Winter Olympics Athlets Bios

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen

Sport Biathlon
Event(s) 10km Sprint, 12.5km Pursuit, 15km Mass Start, 20km Individual, 4x7.5km Relay
Birthdate: January 27, 1974
Birthplace: Drammen, Norway
Residence: Obertilliach, Norway
Olympics 1994, 1998, 2002, 2006

Bjoerndalen, who has four siblings, grew up on a farm in the small Norwegian town of Simostranda. Soccer and biathlon were the big sports. He began training for cross-country and biathlon at age 10, alongside his older brother.

Ole Einar Bjoerndalen accounts for four of Norway's nine Olympic gold medals in the biathlon.
Four years after winning the sprint event in Nagano, Ole Einar Bjoerndalen put on a display of dominance at the 2002 Salt Lake Games unlike anything ever seen on Winter Olympic snow. In a span of nine days, he captured all four biathlon gold medals available, winning the 20km individual, 10km sprint and 12.5km pursuit -- each by commanding margins -- and anchoring the triumphant Norwegian 4x7.5km relay team.

At the 2005 World Championships, where the biathlon program featured five events Bjoerndalen amassed four golds; his only setback came in the individual (6th). Bjoerndalen is one of only three athletes to win four gold medals at a single Winter Olympics. Eric Heiden swept the five speed skating events at the 1980 Lake Placid Games. Another speed skater, Soviet Lydia Skoblikova, earned four golds in 1964.

Bjoerndalen could set multiple major records in Torino. With a sweep of the now five Olympic biathlon events, he would have become the first Olympian in either season to own 10 gold medals. With four, he would surpass cross-country skier and fellow Norwegian Bjorn Daehlie's all-time best eight career golds at the Winter Games.

Foremost, among Bjoerndalen's assets is his skiing ability. In Salt Lake, before the biathlon competition began, he finished sixth in a cross-country skiing event (thewinner was later DQed for doping, moving Bjoerndalen to fifth). Ole Einar Bjoerndalen won his three individual gold medals in Salt Lake by wide margins of 28.9, 36.1 and 43.0 seconds.

Bjoerndalen, who abstains from alcohol, has been dating Nathalie Santer, a biathlete from Italy, for about eight years. They have lived in and trained near the Italian border in Obertilliach, Austria, which is at a similar altitude (about 4900 ft.) to the 2006 Olympic biathlon venue in Cesana San Sicario, Italy. The Torino Games will mark Bjoerndalen's fourth and Santer's fifth.