The two Pettersson
Only relatives in name, but they have many things in common; first of all both were called Erik Albert Petteersson. Out of the 4 Swedish Olympic Bronze medals, they won one – one at the same time and at the same place in the 1920 Antwerp Olympic Games.
To differentiate them somehow, the Swedish themselves decided to skip the name Erik from the Petterson born earlier on May 5, 1885 and the name Albert from the other Pettersson who was born on May 18, 1890.
From the two athletes, Albert Pettersson had more success: before winning the Olympic Bronze in the 75kg bodyweight category with Total 235kg, he finished third in his category at the European Championships in 1909.
Erik Petterson, whose nickname was „Stark – Pell”, alias Strong Pell, finished third in Antwerp in the 82,5 kg bodyweight category with a Total of 267,5 kg.
The former athlete who was the oldest weightlifter with his age of 35 at the Olympic Games passed away in 1960. The latter athlete, died one month prior to his 85th birthday in 1975. As another common fact, they both died in Stockholm.
