“It feels cool and fantastic that I got to be the one who took that medal,” an elated Fransson told newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
Sara Dosho completed a Japanese sweep of all three golds on offer in women's freestyle wrestling at the Rio Olympics with a victory over Russian Natalia Vorobeva in the 69kg final.
Fransson shared bronze with Kazakhstan's Elmira Syzdykova.
The eventual gold medallist Dosho defeated Fransson 7-2 in the semi-final, but the 29-year-old Swede brushed off the loss to beat Canada’s Dorothy Yeats 2-1 in the bronze medal match.
Fransson, who had previously suffered the crushing disappointment of losing three World Championship bronze medal matches, told Dagens Nyheter:
“All I could think about in the hours between the semi-final and the bronze match was how much I wanted that bronze.”
The Swedish Olympic team has so far won one gold, two silver and four bronze medals at the Rio Olympics.
The women’s football team are also guaranteed at least silver when they take on Germany in tomorrow’s final.