He has finished fourth on four occasions on four different distances. He has also been described as the best European runner ever without a medal.
In Tokyo, Andreas Almgren broke the medal drought.
Directly after the finish line, the emotions came. Tears flowed, hugs were shared, and finally, he could, wrapped in the Swedish flag, jog around in a lap of honor.
- At first, it was just an exhalation, relief, and then a damn joy washed over me, he says.
It was not much sensible I got out during the first minute. I got a total short circuit.
Long journey to the medal
With the medal on 10,000 meters in Tokyo, Almgren wrote Swedish athletics history.
Never before has a blue and yellow long-distance runner taken a medal at a World Championship.
But the journey there was long.
When the runner broke through on 800 meters during 2014-2015, the feeling was that from there and then "gold and green forests" awaited.
Everything would be as good as possible.
Then came a "slap of reality", as Almgren previously said.
The high-intensity training made the injuries replace each other and kept the Swede away from many championships and major competitions.
Today, existence is different.
When the Swede shifted focus to long distance - and copied the philosophy behind the star and Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen's success - the injuries disappeared and the times became progressively faster and faster.
After several Swedish records on different distances and a European record on 5,000 meters - another reward came in Tokyo.
A World Championship bronze.
New medal chance?
- I have never had such good preparations for any championship ever, he says.
- If I think back; I rested the day after I got cramps in Monaco, I rested the day after my European record on 5,000 and I rested a day when I went home from a camp in Spain. The rest of the days I have been running.
The Frenchman Jimmy Gressier took the World Championship gold with a time of 28.55.77. Yomif Kejelcha, Ethiopia, was six hundredths behind and took silver. Andreas Almgren's bronze time became 28.56.02, over two minutes from his personal best on the distance (26.52.87).
Later during the World Championship, Almgren will run 5,000 meters, where he has the European record of 12.44.27 from earlier this year.
