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Marit Bjørgen

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Marit Bjørgen
Full nameMarit Bjørgen
Born (1980-03-21) March 21, 1980 (age 44)
Trondheim, Norway
Height168 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Ski clubRognes IL
World Cup career
Seasons1999–
Podiums67
Wins44
Updated on February 19, 2011.
Marit Bjørgen
Medal record
Women's cross country skiing
Representing Norway Norway
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2010 Vancouver Individual sprint
Gold medal – first place 2010 Vancouver Individual pursuit
Gold medal – first place 2010 Vancouver 4 x 5 km relay
Silver medal – second place 2002 Salt Lake City 4 × 5 km
Silver medal – second place 2006 Turin 10 km classical
Silver medal – second place 2010 Vancouver 30 km classical
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Vancouver 10 km freestyle
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2003 Val di Fiemme Individual sprint
Gold medal – first place 2005 Oberstdorf Team sprint
Gold medal – first place 2005 Oberstdorf 30 km classical
Gold medal – first place 2005 Oberstdorf 4 x 5 km
Gold medal – first place 2011 Holmenkollen Individual sprint
Gold medal – first place 2011 Holmenkollen 7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit
Gold medal – first place 2011 Holmenkollen 10 km classical
Silver medal – second place 2003 Val di Fiemme 4 x 5 km
Silver medal – second place 2005 Oberstdorf 7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit
Bronze medal – third place 2005 Oberstdorf 10 km freestyle
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Sapporo Team sprint
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Sapporo 4 x 5 km

Marit Bjørgen (born March 21, 1980 in Trondheim) is a Norwegian cross country skier and triple olympic champion from Midtre Gauldal, Norway. Bjørgen is the most successful sprinter in Cross-Country World Cup history, with twenty-three victories. She is ranked second in the ladies all-time Cross-Country World Cup rankings, with forty-four individual victories. Only Yelena Välbe of the former Soviet Union has more victories. One of her most notable achievements was becoming the most successful athlete at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, by winning five medals, including three gold medals.

At the same time, Marit Bjørgen stirs up controversy in the XC skiing world as her latest successes are often attributed to the performance-enhancing asthma medication that she is allowed to use but that is normally banned. [1]

She is a member of the Rognes IL ski club and is 5'6" (168 cm) tall, weighs 141 lb (64 kg), and is coached by Svein Tore Samdal.

World Cup

Bjørgen initially excelled at the sprint events, and seven victories in that event was enough to give her second place overall in the 2003/04 World Cup season. However in the 2004/05 season, Bjørgen became an accomplished distance skier.

On March 19, 2006 in Sapporo, Japan Bjørgen claimed her second FIS World Cup title. Bjørgen led the overall World Cup by 66 points, ahead of Canada's Beckie Scott going into the final race of the season, the 2 x 7.5 km double pursuit. Scott needed to win the race and for Bjørgen to finish no higher than eighth to claim the title. Scott did win the race but Bjørgen came fourth, winning the crystal globe with 1036 points to Scott's 1020. Bjørgen also won the sprint title for the season, 6 points ahead of Norway's Ella Gjømle, making the 2005/06 season the fourth season in a row that Bjørgen has won the sprint title. Bjørgen finished the distance standings in fourth place, 108 points behind Russia's Julija Tchepalova.

Marit Bjørgen in Otepää during the 2005–06 FIS Cross-Country World Cup.

Bjørgen made the podium eight times during the 2005/06 season, six of them in first place, one second and one third place. Bjørgen now has 66 podium finishes, 42 of them in first place, 13 in second and 11 in third. 22 of her victories have been in the sprint, which is by far her most successful event. Seven of these victories were in the 2003/04 season and they have decreased in the past few seasons whilst her results in the other disciplines have improved. She has nine victories in the 10 km and seven in the pursuit. Her four other victories have been in longer races (30 km. and Vasaloppet).

