Ole Einar Bjørndalen
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| Ole Einar Bjørndalen | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ole Einar Bjørndalen | |
| Date of birth | January 27, 1974 (age 33) | |
| Place of birth | Drammen, Norway | |
| Height | 179 cm | |
| Professional information | ||
| Club | Simostranda IL | |
| Skis | Madshus | |
| World Cup | ||
| Seasons | 1992- (Biathlon) | |
| Wins | 75 (Biathlon) 1 (Cross country) |
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| Additional podiums | 50 (Biathlon) 2 (Cross country) |
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| Total podiums | 125 (Biathlon) 3 (Cross country) |
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Olympic Games | |||
| Men's biathlon | |||
| Gold | 1998 Nagano | 10 km sprint | |
| Silver | 1998 Nagano | 4 x 7.5 km relay | |
| Gold | 2002 Salt Lake City | 10 km sprint | |
| Gold | 2002 Salt Lake City | 12.5 km pursuit | |
| Gold | 2002 Salt Lake City | 20 km individual | |
| Gold | 2002 Salt Lake City | 4 x 7.5 km relay | |
| Silver | 2006 Turin | 20 km individual | |
| Silver | 2006 Turin | 12.5 km pursuit | |
| Bronze | 2006 Turin | 15 km mass start | |
Ole Einar Bjørndalen (born January 27, 1974; height: 5'10" (179 cm); weight: 10 st 3 lb (143 lb) (64 kg) from Simostranda in Modum, (southeastern Norway) is a career biathlete. Bjørndalen has won five Olympic Gold medals (more than anyone in biathlon), and nine World Championship gold medals. In addition, he has a record 72 individual Biathlon World Cup victories, and became the first biathlete ever to win a FIS Cross Country World Cup race, in Gällivare, Sweden in 2006. He is also the only biathlete who has won every single event during the same Winter Olympic Games, in Salt Lake City 2002, and just the third Olympian to win four gold medals during the same Winter Games.
He lives in the village of Toblach in Italian South Tyrol with his wife, Italian-Belgian biathlete Nathalie Santer, whom he married on May 27, 2006.
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[edit] 2006/07 World Cup season
Bjørndalen made a perfect start to the season, winning all of the first five races in Östersund and Hochfilzen. In the fifth race of the season, the pursuit race in Hochfilzen, he won with one of his largest margins ever, more than 2 minutes. On 30 December 2006 Ole Einar took part in the famous Biathlon World Team Challenge in Gelsenkirchen (Veltins Arena, the Schalke 04's stadium). In front of about 51 000 people he won it for 4th time in a row. His partner for second consecutive time was Linda Grubben. They both left their greatest rivals, the Robert family, more than 1 minute behind! In Oberhof, coming down from training in the heights, he performed below standard for the season, shooting bad, and finishing only 30th and 5th in the individual cometitions. In Ruhpolding Ole started good as usual by leading his team-mates to victory in the relay event. In the 2 following individual competitions he cormfirmed he was back on track winning the 2 individual competitions. Since he participated in the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships Sapporo 2007 he missed several Biathlon World Cup events, and after missing 8 competitions altogether Bjørndalen finished second in the overall standings, after German Michael Greis
[edit] 2005/06 World Cup season
Bjørndalen finished the 2005/06 IBU Biathlon World Cup season in first place, with Frenchman Raphaël Poirée in second place and German Sven Fischer in third. Bjørndalen lay in third place in the standings going into the last three races of the season in Holmenkollen, with Poiree in first, and Fischer in second. However Bjørndalen won all three races, giving him six victories in the last eight races, and clinching the crystal globe. He also won the pursuit, and the mass start title, and came second in the individual and the sprint. In the pursuit he finished ahead of Fischer by 54 points, and 29 points ahead of Poiree in the mass start. In the individual he finished 41 points behind Michael Greis, and in the sprint he was 5 points behind Tomasz Sikora. Norway finished fourth in the team relay.
His winning the World Cup title was all the more spectacular because of a cold he developed over the last Christmas period, in which he missed races 5 to 11, only coming back for the three events in Antholz, Italy, starting on January 19, 2006, this being the last World Cup competition before the 2006 Winter Olympics. During his illness Bjørndalen spent eight days in bed, and only started training six days before the first race in Antholz, including in his preparations two high intensity skiing sessions but no shooting practice. Probably that is one of the major reasons for his not-as-expected performance at the Winter Olympics in Turin. His not so fast skiing and unsecure shooting along with extremely bad luck left him without any gold medal and "only" with 2 silver and 1 bronze medals. It's a pity that his best and superhuman performance came at the relay event, where at the 3rd exchange he found Norway on 10th place about 2:40 minutes behind. By incredibly fast skiing, extremely fast and non-failure shooting Bjørndalen managed to reach the 5th place, having decreased 1:20 minutes! His absence from the races during the season and him still being able to win the championship further fuels the discussion of whether there are too many races in the World Cup schedule and whether athletes should be advised to sit some out.
