Jan Staaf

Jan Egon Staaf (born 11 January 1962 in Västerås) is a Swedish ex-race walker . He twice competed for his country at the Summer Olympics: in 1988 and 1996. Staaf set his personal best (1:22.37) in the men's 20 km walk event in 1997.

Jan Staaf is a detective inspector and works as an investigation leader in serious crimes. He led the investigation into the high-profile double murder in Linköping in 2004 , which was solved with the help of DNA genealogy . The investigation lasted 16 years and became Sweden's second largest criminal investigation after the Palme murder . When the case and investigation were depicted in the Netflix series Genombrottet (AKA The Breakthrough (2025), the character John, who is based on Staaf, was played by Peter Eggers.

Achievements

Year	Competition	Venue	Position	Notes
Representing Sweden
1982	European Championships	Athens, Greece	16th	20 km
1983	World Championships	Helsinki, Finland	DNF	20 km
1986	European Championships	Stuttgart, West Germany	9th	20 km
1987	World Championships	Rome, Italy	17th	20 km
1988	Olympic Games	Seoul, South Korea	30th	20 km
			DNF	50 km
1993	World Championships	Stuttgart, Germany	28th	20 km
1996	Olympic Games	Atlanta, Georgia	30th	20 km
1998	European Championships	Budapest, Hungary	DNF	50 km

References

• Evans, Hilary; Gjerde, Arild; Heijmans, Jeroen; Mallon, Bill; et al. "Jan Staaf". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Archived from the original on 2012-11-03.