Ferry Svan

Ferry Svan is a Swedish professional woodchopper and logging sportsman, and the son of champion skier Gunde Svan. He is the first Swedish person to compete in a World Championship in logging sports, the first Swede to win a World Championship, and the youngest person to compete in logging sports as a Senior athlete. He has previously held four Swedish national records. He competes in the Stihl Timbersports Series.

Ferry Svan
Personal information
National team Sweden
Born (1996-10-02) 2 October 1996
Vansbro, Sweden
Occupationlogging sportsman
Years active2014-present
Height178 cm (5 ft 10 in)
Weight84 kg (185 lb)
Other interestshunting, cars
Websitedata.stihl-timbersports.com/Athlete/1492
www.axelent.co.uk/axel/an-axelent-athlete
Sport
CountrySweden
Sportloggersports
RankSenior
Achievements and titles
World finals1 gold
Regional finals3 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze
Highest world ranking1 (Junior)
7 (Senior)

Logging sports

Junior career

Svan was introduced to woodchopping as a sport when he was in high school,[1] attending a Skogsbruksskola, a special Swedish Forestry high school;[2] he had also spent time working on his father's "farm" — tending to 1000 hectares of forest — before he began it as a sport.[3] In 2014 he went to his first Nordic games for logging sports, where he took gold as a junior, repeating this feat in 2016.[1] It was at this point that Svan took up logging full-time, returning to his parents' farm to train. He said that full-time training is hard, but pays off, and that doing it alone he spends more time preparing his timber than he does actually practising chopping. His aim for 2017 was to become a professional logging athlete; though the sport has about 500 "active athletes" regularly competing, only a few of these can actually make money from it. He explained his reason for moving home was mostly financial, but did add that his father has good experience in training regimens that would be helpful. He also expressed an interest in attending training camps around the world to learn from pros.[4]

In 2017 he qualified for the World Junior Championship, which was held in Hamburg, Germany.[4] He was the first Swede to do so, and won the competition after having taken the lead after only two events,[5] also becoming the first Swede to win a World Championship.[6] Before the competition, he had said he was hoping to place in the top 5.[4] Later in 2017 he competed in the Italian junior championship, where he placed fourth.[1]

Senior career
Svan practicing the hot saw in Vansbro in 2017

To introduce his senior career, Svan appeared on the show Bingolotto on 11 June 2017, where he performed multiple woodchopping events.[7][8]

In summer 2017 he again competed in the Nordic championship, now as a senior, and placed second. He was the youngest person to ever compete in the sport as a senior.[1] In October 2017, he competed in the European Champions Trophy Senior competition qualifiers,[9] but also was able to take an automatic wild card spot because of his World Championship title.[10][11]

At the start of April 2018, Svan gained sponsorship from Swedish chainsaw safety company Axelent AB, which he explained he has a lot in common with because of both their focuses on precision work and safety.[10] With the sponsorship, because he still wasn't earning enough from wins to live off, he intended to move to New Zealand and train, because the sport is very popular there.[1]

In early April 2018, Svan experienced an injury while training. He dropped an axe after chopping down trees to prepare for training and, to save it from falling down a hill, instinctively tried to catch it on his ankle, in what he calls a "stupid move". Initially it looked like a surface wound, but after being unable to move his foot he returned to hospital. He had severed a tendon and required surgery, which was his first operation, and had to be put in a plaster cast for 6 weeks.[11] The Champions Trophy competition, held in Marseille, France, was in late May 2018, 6-7 weeks later. However, he still managed to compete. At this competition he also became the youngest person to compete as a senior in an international competition.[12]

In the first round of the Champions Trophy, Svan competed against Andrea Rossi, who ended up disqualified. In the quarterfinals, he competed against Martin Komarek, who beat his time, with Svan ultimately placing eighth. In each stage of this competition, he broke his own personal best.[12] He said that making it to the quarterfinals was beyond his expectations and he was proud of knocking 15 seconds off some of his personal records, calling himself a "giant" for the achievements;[13] in the heat he lost, he attained what was a new Swedish national record.[14]

Svan's performance at the 2019 Timbersports Champions Trophy competition, in Kungsbacka, saw him set a new personal best, but missing out on his target of a top-5 placement, losing to Michal Dubicki in the quarter finals.[15]