Bjørndalen closed out the season by winning all three events (sprint, pursuit, and mass start) at the Holmenkollen ski festival biathlon competition. This put his career victories at the ski events to five, having won once both in 2003 (pursuit) and in 2004 (sprint).
[edit] Achievements
As of February 2007, Bjørndalen has won five Olympic gold medals, three Olympic silver, one Olympic bronze, nine World Championship gold medals, seven silver, and eight bronze, and a record high of 72 individual Biathlon World Cup wins , the most of any biathlete to date. He has won the World Cup four times (1997/1998, 2002/2003, 2004/2005, and 2005/2006, finished second four times 1998/1999, 1999/2000, 2000/2001, 2003/2004, and third once 2001/2002. In his first season (1992/1993) he finished 62nd, the season after, 30th and the season after that, 4th. When winning the overall world cup in 1998, at the age of 24, he actually won all that is possible in biathlon in one season - world championships gold medal, olympic gold medal and the overall world cup title. His World Cup podium record is 120 (more than 120 including the victory and the podiums in cross-country) podium finishes, 73 1st places, 32 2nd places, and 19 3rd places. He is the only biathlete ever to win all four biathlon events in a single Winter Olympics (2002 Salt Lake City Games). This encompasses the sprint, pursuit, individual, and relay events, the latter together with three other participants (The first mass start only began in the 2006 Winter Olympics). He has said his target is to win nine Olympic gold medals before he, if he choses to follow the current plan, retires after the 2010 Games in Vancouver. According to his wife, Nathalie Santer, and himself, as long as he is healthy and has the energy and motivation, he could even race until 2014! Bjørndalen's 73 World Cup victories (including the one in Cross Country) is nine ahead of Annemarie Moser-Pröll and he is now chasing Ingemar Stenmark's record of 86 World Cup victories.
Bjørndalen occasionally competes in cross country races, and has raced in World Championships before. During the off season in April, the Norwegian Skarverennet takes place, a 38km race in the mountains between Finse and Ustaoset. Bjørndalen has competed in this competition, in 2005 he came 12th, and in 2006 he won the race in a time of 1:31.25, one second ahead of Frode Andresen, and seven seconds ahead of third place Kristen Skjeldal. For his accomplishments in biathlon and cross-country skiing, Bjørndalen received the Egebergs Ærespris in 2002. In 1993, at the age of 19, Bjørndalen has become the first biathlete ever to win a grand slam by winning all 3 possible gold medals on the Juniour Biathlon World Championships.
[edit] Skiing
Bjørndalen is one of the fastest skiiers in the world, and the only biathlete, alongside Lars Berger, to win a FIS cross-country world cup race. His teammates Frode Andresen and Lars Berger are probably closest to him, but in almost all races Bjørndalen has the best skiing time. Bjørndalen excels on hills (and is very quick on the flat), and he's also very good at downhill, because of his great balance skills. His ease on hills lies in his slight frame. Skiiers such as Bjørndalen and Raphael Poiree who are smaller built tend to 'float', or glide over hills which gives them an advantage over more powerful skiiers such as Sven Fischer (and German skiers in general), who struggle and are more comfortable on fairly flat courses, such as Östersund, and Ruhpolding.
Bjørndalen's general tactic is to skate as hard and as fast as possible from the start of the race, and build up a large lead, so that he is able to afford a miss in the shooting (a penalty lap takes roughly 23 seconds). Although Bjørndalen has shown at the beginning of the 2006/07 season that he is taking the first lap slower in order to judge the pace of the race, and then steadily increase his pace.
[edit] Shooting
Bjørndalen is a solid shooter, but is generally outside the top twenty marksmen. Bjørndalen finished the 2005/06 season with a shooting percentage of 84%, hitting 292 out of 345 possible targets, that placed him in 36th position for shooting accuracy. His shooting record for both prone and standing were practically identical, 146/172 in the prone and 146/173 in the standing position. In the individual disciplines, he shot 92% in the individual, 77% in the sprint, 83% in the pursuit, 88% in the mass start and 85% in the relay. In the 2004/05 season Bjørndalen was the 16th best shot with an 85% success rate, the second best Norwegian behind Egil Gjelland. He hit 311 targets out of a possible 364. His prone like most biathletes was much better than his standing shoot, he hit 161/180 (89%) in the prone and 150/184 (81%) in the standing. He had an average of 88% in the individual, sprint and relay, a 91% hit rate in the mass start but only 79% in the pursuit. During his career in 1999/00 he averaged 82%, in 2000/01 78%, 2001/02 74%, 2002/03 86% and in 2003/04 he hit 80% of the targets, however in those five years his standing shoot was the same or better than his prone shoot. In comparison his greatest rival Raphael Poiree averaged 87% in 2004/05 and 86% in 2005/06. Nikolay Kruglov was the best shot in 2004/05 with a 91% success rate, with Ricco Gross in second with 89%, and in 2005 Julien Robert was best with a 93% average and Gross again second with 91%.
