Stockholm - Jonas Jacobsson, who won three shooting medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games, was Tuesday elected winner of the Svenska Dagbladet gold medal, one of Sweden's most prestigious sports awards.

Jacobsson was cited for a "heroic come from behind" and was "a true marksman," the jury said.

The 43-year-old athlete, who is paralysed from the waist down, set a world record in the first shooting event - the men's 10-metre air rifle standing competition.

"This really feels like a true recognition as an athlete," Jacobsson told the online edition of Svenska Dagbladet.

He is the first disabled athlete to win the award created in 1925.

The veteran shooter has collected 16 gold medals in the Paralympics, winning his first at age 15 in Moscow 1980.

The Paralympic Games were held in Beijing and used many of the venues that also were used at the Olympic Games.

Last year, Olympic and world champion downhill skier Anja Paerson won the Svenska Dagbladet gold medal for the second time.

Tennis legend Bjorn Borg and alpine wizard Ingemar Stenmark - who also hails from Paerson's home village Tarnaby - have also won the award twice.

Other contenders for the 2008 award included skier Charlotte Kalla, paralympic swimmer Anders Olsson, horse jumper Rolf-Goran Bengtsson, football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, track and field star Susanna Kallur, cyclists Emma Johansson and Gustav Larsson, golfer Robert Karlsson, and ice hockey stars Henrik Zetterberg and Nicklas Lidstrom. (dpa)