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Aksel Lund Svindal

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Aksel Lund Svindal
Svindal in February 2011
Personal information
Born (1982-12-26) 26 December 1982 (age 41)
OccupationAlpine skier
Height189 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Skiing career
DisciplinesDownhill, Super-G,
Giant slalom, Combined
ClubNero Alpin
World Cup debut28 October 2001 (age 18)
Retired9 February 2019 (age 36)
Websiteaksellundsvindal.com
Olympics
Teams4 – (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals4 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams8 – (2003–15, 2019)
Medals9 (5 gold)
World Cup
Seasons17 – (2002–14, 2016–19)
Wins36
Podiums80
Overall titles2 – (2007, 2009)
Discipline titles9 – (2 DH, 5 SG, 1 GS, 1 K)
Medal record
International alpine ski competitions
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 2 1 1
World Championships 5 2 2
Total 7 3 3
World Cup race podiums
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Slalom 0 0 0
Giant 4 2 4
Super-G 17 6 7
Downhill 14 8 10
Combined 1 2 4
Parallel 0 1 0
Total 36 19 25
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2010 Vancouver Super-G
Gold medal – first place 2018 Pyeongchang Downhill
Silver medal – second place 2010 Vancouver Downhill
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Vancouver Giant slalom
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2007 Åre Downhill
Gold medal – first place 2007 Åre Giant slalom
Gold medal – first place 2009 Val-d'Isère Combined
Gold medal – first place 2011 Garmisch Combined
Gold medal – first place 2013 Schladming Downhill
Silver medal – second place 2005 Bormio Combined
Silver medal – second place 2019 Åre Downhill
Bronze medal – third place 2009 Val-d'Isère Super-G
Bronze medal – third place 2013 Schladming Super-G
Junior World Ski Championships
Gold medal – first place 2002 Tarvisio Combined
Silver medal – second place 2002 Tarvisio Super-G
Bronze medal – third place 2002 Tarvisio Downhill
Bronze medal – third place 2002 Tarvisio Slalom

Aksel Lund Svindal (born 26 December 1982) is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer.

Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion (2007 and 2009), an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined (2007 Åre, 2009 Val-d'Isère, 2011 Garmisch, and 2013 Schladming). With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.[1]

With his successes many consider him the best Norwegian alpine skier ever. While the great Kjetil Andre Aamodt has been more successful at the Olympics, Svindal is by far the most successful on the World Cup circuit.

In late-January 2019, he announced his retirement from alpine skiing following the 2019 Ski World Championships.[2]

Career

During his career, Svindal won nine World Championship medals, four Olympic medals (two of them gold), two overall World Cup and nine discipline titles (in downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and combined), and 36 World Cup races. Additionally, he won four medals at the World Junior Championships in 2002, including gold in combined.

On 27 November 2007, during the first training run for the Birds of Prey downhill race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Svindal crashed badly after landing a jump. He somersaulted into a safety fence and was taken to Vail Valley Medical Center (now Vail Health Hospital) with broken bones in his face and a six-inch (15 cm) laceration to his groin and abdominal area. Svindal missed the remainder of the 2008 season, and returned to World Cup racing in October 2008. His first two victories following his return were a downhill and a super-G in Beaver Creek, on the same Birds of Prey course where he was injured the year before.[3]

Svindal's silver medal downhill run at the 2010 Olympics at Whistler

At the 2009 World Championships, Svindal won the gold in the super combined. Completing his comeback during the 2009 season, Svindal won his second overall World Cup over Benjamin Raich of Austria. Entering the last race of the season, a slalom at the World Cup finals in Åre, Sweden, Svindal led Raich by just two points. They had won the two previous races (a downhill and giant slalom respectively), with Svindal leading but Raich was the favourite as a specialist in slalom. Both skiers went off course and did not finish the slalom, so the Norwegian became the overall World Cup winner.[4] He also won his fourth discipline title, his second in super G.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics on 15 February, Svindal won the silver medal in the downhill competition in Whistler, 0.07 seconds behind the winner, Didier Défago of Switzerland, and 0.02 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Bode Miller of the United States. Svindal's medal was Norway's hundredth silver medal at the Winter Olympics, the most for any nation.

Four days later on 19 February, Svindal won the super-G, his first-ever Olympic gold medal – ahead of Miller (+ 0.28 seconds) and Andrew Weibrecht (+ 0.31 seconds), both of the U.S.

Svindal successfully defended his world title in the super combined in 2011 at Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany.[5]

After an Achilles tendon injury in October 2014,[6] Svindal did not compete in World Cup events during the 2015 season. He did enter the World Championships in Colorado in February,[6] and placed sixth in both the downhill and super-G events.

After his season long injury, Svindal had a very strong start to the 2016 season. He managed seven world cup victories before he sustained a season-ending knee injury under tough conditions in Kitzbühel, Austria.[7]

After a fairly good start to the 2016–2017 season including 1 World Cup win, for the third straight season he suffered a season ending/interrupting injury, and this time missed both the majority of the World Cup season and the 2017 World Alpine Ski Championships.

He won another Olympic Gold in the downhill event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, becoming the oldest ever Alpine skiing gold medallist.

In his final race, the downhill at the 2019 World Alpine Ski Championships in Åre in February of that year, Svindal finished second in a Norwegian one-two, being pipped to the gold by team-mate Kjetil Jansrud by a margin of two hundredths of a second.[8]

Personal life

Svindal dated alpine racer Julia Mancuso of the U.S. for three years, until the couple split up in September 2013.

