Jacob Hård is one of Sweden’s most popular journalists and known for his long time at SVT where he worked as a sports journalist for over thirty years. Perhaps his most popular role has been as a commentator for cross-country skiing competitions, but that’s far from all he’s done.
Quick facts about Jacob Hård
Age | Born 5 January 1955 |
Family | Three children with his ex-wife, and now living with Petra |
Commenting on | Mainly cross-country skiing and athletics |
Awards | The Great Journalism Prize 2020 |
Jacob Haird’s job as a commentator
Jacob Hård has done a lot during his career as a journalist. The majority of his professional years have been spent at SVT, where he has worked since 1986. What he, or rather his voice, is best known for are all the commentary jobs he has had. Together with Anders Blomquist, for example, he was part of the radar pair that commentated many of the cross-country skiing competitions on SVT.
Jacob Hård has often been in the commentary booth and he has been able to comment with many different colleagues, although some collaborations have been more common than others.
Some of the sporting events he usually, or used to, comment on are:
- World Cup and World Cross-Country Skiing Championships
- Athletics galas and World Athletics Championships
- Vasaloppet
Otherwise, Hård has had time to do many other things, partly as a journalist but also in other roles. Among other things, he was a good athlete himself, before his career as a journalist, and has also done a number of other things as a result of his career.
Some examples from Jacob Haird’s career:
- Held summer talk in Sommar i P1 2021
- Writes articles and columns for SVT
- Won the Great Journalist Award 2020
- Voice actor in TinTin 1971 and Zoolympic Games 1992
- Was a promising 800-meter runner for IFK Lidingö
Jacob Hård has an eye disease
In addition to his much-loved skills as a journalist and commentator, there are some other, slightly more boring, things that Jacob Hård has become famous for. During the World Championships in Falun in 2015, he was asked a lot of questions about his appearance, something that is perhaps not so common for a person who works with his voice.
The questions were about whether Jacob Hård had started wearing make-up because viewers thought he seemed to have got such dark eyelashes. However, it turned out that he wasn’t wearing make-up at all, but was sick instead. Hård has announced that he has been diagnosed with glaucoma.
Glaucoma is a hereditary disease that affects your eyes. The fact that Hård has the disease was not surprising, as his mother suffers from the same condition. The disease can eventually destroy the optic nerve and, without treatment, cause blindness. For Jacob Hård, it shouldn’t be a risk because he takes medication, but it’s also the medication that causes him to have dark, thick eyelashes.
The private life of Jacob Hård – family, partner and noble family
Jacob Hård is a fairly private person who mostly focuses on his job when it comes to his public duties. Therefore, not everyone may know much about his private life, but from time to time information comes to light in various interview contexts.
Hård has three children, all in their twenties and thirties. He has the children with his ex-wife, whom he divorced in 2009, and before the children became adults, they lived an every-other-week life. After the divorce, however, Hård has found love again, and for some years now he has been living with his partner Petra.
Something else that not everyone knows about Jacob Hård is that his full name is Bror Sven Jacob Hård af Segerstad. Hård af Segerstad is a noble lineage of which the family is a branch. In addition, Jacob’s father, Major Karl Hård, was the head of the Army Staff’s map detail. Unfortunately, he passed away in 1980.