Ole Einar Bjørndalen biography
Ole Einar Bjørndalen, (born January 27, 1974, Drammen, Norway), Norwegian biathlete whose 13 Olympic Games medals are essentially the most for any male Winter Olympian and who's broadly thought-about the best biathlete of all time.
Bjørndalen, the youngest of 5 youngsters, grew up on a farm in Simostranda, Norway, the place he turned a talented cross-country skier. He adopted his older brother Dag into competitors within the biathlon, a demanding sport that mixes high-speed cross-country snowboarding with rifle marksmanship. At age 16 Bjørndalen left dwelling and entered a sports activities academy in Geilo to coach in each cross-country and biathlon, although after a 12 months he determined to focus on the latter. He was a member of Norway’s Olympic crew for the 1994 Winter Games in Lillehammer, Norway. Unlike different Norwegian ski groups, nevertheless, the biathletes struggled, failing to win any medals. Bjørndalen’s finest particular person end was twenty eighth within the 10-km “sprint.”
With his snowboarding stable and swift, Bjørndalen labored to develop into a stronger shooter. He moved to fourth within the general World Cup standings for 1995, dipped to ninth in 1996, however rose to second place in 1997. At the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, Bjørndalen received the gold medal within the dash and shared the silver medal together with his brother and two different teammates within the 4 × 7.5-km relay. He wrapped up the season by capturing the World Cup general title. He completed second general within the World Cup three extra occasions between 1998 and 2001 and third within the 2001–02 season.
When the World Cup tour staged its pre-Olympic “test” occasions in 2001, Bjørndalen swept all three races. Coming into the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, Bjørndalen was understated as traditional, however he declared that his dream was to be the primary particular person to medal in each biathlon and cross-country snowboarding occasions. In two World Cup 30-km, mass-start cross-country races earlier within the season, he had completed a really shut second to World Cup chief Per Elofsson of Sweden; nevertheless, Bjørndalen was a disappointing sixth within the Olympic 30-km race. After an off day, he steamrollered to gold in all three biathlon particular person races and, with the assistance of three teammates, acquired his last gold medal within the 4 × 7.5-km relay, thus changing into solely the third competitor to win 4 gold medals on the identical Winter Games. He was additionally the primary biathlete to win greater than two gold medals in a single Games.
At the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, Bjørndalen competed in 5 biathlon occasions and medaled in three, taking dwelling two silver medals and a bronze. In February 2009, when he captured his 87th World Cup win, he surpassed Swedish alpine skier Ingemar Stenmark because the winningest skier in World Cup historical past. In addition to the silver medal within the 20-km particular person occasion he captured on the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Bjørndalen helped the Norwegian crew win gold within the 4 × 7.5-km relay, bringing his profession tally of Olympic medals to 11, a document for biathletes.
He added to that document on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, the place he received gold medals within the 10-km dash and as a member of the Norwegian crew within the new combined relay occasion. Bjørndalen’s wins moved him previous countryman Bjørn Daehlie to develop into the most-decorated Winter Olympian ever. However, regardless of Bjørndalen’s successful seven world championships medals within the years between Olympiads, he was left off of Norway’s biathlon crew for the 2018 Winter Olympics in P’yŏngch’ang, South Korea. At these Games, his countrywoman Marit Bjørgen surpassed Bjørndalen’s Olympic medal complete by successful her 14th and fifteenth profession medals.