In his spare time, he devotes himself to freeskiing, and has already appeared in several freeskiing film documentaries.[9]

One of his best friends is his teammate Kjetil Jansrud.

World Cup results

Season titles

11 titles: (2 overall, 2 Downhill, 5 Super-G, 1 Giant slalom, 1 Combined)

Season Discipline
2006 Super-G
2007 Overall
Giant slalom
Combined
2009 Overall
Super-G
2012 Super-G
2013 Downhill
Super-G
2014 Downhill
Super-G

Season standings

Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
slalom		 Super-G Downhill Combined
2003 20 39 38 26 23 58 4
2004 21 19 41 19 15 36 6
2005 22 21 37 17 11 30 —
2006 23 2 13 10 1 13 7
2007 24 1 21 1 5 7 1
2008 25 40 50 19 22 45 —
2009 26 1 — 5 1 4 11
2010 27 4 54 8 3 7 —
2011 28 4 59 2 16 10 5
2012 29 3 — 11 1 6 5
2013 30 2 47 7 1 1 5
2014 31 2 — 16 1 1 12
2015 32 injured: did not compete
2016 33 5 — 27 3 2 9
2017 34 35 — — 18 15 —
2018 35 3 — — 3 2 —
2019 36 20 — — 7 10 —
Standings through 17 March 2019

Race victories

36 wins – (14 DH, 17 SG, 4 GS, 1 SC)

Season Date Location Discipline
2006 27 November 2005 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Super-G
15 March 2006 Sweden Åre, Sweden Downhill
2007 30 November 2006 United States Beaver Creek, USA Super combined
21 December 2006 Austria Hinterstoder, Austria Giant slalom
14 March 2007  Switzerland  Lenzerheide, Switzerland Downhill
15 March 2007 Super-G
17 March 2007 Giant slalom
2008 28 October 2007 Austria Sölden, Austria Giant slalom
25 November 2007 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Super-G
2009 5 December 2008 United States Beaver Creek, USA Downhill
6 December 2008 Super-G
11 March 2009 Sweden Åre, Sweden Downhill
2010 18 December 2009 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Super-G
2011 8 January 2011  Switzerland  Adelboden, Switzerland Giant slalom
2012 27 November 2011 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Super-G
14 March 2012 Austria Schladming, Austria Downhill
2013 24 November 2012 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill
25 November 2012 Super-G
14 December 2012 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Super-G
25 January 2013 Austria Kitzbühel, Austria Super-G
3 March 2013  Norway Kvitfjell, Norway Super-G
2014 1 December 2013 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Super-G
6 December 2013 United States Beaver Creek, USA Downhill
20 December 2013 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Super-G
29 December 2013 Italy Bormio, Italy Downhill
2016 28 November 2015 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill
29 November 2015 Super-G
4 December 2015 United States Beaver Creek, USA Downhill
18 December 2015 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Super-G
19 December 2015 Downhill
16 January 2016  Switzerland  Wengen, Switzerland Downhill
22 January 2016 Austria Kitzbühel, Austria Super-G
2018 2 December 2017 United States Beaver Creek, USA Downhill
16 December 2017 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Downhill
19 January 2018 Austria Kitzbühel, Austria Super-G
2019 14 December 2018 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Super-G

World Championship results

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom 		 Super-G Downhill Combined
2003 20 – 5 DNF 22 —
2005 22 12 6 7 7 2
2007 24 DNF1 1 13 1 5
2009 26 — 9 3 11 1
2011 28 — 4 DNF 5 1
2013 30 — 4 3 1 DNF2
2015 32 — — 6 6 —
2017 34 did not compete
2019 36 — — 16 2 —

Olympic results

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom 		 Super-G Downhill Combined
2006 23 DNF2 6 5 21 DNF SL1
2010 27 — 3 1 2 DNF2
2014 31 — — 7 4 8
2018 35 — — 5 1 DNS2

References

  1. ^ "Svindal spectacular in winning World DH title". Ski Racing.com. 9 February 2013.
  2. ^ "Aksel Lund Svindal verkündet Karriereende" (in German). Laola1. 26 January 2019. Retrieved 27 January 2019.
  3. ^ "COMPETITORS HAVING MORE THAN ONE PODIUM". fis-ski.com. Archived from the original on 4 February 2018. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
  4. ^ www.gazzetta.it Archived 4 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine – 14 March 2009
  5. ^ Ski Racing.com Archived 10 March 2016 at the Wayback Machine – Svindal defends super combi gold at Worlds – 14 February 2011
  6. ^ a b McMillan, Kelley (3 February 2015). "Aksel Lund Svindal set to compete at Alpine Championships". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 November 2015.
  7. ^ "Aksel Lund Svindal out for season after World Cup crash". Archived from the original on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 12 January 2016. – Aksel Lund Svindal out for season after World Cup crash – 24 January 2016
  8. ^ "Aksel Lund Svindal beaten by teammate Kjetil Jansrud in his final race". ESPN.com. 14 February 2019. Retrieved 16 February 2019.
  9. ^ "The Evolution of a Freeskier - Aksel Lund Svindal". YouTube. 23 December 2019. Archived from the original on 22 December 2021. Retrieved 18 January 2020.

Media related to Aksel Lund Svindal at Wikimedia Commons

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