That said Bjørndalen has won more races than any other biathlete in history meaning he has can both shoot and skate. Undeniably Bjørndalen is a more gifted skater than a shooter, and is the fastest skater out on the tracks.
Bjørndalen does have a shooting pattern. During the 2003/04 and 2004/05 season Bjørndalen took to firing an ampty round for his first shot, so that he could get into a comfortable rhythmn without missing the first target, though he appeared to have stopped doing this since in the 2005/06 season. Like most biathletes, Bjørndalen reaches for the barrel and swings it around to prepare to shoot, though this is not really possible when competing in biathlon in the summer as the rifles are different and less sturdy and pulling on the barrel might misalign the sights. Bjørndalen also shoots like most biathles from right to left because the rifle becomes more stable after every shot when the athletes are running out of breath (which they hold when shooting). However Bjørndalen has a tendency to shoot the first three targets from right to left, but then shoot the leftmost target and then the remaining target, second from the left.
Bjørndalen also started a trend of having a picture of an eye on the blinder. His has an eagles eye, which he has used for a few seasons now, although since the end of the 2005/06 season he seems to have opted for a plain black blinder. Other biathletes who sport an eye include Halvard Hanevold, Michael Roesch, Carl Johan Bergman, Andriy Deryzemlya and Ricco Gross. Towards the end of the 2005/06 season Christoph Sumann had a picture of his young son on his.
[edit] Equipment
Bjørndalen uses Madshus skis, boots, and poles. He uses Rottefella NNN bindings. His gloves and base layer are from Odlo, and he uses Casco glasses.
During the off-season in 2006 Bjørndalen was testing a new ski boot that had a high heel in the Torsby ski tunnel with boot maunfacturers Madshus. The theory is that it forces the knee more forward for better position and it incorporates the large gluteal muscles. [1]
[edit] Honours
[edit] Olympics
- 5 gold medals
- 3 silver medals
- 1 bronze medals
[edit] Biathlon World Championships
- 9 gold medals
- 5 silver medals
- 8 bronze medals
[edit] Biathlon World Cup
- 4 wins
- 5 runner-ups
- 1 thirds place
- 72 single wins
[edit] Cross-country skiing World Cup
- 1 single win
[edit] Trivia
- He hired a shooting coach (Joar Himle) at the beginning of the 2004/05 season, and is one of the few biathletes who can afford to do so.
- He also has a motivational coach in Øyvind Hammer, who's been with Bjørndalen since 1997.
- One of Hammer's techniques for helping Bjørndalen to concentrate is firewalking, "Walking on burning wood forces him to concentrate and to eliminate all other thoughts at that exact moment, and this is exactly the same thing he does when he is shooting." Hammer has also said that over the last year they have tried to think less about results, and focus more on performance. [2]
- Bjørndalen is also a businessman on his spare time, and over the last year has teamed up with two others to produce a new Omega 3 product. It was released just before the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, and is called Optimega, available over the internet, and sports Bjørndalen's face and signature.
- Bjørndalen speaks English, German and Italian as well as Norwegian.
- An amusing note is that the name Bjørndalen means bear valley in Norwegian, Bjørn being bear and dal meaning valley. It is also a place in Nord-Trøndelag.
- Ole can walk on a rope. He can even take his pants off (without using his hands) while being on the rope. He can also stand with his gun in standing position on said rope.
- Ole has always used to say that his idols and biggest inspiration in his sports-career are the living legends of sport Bjørn Dæhlie and Michael Schumacher. Bjørndalen even met Schumi once, in 2001 in Maranello.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Fan page (German)
- Short O. E. Bjørndalen biography at Wintersport.com – Partly outdated
- the IBU's profile of Bjørndalen
- Holmenkollen biathlon information
1960: Klas Lestander * 1964: Vladimir Melanin * 1968: Magnar Solberg * 1972: Magnar Solberg * 1976: Nikolay K. Kruglov * 1980: Anatoly Alyabyev * 1984: Peter Angerer * 1988: Frank-Peter Roetsch * 1992: Yevgeniy Redkin * 1994: Sergey Tarasov * 1998: Halvard Hanevold * 2002: Ole Einar Bjørndalen * 2006: Michael Greis
| Preceded by Anders Aukland |
Egebergs Ærespris 2002 |
Succeeded by Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen |
Categories: Wikipedia articles needing style editing | Articles which may be biased | 1974 births | Biathletes at the 2006 Winter Olympics | Biathletes at the 1994 Winter Olympics | Biathletes at the 1998 Winter Olympics | Biathletes at the 2002 Winter Olympics | Holmenkollen winners | Living people | Sportspeople of multiple sports | Norwegian cross-country skiers | Norwegian biathletes | Olympic competitors for Norway | Olympic gold medalists for Norway | Olympic silver medalists for Norway | Olympic bronze medalists for Norway | Winter Olympics medalists
