At the 1932 Olympics Johansson first competed as a freestyle middleweight. Despite being a favorite, he lost his first bout to Kyösti Luukko. Yet he won his all other bouts by fall, while Luukko lost in the semifinals and finished second.[2] Two days later he was scheduled to compete as a Greco-Roman welterweight. For this purpose he shed five kilograms of bodyweight by fasting and sweating in a sauna, yet relatively easily won all four bouts.[3] Later the same year he was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal.
Johansson never competed at the world championships. At the European championships he won nine titles in 1931–1939, six in Greco-Roman and three int freestyle wrestling.[[5]]
Johansson grew up in a rural area near Norrköping, where he built his strength by manual labor at a farm. He then moved to Norrköping city to work as a police officer and then as a wrestling coach. The annual wrestling award "Ivars Guldsko" was established in Sweden in his honor after his death.[6]
References
{{Commons category|Ivar Johansson (wrestler)}}1. ^1 [https://www.iat.uni-leipzig.de/datenbanken/dbfoeldeak/daten.php?spid=B97699E7A0A7422E934B21ECACD7CD1D Johansson, Ivar (SWE)]. iat.uni-leipzig.de
2. ^1 [https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1932/WRE/mens-middleweight-freestyle.html Wrestling at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Games: Men's Middleweight, Freestyle] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207080450/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1932/WRE/mens-middleweight-freestyle.html |date= 7 February 2016 }}. sports-reference.com
3. ^1 [https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1932/WRE/mens-welterweight-greco-roman.html Wrestling at the 1932 Los Angeles Summer Games: Men's Welterweight, Greco-Roman] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160328165515/http://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/summer/1932/WRE/mens-welterweight-greco-roman.html |date=28 March 2016 }}. sports-reference.com
4. ^1 Ivar Johansson. Swedish Olympic Committee
. sports-reference.com