Bjørgen has competed in the World Cup since 2000, when she finished the season in 53rd place overall and 48th in the sprints. The season after she finished the overall season in 32nd and the sprint in 36th. The season after however (2002/03) she won the sprint title and finished in 6th place overall. The 2003/04 season was Bjørgen's best season up until that time when she again won the sprint title, and came 11th in the distance standings, finishing the season in 2nd place behind Gabriella Paruzzi. In the 2004/05 season she won all the titles, and again won the overall and sprint title in 2005/06.

World championships

Bjørgen has seven World Championship gold medals, five of them individual. Her first gold medal in the World Championships came in the individual sprint in Val di Fiemme in 2003, where she also picked up a silver in the 4 x 5 km. Her three other gold medals came in Oberstdorf in 2005 in the 30 km classical, team sprint, and 4 x 5 km. She also won a silver in the 7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit and a bronze in the 10 km free in the same games. At the 2007 championships in Sapporo, Bjørgen won two bronze medals in team sprint (with Astrid Jacobsen) and in the 4 x 5 km.

Olympics

Marit Bjørgen celebrates sprint gold at the 2010 Olympics.

Bjørgen had a disappointing Winter Olympics in Turin. She suffered from bronchitis a week before the games started and was prescribed antibiotics, then in the first race of the games, the 7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit, Bjørgen withdrew during the classic phase complaining of an upset stomach. In the next event, the team sprint, Bjørgen and Hilde G. Pedersen came fourth, and despite winning a silver in the 10 km, the remainder of the games went poorly for her. The next event was the 4 x 5 km relay, where Bjørgen took the anchor leg and finished in fifth place, the first time since 1988 that Norway had failed to reach the podium in the women’s relay. In the individual sprint, Bjørgen failed to make the semi finals, and both Bjørgen and Pedersen decided not to compete in the 30 km and returned home to Norway. Afterwards she was quoted as saying she was "sick and tired of Pragelato and OL (Olympic games)".[2]

However Bjørgen recovered to win the 45 km Vasaloppet from Oxberg to Mora on the March 4, eight days after the end of the Winter Olympics. Bjørgen broke away with Hilde Pedersen and Vibeke Skofterud after only 10 km, but Skofterud could not keep up with the pace and fell back, and Bjørgen powered away from Pedersen with a few kilometres left, winning in a time of 2:17:53, 1:22 ahead of Pedersen and 3:23 ahead of Petra Majdič of Slovenia. Winning a purse of 88,000 SEK and also winning two of the three sprints during the race to add another 10,000 SEK. Then three days later on the March 7, Bjørgen finished second in the individual sprint event in Borlaenge, Sweden.

In the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Bjørgen finished third in the 10 km freestyle event, before winning her first Olympic gold medal in the sprint. In the sprint she was up against a very strong field which consisted of Petra Majdič of Slovenia, who had taken a serious fall earlier in the day during qualification and Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland who was leading the overall World Cup standings coming into the race. Bjørgen won her second gold in the 7.5 x 2 in the 2010 Olympics on the 19th of February 2010. Bjørgen was also part of the 4 x 5 km relay team that won gold in the 2010 Olympics on the 25th of February 2010, finishing with enough time to cross the line with a large Norwegian flag given to her by a spectator near the finish, and jumping over the finish line. She closed out her trip in Vancouver by losing out to gold to Poland's Justyna Kowalczyk by 0.3 seconds in the women's 30 km event.

Holmenkollen

Bjørgen won the women's 30 km event at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 2005. She won the same event five years later in 2010. This was the first World Cup event to be held at Holmenkollen since the completion of the new ski jumping hill. For her win in both the 30 km and the sprint event, along with her successes at the 2010 Games in Vancouver, Bjørgen was awarded the Holmenkollen medal.

References

  1. ^ http://www.vg.no/iphone/article.php?artid=580954
  2. ^ Another fourth for Norway - Aftenposten.no

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