Peder Fredricson was for a long time Sweden’s brightest star in the horse jumping sky.
During the Tokyo Olympics 2021, he together with Malin Baryard-Johnsson, Henrik von Eckermann and Rolf Göran Bengtsson won Olympic gold in the team competition. For that, the quartet was awarded the Bragdguldet.
After eight months as world number one, he is finally defeated by the Swiss Martin Fuchs.
– It was a nice place to be and I can recommend it to everyone. I was most surprised that it lasted so long, you can wonder what the others were doing, laughs Fredricson.
Wanted to change with Swedish
But most remarkable was: he is not even the best Swede. Henrik von Eckermann took over as world number two behind Fuchs.
– I would have liked to have seen “Henke” take my place because we are very tight and he was so close. We’ve talked about it a lot and I kept the throne warm for him.
Peder Fredricson, on the other hand, is not depressed but takes it all in stride. He knew he could not have the place forever.
– My goal was to get there. Eight, ten, twelve or 60 months does not matter. I did not fight right away to keep the place, but it’s a bit awkward to get there.
Must wait for first place
Henrik von Eckermann has to wait to become world number one for the first time. He has been second a couple of times behind Peder Fredricson. But now he has a laser focus on the competition – Global Champions Tour this weekend and soon the World Cup – and not on the ranking.
– It (the ranking) does not matter so much, I do not put any value in it and I was still a bit from being world number one, he says.
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