Melker Svärd Jacobsson

Melker Svärd Jacobsson (born 8 January 1994) is a Swedish pole vaulter who has qualified for the 2016 Summer Olympics due to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Athletics career

At the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics held in Singapore, Jacobsson placed joint fourth in the final of the boy's pole vault with a jump of 4.85 metres.

He won the silver medal at the 2011 World Youth Championships in Athletics and finished sixth at the 2012 World Junior Championships in Athletics. In 2014 he finished 19th in the men's pole vault at the European Athletics Championships with a jump of 5.30 metres.

Jacobsson set an indoor personal best jump of 5.65 metres, at an event in Potsdam in February 2014. In autumn 2014 Jacobsson under went surgery on both his hips to correct an issue that had caused him pain since the age of ten. After four months of recovery he suffered a groin injury that resulted in pain when he jumped, which doctors were unable to diagnose for eight months. In January 2015 German surgeon Hans-Wilhelm Müller-Wohlfahrt, who had previously operated on other athletes including Usain Bolt, Sanna Kallur and Christian Olsson, as well as U2 singer Bono, identified the issue and carried out a second surgery. During his recovery period Jacobsson caught glandular fever. He eventually returned to training in December 2015 under a new coach, Gustaf Hultgren.

Jacobsson was one of the first four track and field athletes to be qualify to compete for Sweden at the 2016 Summer Olympics, having met the qualifying standard of 5.70 metres for the men's pole vault. He met the standard by setting a new personal best of exactly 5.70 metres at an event in Austin, Texas, United States. He has also surpassed the qualification standard of 5.55 metres needed to compete at the 2016 European Athletics Championships due to be held in Amsterdam, Netherlands.