A 66-year-old Swedish man won a 1,800-kilometer bike race despite being too old to enter it.
Claim: Rating: About this rating Mixture What's True Gustaf Håkansson was a real person who participated in the 1951 Sverigeloppet race in Sweden. The length of the race, which took place between the cities of Haparanda and Ystad, aligns closely with the commonly reported distance of 1,800 kilometers (1,118 miles). What's False However, Håkansson did not officially win the race, as he was not recognized as a competitor by the event organizers. Moreover, Håkansson was 65, not 66, at the time of the race. What's Undetermined Reports suggest that the maximum age limit for the race was 40, which would have disqualified Håkansson, but we could not independently verify this detail. Additionally, some sources claimed that only 50 men were allowed to participate, but the exact criteria for selection remain unclear. For years, a story has circulated on social media about a 66-year-old man who allegedly won an 1,800-kilometer (1,118-mile) bike race despite being too old to compete. The story is often accompanied by a black-and-white photograph of an elderly man riding a bicycle. "In 1951, a 66 year old man wasn't allowed to enter a 1800km (1118 miles) long bicycle race because of being 'too old'. He showed up anyways and won the race by biking for days without sleep. He got the nickname 'Grandpa Steel,'" one Reddit post claimed (archived). The story spread on various social media platforms, including X, 9GAG, YouTube, Quora, iFunny, Imgur and Reddit. In short, the story was a mixture of true, false and undetermined information. Håkansson and the Race Existed To start, Gustaf (or Gustav) Håkansson and the Sverigeloppet race existed. It's also true that Håkansson was given the nickname "Stålfarfar," which means "Steel Grandfather" (or "Grandpa Steel") in English. The Swedish Digital Museum has published numerous photographs of Håkansson, as well as other…