Pär Arvidsson

Pär Arvidsson
Personal information
Full namePär Johan Arvidsson
NicknamePära
NationalitySwedish
Born (1960-02-27) 27 February 1960 (age 66)
Finspång, Sweden
Height183 cm (6 ft 0 in)
Weight74 kg (163 lb)
Sport
SportSwimming
Strokesbutterfly
ClubFinspångs SK, Finspång (SWE)
SK Korrugal, Finspång (SWE)
College teamU. California Berkeley
CoachNort Thornton
(U. Cal. Berkeley)
Medal record
Men's swimming
Representing  Sweden
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place1980 Moscow100 m butterfly
World Championships (LC)
Bronze medal – third place1978 Berlin100 m butterfly
European Championships (LC)
Silver medal – second place1977 Jönköping100 m butterfly
Silver medal – second place1981 Split100 m butterfly
Silver medal – second place1981 Split4×100 m medley
Bronze medal – third place1977 Jönköping200 m butterfly

Pär Arvidsson (born 27 February 1960 in Finspång) is a former butterfly swimmer and 1980 Olympic champion from Sweden.

1980 Olympics and world record

He won the 100 m butterfly at the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, after having set the world record in the same event a couple of months earlier in Austin, Texas. Suffering from an illness in early competition, he recovered sufficiently to just capture the 100 meter butterfly gold medal only 0.02 seconds ahead of second placed East German Roger Pyttel. He held the record until April 1981.

Between 1976 and 1983 he became Swedish 200 butterfly champion 22 times, and held the Swedish record in the 200 butterfly until 2008.

Education and careers

After graduating from the University of California, Berkeley with a degree in economics, where he swam for Hall of Fame Coach Nort Thornton, he earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1985.

After Harvard, he worked with McKinsey & Co, and later became a Bay Area businessman and entrepreneur.[citation needed] Around 1990, Arvidsson was a co-founder and investor in Bare Escentuals, where he served as both interim CEO and CFO. He helped found and direct GameChange, LLC, currently known as GameChange.com and was a founder of the company, SB2. After a number of years, he founded, directed, and was CEO of Snowshoe Capital, LLC, and was Chief Executive Officer of WCities International, Inc.

Personal bests

Long course (50 m)

Event Time


Date Meet Location Ref
100 m butterfly 54.15 11 Apr 1980- Austin, TX, United States
200 m butterfly 2:00.42 18 Aug 1979US Summer Nationals Fort Lauderdale, FL, United States
Legend: WR – World record; ER – European record; NR – Swedish record; e – equalled existing record;
Records not set in finals: h – heat; sf – semifinal; r – relay 1st leg; rh – relay heat 1st leg; b – B final; † – en route to final mark; so – swim-off; tt – time trial

Clubs

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Olympedia Olympic Bio, Par Arvidsson". olympedia.com. Retrieved February 4, 2021.
  2. ↑ "The Tuscaloosa News - Google News Archive Search".
  3. ↑ "Nort Thornton (USA): 1995 Honor Coach". International Swimming Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on February 4, 2021.