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Siv Gustavsson

Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Sweden
IAAF World Race Walking Cup
	1981 Valencia	5 km walk
European Athletics Championships
	1986 Stuttgart	10 km walk

Siv Gustavsson (born 9 July 1957) is a Swedish former racewalking athlete. She was the gold medallist at the 1981 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, making her the second ever female world champion in the sport.

Gustavsson also won a bronze at the 1986 European Athletics Championships – the first year women's walks were held at that event. She won fifteen Swedish national titles from 1976 to 2004 over distance from 3000 m to 20 km.

Career

She began to emerge as a walker internationally in the early 1970s, starting with a third place at the Nordic Race Walking Championships junior race in 1971, then two consecutive wins in the category in 1973 and 1975. Her first senior title at the event came over 5 km in 1977, when she beat Britt Holmquist and Norway's Thorill Gylder.

The 1975 IAAF World Race Walking Cup and 1977 IAAF World Race Walking Cup both featured invitational, non-official women's races and she showed herself to be among the world's best with a runner-up finish to fellow Swede Margareta Simu at the first race, then beating both Simu and Carol Tyson to win the 1977 race.

She missed the first official women's championship in racewalking held in 1979. She competed at the WAAA Championships in Britain in 1980 and was runner-up to Irene Bateman over 5000 m. Her career peaked at the 1981 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, where she became the second ever women's world champion in racewalking, defeating the whole field by nearly twenty seconds. The Swedish team (including Ann Jansson, Ann-Marie Larsson and Britt Holmqvist) was narrowly beaten by one point to the women's team title.

She attempted to defend her title at the 1983 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, but ending the competition in fifth place. Wit Gustavsson being their top performer, Sweden's women also fell down the team rankings into fourth place. She appeared at the 1986 European Athletics Championships and in the 10 km walk—the first ever to be held for women at the European Championships—she ranked third for a bronze medal behind Spanish athlete Mari Cruz Díaz and Ann Jansson.

She married fellow race walker Enrique Vera Ibáñez, who migrated from his native Mexico to settle with her in Sweden. Her husband gained Swedish citizenship and later represented his adoptive country at the 1991 World Championships in Athletics. The couple had a child in 1985, Ato Ibáñez, who himself has since gone on to represent Sweden in race walking. The couple were later divorced. She had a second child in 1990, Perseus Karlström, who also became a professional racewalker.

Gustavsson continued on as a walker and was the over-45 European Indoor champion in 2005 and broke the over-50s world record in the indoor 3000 m in 2012.

National titles

• Swedish Athletics Championships
  • 3000 m walk: 1977, 1978
  • 5000 m walk: 1977, 1981, 1983, 2000, 2004
  • 10 km walk: 1976, 1977, 1978, 1984, 1995, 1999
  • 20 km walk: 1995, 2002

International competitions

Notes

• Variations on her name include Siv Gustafsson, Siw Ibáñez, Siv Vera-Ibanez, Siw Ybañez and Siw Karlström.

References

1. Siw Ibanez. All Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
2. Siv Gustavsson at World Athletics
3. Swedish Championships Archived 2013-11-15 at the Wayback Machine. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
4. Nordic Race Walking Championships Archived 2018-10-26 at the Wayback Machine. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
5. ^ IAAF WORLD RACE WALKING CUP - SARANSK 2012 - FACTS & FIGURES Archived 2013-09-03 at the Wayback Machine. IAAF. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
6. AAA Championships (Women) Archived 2018-10-04 at the Wayback Machine. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
7. World and Continental Race Walking Championships and Cups Archived 2018-09-08 at the Wayback Machine. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
8. European Championships (Women) Archived 2016-07-07 at the Wayback Machine. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
9. Men 50km Walk World Championship 1991 Tokyo (JPN) - Saturday 31.08 Archived 2011-07-17 at the Wayback Machine. Todor66. Retrieved on 2014-02-22.
10. SWEDISH TEAM – MEDIA GUIDE. IAAF World Championships in Athletics – Daegu 2011 Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine. Swedish Athletics Federation. Retrieved on 2014-02-22.
11. Redebo, Susanne (2012-03-14). Siw slog världsrekord i gång Archived 2021-08-04 at the Wayback Machine (in Swedish). Ekuriren. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.
12. European Veterans Indoor Championships Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-07-20.

• Living people
• 1957 births
• Swedish female racewalkers
• European Athletics Championships medalists
• World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships winners
• 20th-century Swedish sportswomen