Bjørn Dæhlie
Encyclopedia : B : BJ : BJR : Bjørn Dæhlie
Bjørn Dæhlie (born June 19, 1967) is a Norwegian former cross-country skier. He has won 8 Olympic titles, and 9 World Championships.
Dæhlie, born in Elverum, was the dominant cross-country skier of the 1990s. His 8 Olympic titles are a record for an athlete at the Winter Olympics, as is his total of 12 Olympic medals (he also won 4 silver medals) which he amassed in three Olympics (Albertville, Lillehammer, and Nagano). In addition to his Olympic record, he had great success at the world championships (17 medals; 9 gold), especially in 1997 when he won medals in all five of the events. If it had not been for a career-ending crash that happened while roller skiing, then Dæhlie would have had the opportunity to add to his collection of medals; despite the unanticipatedly early exit from the sport, he is generally considered the greatest Nordic skier of all time.
Dæhlie attributes much of his later success in sport to his upbringing. Hunting, fishing, hiking, kayaking, soccer, and, of course, skiing were all part of his life from a very young age. For much of his childhood Dæhlie wanted to be a soccer player, but after prompting by a coach tried Nordic skiing. Although Dæhlie did not have immediate success as a junior racer, he improved every year, and after years of training qualified for FIS World Cup competition.
In addition to being an athletic figurehead, Dæhlie is a cultural icon in Norway. A shrewd businessman, Dæhlie has been heavily featured in advertising campaigns, started a brand of signature ski apparel, and even co-hosted a television show called Gutta på tur.
He was the person who came up with the idea for the Salomon Nordic System Pilot Bindings.
Despite the fact he never won an event at the Holmenkollen ski festival, Daehlie was awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1997 (Shared with Bjarte Engen Vik and Stefania Belmondo.)
External links
| Cross Country |
|---|
| 1992: Vegard Ulvang | 1994: Bjørn Dæhlie | 1998: Bjørn Dæhlie |
| Olympic Champions in Men's Cross Country Combined/Double Pursuit |
|---|
| 1992: Bjørn Dæhlie | 1994: Bjørn Dæhlie | 1998: Thomas Alsgaard | 2002: Thomas Alsgaard & Frode Estil | 2006: Yevgeny Dementiev |
| Olympic Champions in Men's 50 km Cross Country |
|---|
| 1924: Thorleif Haug | 1928: Per Erik Hedlund | 1932: Veli Saarinen | 1936: Elis Wiklund | 1948: Nils Karlsson | 1952: Veikko Hakulinen | 1956: Sixten Jernberg | 1960: Kalevi Hämäläinen | 1964: Sixten Jernberg | 1968: Ole Ellefsæter | 1972: Pål Tyldum | 1976: Ivar Formo | 1980: Nikolay Zimyatov | 1984: Thomas Wassberg | 1988: Gunde Svan | 1992: Bjørn Dæhlie | 1994: Vladimir Smirnov | 1998: Bjørn Dæhlie | 2002: Mikhail Ivanov | 2006: Giorgio Di Centa |
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.