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Former high jump
world record holder, Patrik Sjoberg has shocked Swedish athletics by
revealing that his coach and stepfather, Viljo Nousiainen sexually
abused him as a young boy.

The 46-year-old
Sjoberg, who won two Olympic silver medals and set a world record of
2.42 meters in 1987, said in his new autobiography: “What You Didn’t
See”, that the abuse started when he was 10 or 11 and continued into
his teenage years.

Nousiainen, who
died in 1999, was a respected figure in Swedish athletics and was
instrumental in turning Sjoberg into one of the world’s best high
jumpers.

That reputation is
now in tatters. Yannick Tregaro, coach of Sweden’s Olympic triple jump
champion Christian Olsson, has also said he was abused by Nousiainen.

“It was a tough
period,” Sjoberg told Swedish TV on Thursday of the time he spent
writing the book. “There were many memories that appeared that I had
suppressed, but I felt as time went on that it became more and more
important.” Sjoberg told SVT that the first instance of abuse occurred
at a meeting in Malmo where he was forced to share a room with his
coach.

Nousiainen later started a romantic relationship with Sjoberg’s mother and eventually moved into their apartment.

Father figure

Sjoberg said the lack of a father figure in his life made him a target for Nousiainen.

“That was how he
worked, he noticed which of the guys had difficult home lives, who
weren’t used to hearing positive things (about themselves),” he said.

Sjoberg said
Nousiainen would subject him to what he called “scientific
examinations,” ostensibly to measure his muscles and development. “I
found it very offensive, but he said that it was essential for
training,” Sjoberg told SVT.

“In the beginning
you were told that Viljo was the best coach and that very few got to
work with him, so you believed him. At the same time you knew something
wasn’t right.”

Tremendous shame

Asked why he had
waited until now to make the abuse public, Sjoberg said it was because
of “the tremendous shame,” adding that the abuse finally stopped when
he threatened to report Nousianen to the police.

“I explained to him
that I would make a complaint to the police. I was getting a bit bigger
then and I don’t think I was as interesting for Viljo. He preferred
smaller boys.

“When he died I
felt a sense of relief, because now no one would find out about what
happened.” “I hated him for everything he did to me but at the same
time, you can’t take away from him that he was a great coach. I thought
that I couldn’t train with anyone else. Maybe I was wrong, maybe it
would have worked just as well.”

Former world and European champion Sjoberg retired from the sport in 1999, the year in which Nousiainen died.