester and participated in college athletics at Utah State University from 1956 to 1959 is an American retired athlete who mainly competed in the discus throw. In this event he finished in fourth, fifth, second and eighth place at the 1964, 1968, 1972 and 1976 Summer Olympics, respectively, and won a bronze medal at the 1975 Pan American Games.
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Niklas Bo Arrhenius is an American-Swedish track and field athlete who competes and coaches in the discus throw and shot put. He represented Sweden in the discus at 2008 Summer Olympics, was a four-time competitor at the World Athletics Championships, and competed at five consecutive editions of the European Athletics Championships from 2006 to 2016. At the Swedish Athletics Championships he won seven national titles in discus, and was an eight-time champion in the shot put.
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