Martin Johansson (orienteer, born 1984)

His injuries did not stop and the most serious one came during the 2009 WOC in Miskolc, Hungary. He finished 5th in sprint and his next discipline was relay on August 21. The Swedish team was battling for the victory with France and Norway, and each team put the strongest runner on the last leg. French Thierry Gueorgiou was a favorite and was leading the race, but made an orienting mistake and fell behind Johansson. At the end of the race, Johansson got injured in an event witnessed by nobody, including Johansson himself. He described it as he was running downhill and suddenly something hit him in a quadriceps. He made a few steps, but had to stop and found a big tree branch sticking out of his leg. He fell and panicked anticipating a splash of blood, but saw Gueorgiou coming and yelled for help. Gueorgiou stopped and was soon joined by Norwegian Anders Nordberg and Czech Michal Smola. Johansson told them to keep running, but they refused and started working as a team. Nordberg ran to the finish line for help, whereas Gueorgiou and Smola removed the branch, which pierced the leg to a 12-cm depth,[4] and harnessed the wound using Gueorgiou's shirt and the straps of his GPS device. Then they carried Johansson, who passed out several times in the meantime, to the road where an ambulance car was waiting.[5][6][7] After Johansson was on his way to the hospital, Smola, Gueorgiou and Nordberg continued the course. They jogged together finishing at 25th, 26th, and 27th places.

Nordberg, Smola, and Gueorgiou finishing the race after aiding Johansson; Gueorgiou has the stick in his pocket.

All of this was witnessed by spectators worldwide who were following the men's relay race, via GPS tracking shown live on the Internet.[8] Foot orienteering races are cross-country, off-rail races and the preferred route choice often is through forests. Thus spectators have limited access on course. Spectators who were watching a map of the race in progress witnessed the strange behavior of the four leaders' GPS tracks – the tracks stopped. Soon Nordberg’s track started moving again, but it went to the road and then to the finish area.[9] Viewer-controlled replays of the race are available for analysis, in a RouteGadget web tool.[8]

Interpretation of International Orienteering Federation (IOF) competition rules was at issue: rule 26.13 states "The organiser must void a competition if at any point it becomes clear that circumstances have arisen which make the competition unfair or dangerous for the competitors". After much deliberation on whether or not to void the relay, the organizers declared that it stood.[10][11] IOF president Åke Jacobson told Gueorgiou, Nordberg and Smola "What you did today is a great example of extreme sportsmanship and fair play. You are an inspiration for all of us!"[10] As an orienteering relay team has 3 runners, orienteers have dubbed Gueorgiou, Nordberg and Smola "Team Fairplay".[12][13]

Johansson underwent an operation to clean the infection in his wound. The operation went successfully and already on August 26, 2009 he returned home, praising Hungarian doctors.[5]