STOCKHOLM, Oct 1: Swedish sports legend Sven Tumba, who was named the country’s best-ever hockey player and later became a golf pioneer in his native Sweden and the former Soviet Union, has died. He was 80.

The Swedish Ice Hockey Association announced on its website Saturday that Tumba died overnight at a hospital in Stockholm after an illness.

“Swedish ice hockey has lost one of its biggest players through time,” the association’s chairman Christer Englund said. “With his ice hockey knowledge and with his enthusiasm he made ice hockey popular and attracted more people to our sport.”

A three-sport star, Tumba also represented Sweden in football and golf. In the early 1950s he played for the national football side and became a Swedish champion while playing with Djurgarden in 1959.

Starting in 1951, Tumba also played hockey for Djurgarden and won eight Swedish championships and three goalscoring titles. He represented Sweden at 14 World Championships and four Winter Olympics, and was named best forward at the 1957 and 1962 worlds, and top goalscorer at the 1964 Winter Olympics when Sweden’s amateurs finished second behind the Soviet Union’s state professionals.

In 1997 he was inducted into the International Hockey Hall of Fame and in 1999 he was named Sweden’s best-ever player.

In 1957, he helped Sweden win the World Championship title ahead of the Soviet Union at Lenin Stadium.—AFP