Competitions
Year Competition Level Location Position Points Time
2014 Nordic Championship Junior 1st[1]
2016 Nordic Championship Junior 1st[1]
2017 World Championship Junior Germany 1st 26 1:17.80[16]
2017 Italian Championship Junior Italy 4th 20 1:39.26[17]
2017 Nordic Championship Senior Sweden 2nd 58 3:19.97[18]
2017 European Champions Trophy Qualifying Senior Netherlands 13th 4:55.39[9]
2018 Champions Trophy Senior France 8th 1:20.18[14]
2018 Nordic Championship Senior Denmark 4th 48 5:50.52[19]
2018 Helsingborg Cup Champions Trophy Qualifying Senior Sweden 2nd 2:42.17[20]
2018 Helsingborg Cup - Pro Senior Sweden 5th 51 5:41.54[21]
2018 European Trophy Senior Poland 12th 1:26.12[22]
2018 Team World Championship Senior England 8th (Sweden) 1:04.44[23]
2019 Champions Trophy Senior Sweden 6th 1:12.94[24]
2019 Trollhättan Cup - Pro Senior Sweden 2nd 20 50.68[25]
2019 Trollhättan Cup - Nordic Trophy Senior Sweden 3rd 1:22.95[26][lower-alpha 1]
2019 Nordic Championship Senior Norway 1st 74 2:34.05[27]
2019 World Championship Senior Czechia 7th 30 2:14.70[28]

Statistics

As of December 2019, Svan's statistics are:[29]

Discipline PB Year Competition Comments
Hot Saw 8.50 2017 Nordic Championship
Springboard 1:04.85 2019 World Championship
Standing Block Chop (Rookie) 22.65 2017 World Championship previous national record
Standing Block Chop 21.15 2019 World Championship
Single Buck (Rookie) 12.02 2017 World Championship previous national record
Single Buck 15.61 2019 Nordic Championship
Single Buck w/o Tools 18.31 2019 World Championship national record
Underhand Chop (Rookie) 31.81 2017 World Championship previous national record
Underhand Chop 19.28 2019 World Championship national record
Stihl Stock Saw 11.10 2018 Helsingborg Cup - Pro
Champions Trophy 1:12.94 2019 has held a national record

Notes
  1. Though Svan had the best time at every stage of the competition and the best time overall, a bad cut in the semi-final resulted in disqualification and let his opponent go on to the final, while he competed in the battle for 3rd

References
  1. "An Axelent athlete: Safe pair of hands". Axelent. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  2. "Meet Ferry Svan - Rookie World Champion". Retrieved 19 January 2019.
  3. "Cross-country skiing legend Gunde Svan: "Forestry work is a nice counterbalance to TV work"". Valtra. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  4. "Ferry Svan flyttar hem för att kunna satsa". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  5. "PODIUM FINISH FOR YOUNG AUSSIE ROOKIE AT THE STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® ROOKIE WORLD CHAMPION IN GERMANY OVERNIGHT". Stihl. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  6. "Young Swede axes his way to gold". Nordstjernan. Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  7. "Ferry Svan svingar yxan - BingoLotto 11/6 2017". Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  8. "Bingolotto". Retrieved 15 January 2019.
  9. "European Champions Trophy Qualifying 2017". Stihl Timbersports. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  10. "Junior World Champion Ferry Svan in partnership with Axelent AB" (PDF). Axelent. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  11. "Ferry Svan opererad efter otäck yxolycka". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  12. "Ferry Svan and Emil Hansson impressed in Marseille". tech2. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  13. "Storsuccén för Ferry Svan i debuten – efter pappa Gundes stöd: "Jag är jätte-jätte-jättenöjd!"". Expressen (in Swedish). Retrieved 22 December 2018.
  14. "Champions Trophy 2018 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  15. "Ferry Svan satte personligt rekord i Champions Trophy". Landskogbruk (in Swedish). Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  16. "Rookie World Championship 2017 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  17. "Italian Rookie Cup 2017 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  18. "Nordic Championship 2017 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  19. "Nordic Championship 2018 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  20. "Helsingborg Cup - Champions Trophy Qualifier - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  21. "Helsingborg Cup - Pro - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  22. "European Trophy 2018 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  23. "Team World Championship 2018 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
  24. "Champions Trophy 2019 - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 16 June 2019.
  25. "Trollhättan Cup - Pro 2019 - STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  26. "Trollhättan Cup - Nordic Trophy 2019 - STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  27. "Nordic Championship Dølemo 2019 - STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  28. "Individual World Championship 2019 - STIHL TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  29. "Ferry Svan - Stihl TIMBERSPORTS® Database". data.stihl-timbersports.com. Retrieved 23 December 2018.
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