The Swede, who achieved success on the world stage in Tokyo, recalls a performance in Stockholm that was a crucial confidence boost.
Andreas Almgren wasted no time. Within two and a half hours of returning to Sweden on the way back from Tokyo, he was to be found running. “Just 20 km,” he says. “I landed in the morning and felt like I’d be so tired in the evening after the travel and flight that I might as well go.”
There is no time to sit back and enjoy the feeling of being a world 10,000m medalist. The 30-year-old is now hotly chasing the European half-marathon record of 59:13, set by Switzerland’s Julien Wanders in 2019 at the Valencia Half Marathon on October 26.
It’s a tall order considering this will be only the second half-marathon of his career, but in his first, last year in Barcelona, Almgren hit the mark in under 10 seconds. If he succeeds, it will be his third European record in what has been a brilliant year.
His first 10km 26:53 in January, also in Valencia, followed up with a 12:44.27 5000m at the Bauhaus Galan Diamond League meeting in front of a home crowd in Stockholm, which was huge and provided the perfect confidence boost that made him believe a world medal was possible.
And so it proved in Tokyo. France’s Jimmy Grecier grabbed most of the attention with his shock victory over Yomif Kejelca, but Almgren positioned himself perfectly in the closing chaos to take his place on the podium with bronze. It is the first time the event has had a European winner, indeed the first time there have been European medalists, since Mo Farah won gold at London 2017.
“It was a pretty historic race for us,” Almgren said as he discussed the growing strength of European distance running. “Jimmy and I were also first and third in the 3000m in the Diamond League final in Zurich and then we beat Isaac Kimeli (second) and Jimmy (third) on the 5000m podium (in Tokyo). And of course we missed the big one where Jakob Ingebrigsten was coming back from injury and I think he was very strong as well as a traitor now. paved the way to make sure other people believe they can be successful too.”
When he talks to AW, Almgren has just officially started his half-marathon training.
“It’s a little different from trying to sharpen a kick to preparing for a half marathon,” he laughs. “It’s going to take a few weeks to get used to, but I think I’ll make it.” And he’s glad to be home. He is based in Solentuna, north of Stockholm, and supplies almost everything he needs.
“We’ve got a lot of tracks, we’ve got our home track and there’s an indoor track right next to that. It also has gyms attached to it. The only thing missing is the height,” he grins.
This is where Almgren planned his World Cup attack. She has had to overcome a number of injuries throughout her career, and a stress fracture in her tibia forced her to withdraw from the Paris Olympics last summer.
“When I decided I wasn’t going to run, one of the first things I did was write September 14, 2025 in an Excel spreadsheet, and then I started reverse engineering,” he says. “To make sure. “How will I be as fit as possible for the 10,000m in Tokyo?”
“This has been a very good year for me. This is the first year of my career where I had basically no problems. I went back to full training in October and I had a cold in December, but other than that I’ve had no problems and when you get that consistency you obviously get some results.”
The highlight of the trip was the Diamond League 5000m performance in Stockholm, where a sizeable crowd at the Olympic Stadium, who had just roared Mondo Duplantis to the pole vault world record, suddenly found another home athlete on the verge of achieving something spectacular.
“I love competing in front of my home crowd in Stockholm and it was so special,” said Almgren, who has been competing at the venue since he was 11 years old. “By our third or fourth lap, Mondo had broken the world record, so the audience was already pretty excited, and when they started to realize I was going for the European record, there was such a vibe.”
In years past, Almgren was in that crowd to watch some of the greats in action. “So to be able to break both the European record and the stadium record meant a lot to me. “When I ran that race, I really felt. “I’m on the right track. I’m going to be a medal contender (in Tokyo).”
With his success this year, Almgren will be eyeing the Diamond League meeting in his hometown in early June 2026 as well, when he hopes to see another big crowd at the venue built for the 1912 Olympics.
“It’s so historic,” he says. “It’s just like 1912, so you really feel the history when you walk into that stadium. It feels very special to be there and now I’ve made a performance that people will probably talk about a lot when they talk about the historic moments of the Stockholm meeting. It feels so good.”
A visit bauhausgalan.se:
