Olsson had his international breakthrough in 2001 when he won silver at the 2001 World Championships in Athletics. He has the Swedish national record outdoors, 17.79 m, and the Swedish national record indoors, 17.83 m. Olsson has won the Swedish Championships seven times, and has also competed successfully on national level in high jumping. On 7 March 2004, at the 2004 World Indoor Championships in Athletics, he jumped 17.83 m and matched the World Record. On 23 August 2004, at the 2004 Summer Olympics, he jumped 17.79 m, broke the national record and won the gold medal. Four of his six jumps were longer than the silver medalist's best jump. With the Olympic Gold he completed a rare international sweep, having the Olympic, World Indoor, Outdoor, Regional Indoor and Outdoor titles. Olsson first became interested in triple jump after watching Jonathan Edwards set the world record at the World Championships in his hometown Gothenburg. Since 1999, Olsson has been trained by Yannick Tregaro. Before that, Olsson was trained by Viljo Nousiainen. During the autumn and winter 2004/2005 he injured his foot, preventing him from being able to do triple-jumping at full speed. Unfortunately the injury has healed very slowly, and it was still in January 2006 hampering him. In his first competition after the injury, in June 2006, he jumped 17.09 and seem to be back into shape. A month later he won the gold medal at European Championships in his hometown Gothenburg, with a jump of 17.67 m. At the beginning of the 2007 indoor season, Olsson was injured yet again, and was unable to compete at the European indoor championships. Olsson returned to competition in June at the IAAF Golden League event in Oslo, jumping 17.33 m. In July, he won Golden League event in Paris with 17.56 m. At the Golden League event in Rome, he retired after the second round due to a cramp. Olsson went to the 2007 World Championships in Athletics but had to pull out before the competition due to an injury during training. After almost one year of rehabilitation, he returned to competition in July 2008 at the annual event in Stockholm, "DN Galan", but had to pull out due to injury. Afterwards, he announced that he will not compete anymore during the 2008 season; as such he will not participate at the Beijing Olympics. He also suggested that he may retire form the sport. Upon a request from the Swedish Olympic team, Olsson agreed to carry the Swedish flag during the opening ceremony. In July 2009 Olsson made a comeback in a minor event arranged by Örgryte IS in Gothenburg. He then jumped 17.24 m. On 3 August 2009 Olsson competed in Swedish Championships in Malmö. He won the competition with a jump at 16.72 m. This was the first competition Olsson failed to reach 17 m or more since he jumped in a competition in Birmingham in 2003. On 14 May 2012 Olsson ultimately declared his intentions to retire from professional triple jump competitions. Christian currently lives in Monaco with his girlfriend Gordana Bosanac.
