ET PURUS UNVEILED
On September 11, 2024, the statue “Et Purus 2” was unveiled in Galärparken, Stockholm, Sweden, below Junibacken, in the presence of HM King Carl XVI Gustaf.
The statue was awarded to Professor Arne Ljungqvist, still active at the age of 93, for his more than 50-year anti-doping career.
It all started when Arne joined the Swedish Athletics Federation and realized that perfectly healthy people were taking various performance-enhancing drugs. Since then, he has fought against doping in sports from leading positions in the major global sports organizations.
His own foundation, Professor Arne Ljungqvist’s Anti-doping foundation, which he founded in 2012, targets doping in society.
Speeches were given by the Minister of Sports/Social Affairs Jakob Forssmed, the Swedish Sports Confederation’s chairman Anna Iwarsson and Fabege’s CEO Stefan Dahlbo
ET PURUS – THE HISTORY
It depicts the classic “No 1” hand gesture, used worldwide by all cultures to mark a performance victory. The ring on the tip of the index finger symbolizes that the performance was done with a clean and doping-free body (an “open window” into an inspected and a clean body). The statue is a gift from the project initiator Björn Bertoft.
Et Purus No 1
It was unveiled in Monaco. Professor Ljungqvist has always considered Monaco to be his second homeland. They have also hosted his “federation” – World Athletic (WA) formerly the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and have been very friendly to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) during all the years he chaired its medical commission.
Media coverage in Swedish:
