Lasse Efskind
Encyclopedia
Lasse Daniel Efskind is a Norwegian
medical doctor
, primarily known for his speedskating
career and his books. He is the son of Leif Efskind
(1904–1987), professor of medicine at the University of Oslo
and a pioneer in the field of heart operations.
Efskind burst onto the international speedskating scene already at age 17, when he won (in samalog
ue point-sum) an international two-day meet at Bislett
in January 1962, against stars such as Rudie Liebrechts
, Henk van der Grift
, Knut Johannesen
, Nils Aaness
. For several years he skated at close to national top level, concurrently with political activism and his education in civil engineering and medicine. In 1972 and 1973 he reached top international level, achieving three world record
s during 13–14 January 1973 in Davos
: 38.0 on the 500-m, 1:17.6 on the 1000-m, and point-sum 154.400 in the sprint combination (38.0 – 1:17.6 / 38.2 – 1:18.8). He was the fourth skater to achieve the 38.0 world record time, after Leo Linkovesi
, Hasse Börjes
and Erhard Keller
. Efskind's world records lasted until respectively April 1974, when Aleksandr Safronov skated 1:17.23, and March 1975, when Yevgeny Kulikov
skated 37.99 and Valery Muratov
achieved 153.390. Efskind achieved a fourth place in the 1973 World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
and a twelfth th place on the 500 m at the 1972 Winter Olympics
.
Efskind's The Soldier's Little Red Book was published in 1970 and caused public sphere
as well as legal controversy
, as it was concerned with political organisation within the armed forces. The author was charged with crimes against Article 140 of the Norwegian Penal Code (stirring up others to carry out criminal offences), which carries a maximum sentence of eight years of imprisonment. Efskind was however acquitted by the Supreme Court on the grounds of freedom of speech. Also the novel Trylleringen (The Lords of the Ring) of 1973 caused controversy, through its negative description of the speedskating milieu, on and off the circuit. During this time he was also student's representative of the first board of the recently established University of Tromsø
.
Later books with fellow speedskater and medical doctor Asle T. Johansen have been of the "exotic group bicycling excursions" type, with emphasis also on the philosophy of travelling. These excursions have included bicycling around the earth in 80 days; the route of Mao's
Long March
; on the roof of the world in Tibet
; and via the Andes
to the source of Amazon River
. Efskind's 2007 project is to lead a group of cyclists through the Vietnam War
, from Hanoi
via My Lai
to the killing field
s of Cambodia
. Efskind has also been working as a medical doctor during the El Salvador civil war and in Palestine
, while trying to pursue his talent as a painter.
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
medical doctor
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, primarily known for his speedskating
Speed skating
Speed skating, or speedskating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors race each other in traveling a certain distance on skates. Types of speed skating are long track speed skating, short track speed skating, and marathon speed skating...
career and his books. He is the son of Leif Efskind
Leif Efskind
Leif Efskind was a Norwegian surgeon. He was born in Verdal and was the father of Lasse Efskind. Efskind was the first to perform regular heart surgery in Norway.-References:...
(1904–1987), professor of medicine at the University of Oslo
University of Oslo
The University of Oslo , formerly The Royal Frederick University , is the oldest and largest university in Norway, situated in the Norwegian capital of Oslo. The university was founded in 1811 and was modelled after the recently established University of Berlin...
and a pioneer in the field of heart operations.
Efskind burst onto the international speedskating scene already at age 17, when he won (in samalog
Samalog
Samalog is a scoring system in speed skating. It is used in allround tournaments to convert results at various distances into points in order to determine an overall champion...
ue point-sum) an international two-day meet at Bislett
Bislett stadion
Bislett Stadion is a sports stadium in Oslo, Norway. Bislett is Norway's most well known sports arena internationally, with 15 speed skating world records and more than 50 track and field world records having been set here...
in January 1962, against stars such as Rudie Liebrechts
Rudie Liebrechts
Rutgerus Liebrechts is a former Dutch speed skater and racing cyclist.Liebrechts was among the best Dutch speedskaters from 1961 to 1967...
, Henk van der Grift
Henk van der Grift
Hendrik van der Grift is a former speed skater.Henk van der Grift participated in the 1960 Winter Olympics. On the 500 m, he finished 10th and he fell on the 1,500 m. Not satisfied with training facilities in the Netherlands, he lived in Norway for a while, working as a car mechanic...
, Knut Johannesen
Knut Johannesen
Knut Johannesen is a former speed skater from Norway.-Biography:Born in Oslo and representing the skating club ASK there, Johannesen won the World Allround Championships in 1957 and 1964, the European Allround Championships in 1959 and 1960, and won the Norwegian...
, Nils Aaness
Nils Aaness
Nils Egil Aaness is a former speed skater from Norway.Aaness competed on the Norwegian national team from 1959 to 1965, and thus became part of the Norwegian speedskating revolution under the trainer Stein Johnson...
. For several years he skated at close to national top level, concurrently with political activism and his education in civil engineering and medicine. In 1972 and 1973 he reached top international level, achieving three world record
World record
A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...
s during 13–14 January 1973 in Davos
Davos
Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,248 . Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range...
: 38.0 on the 500-m, 1:17.6 on the 1000-m, and point-sum 154.400 in the sprint combination (38.0 – 1:17.6 / 38.2 – 1:18.8). He was the fourth skater to achieve the 38.0 world record time, after Leo Linkovesi
Leo Linkovesi
Leo Ensio Linkovesi was a Finnish speedskater who specialised on the shorter distances, the 500 m and the 1000 m....
