A Brief History
On February 22, 2014, the Headlines trumpeted the success story of Marit Bjørgen of Norway as she won the 30 km freestyle cross-country skiing event at the Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, giving her her 10th Olympic medal.
Digging Deeper
Born in 1980, this remarkable athlete has so far won 6 gold medals, 3 silver medals and 1 bronze medal in the Winter Olympics of 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014. Though she is tied with 2 other women for total number of Olympic medals, she has more Olympic gold medals than any other female athlete. In addition to her Olympic success, in roughly the same time period, Marit also snagged 12 gold, 4 silver and 3 bronze medals in world championship tournaments.
During the 2010 Winter Olympics, she was the most successful individual female athlete at those Games with her 3 gold, 1 silver and 1 bronze medals, giving her a total of 5 medals at one Olympics! Not surprisingly, she is the top-ranked woman cross country skier. Marit excels both at sprints and distances from 5 km to 30 km, making her an all-around threat rather than a specialist.
At 34 years old, Marit is still active and competing in cross country skiing and will almost certainly add to her legacy before she retires from competition. Her disappointing performance at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, was perhaps due to her battling a bad case of bronchitis at the time. Marit also suffers from asthma, for which she has been allowed to take an Olympic-approved medicine in the past, which generated complaints from her competitors. As of 2011, however, the medicine is no longer restricted except by volume of the dose, making the issue irrelevant.
Marit lives in Norway with Fred Lundberg who competed in the Nordic combined, a cross between cross-country skiing and ski jumping, and has 4 own Olympic medals to boast. If these 2 ever have children, other skiers better beware! And if her accomplishments on the ski course were not enough, this 5’ 6” young lady is beautiful and works out to keep her incredible body in body-builder-quality shape. What a remarkable athlete. Hats off to Marit Bjørgen!
Question for students (and subscribers): Who is your favorite female Winter Olympian? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Bøe, Anette. The Story of Marit Bjoergen (Norwegian Language). 2011.
<span class="dsq-postid" data-dsqidentifier="9645 https://www.historyandheadlines.com/?p=9645">1 Comment
It’s interesting how much less popular the Oylimpics seem, considering it’s a worldwide competition, than say the NFL. At least to me, because I have never heard of this woman, and apparently she is one of the best athletes in the world.