, Hasse Börjes
Hasse Börjes
Hasse Börjes is a Swedish speed skater, Olympic medalist and former world record holder in the 500m.At the 1972 Olympics in Sapporo Börjes was silver medalist on the 500 meter....
and Erhard Keller
Erhard Keller
Erhard Keller is a former speed skater from Germany.Competing for West Germany, Keller specialised on the sprint distances – the 500 m and the 1,000 m – and he joined the world's sprint skating elite in 1965...
. Efskind's world records lasted until respectively April 1974, when Aleksandr Safronov skated 1:17.23, and March 1975, when Yevgeny Kulikov
Yevgeny Kulikov
Yevgeny Nikolayevich Kulikov is a former speed skater who specialised in the sprint.Yevgeny Kulikov trained at Burevestnik Voluntary Sports Society...
skated 37.99 and Valery Muratov
Valery Muratov
Valery Alekseyevich Muratov is a former ice speed skater from the USSR, who represented his native country in three consecutive Winter Olympics, starting in 1968 in Grenoble, France. He trained in Kolomna at Burevestnik and later at the Armed Forces sports society.In 1972 Muratov was awarded the...
achieved 153.390. Efskind achieved a fourth place in the 1973 World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
World Sprint Speed Skating Championships
The World Sprint Speed Skating Championships are annual speed skating championships. The championships are held over a two day period, with the skaters racing one 500 m and one 1,000 m each day...
and a twelfth th place on the 500 m at the 1972 Winter Olympics
1972 Winter Olympics
The 1972 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XI Olympic Winter Games, were a winter multi-sport event which was celebrated from February 3 to February 13, 1972 in Sapporo, Hokkaidō, Japan...
.
Efskind's The Soldier's Little Red Book was published in 1970 and caused public sphere
Public sphere
The public sphere is an area in social life where individuals can come together to freely discuss and identify societal problems, and through that discussion influence political action...
as well as legal controversy
Controversy
Controversy is a state of prolonged public dispute or debate, usually concerning a matter of opinion. The word was coined from the Latin controversia, as a composite of controversus – "turned in an opposite direction," from contra – "against" – and vertere – to turn, or versus , hence, "to turn...
, as it was concerned with political organisation within the armed forces. The author was charged with crimes against Article 140 of the Norwegian Penal Code (stirring up others to carry out criminal offences), which carries a maximum sentence of eight years of imprisonment. Efskind was however acquitted by the Supreme Court on the grounds of freedom of speech. Also the novel Trylleringen (The Lords of the Ring) of 1973 caused controversy, through its negative description of the speedskating milieu, on and off the circuit. During this time he was also student's representative of the first board of the recently established University of Tromsø
University of Tromsø
The University of Tromsø is the world's northernmost university. Located in the city of Tromsø, Norway, it was established in 1968, and opened in 1972. It is one of eight universities in Norway. The University of Tromsø is the largest research and educational institution in northern Norway...
.
Later books with fellow speedskater and medical doctor Asle T. Johansen have been of the "exotic group bicycling excursions" type, with emphasis also on the philosophy of travelling. These excursions have included bicycling around the earth in 80 days; the route of Mao's
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
Long March
Long March
The Long March was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south...
; on the roof of the world in Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
; and via the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
to the source of Amazon River
Amazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
. Efskind's 2007 project is to lead a group of cyclists through the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, from Hanoi
Hanoi
Hanoi , is the capital of Vietnam and the country's second largest city. Its population in 2009 was estimated at 2.6 million for urban districts, 6.5 million for the metropolitan jurisdiction. From 1010 until 1802, it was the most important political centre of Vietnam...
via My Lai
My Lai, Vietnam
Sơn Tịnh is a district of Quang Ngai province, in the South Central Coast region of Vietnam, situated to the northeast of the town of Quang Ngai...
to the killing field
Killing field
A killing field, in military science, is an area in front of a defensive position that the enemy must cross during an assault and is specifically intended to allow the defending troops to incapacitate a large number of the enemy. Defensive emplacements such as anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire and...
s of Cambodia
Cambodia
Cambodia , officially known as the Kingdom of Cambodia, is a country located in the southern portion of the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia...
. Efskind has also been working as a medical doctor during the El Salvador civil war and in Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, while trying to pursue his talent as a painter.
Publications
- Soldatens lille røde bok (1970) (The Soldier's Little Red Book), book on political activism for soldiers, Pax Forlag, Oslo.
- Idrett og klassekamp (1972) (Sports and Class Struggle), Oktober Forlag, Oslo.
- Trylleringen (1973) (The Lords of the Ring), novel, Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo.
- Prevention of arterial thromboembolism with acetylsalicylic acid. A controlled clinical study in patients with aortic ball valves (1977), in American Heart Journal, with J. Dale, E. Myhre, O. Storstein, and H. StormorkenHelge StormorkenHelge Stormorken is a Norwegian veterinarian.-Research and organisational activity:He established the cause of a world wide fatal bleeding disease in piglets leading to its eradication. He described the multifaceted Stormorken syndrome, a mutations in f. VII, f. IX, Fibrinogen Oslo IV and V, all...
. - Jorda trill rundt (1987) (Wheeling Around the World), the art of bicycling around the earth in 80 days, with Asle T. Johansen, Universitetsforlaget, Oslo.
- De siste timene før lyset (1990) (The last hours before the light), texts from the civil war in El Salvador.
- Mitt Peru (2004) (My Peru), with Asle T. Johansen.