Tora Berger

Tora Berger
Full name Tora Berger
Born (1981-03-18) 18 March 1981
Ringerike, Norway
Height 1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)
World Cup career
Seasons 2001–2014
Individual wins 28
Indiv. podiums 63
Overall titles 1 (2012–13)
Updated on 20 March 2014.

Tora Berger (born 18 March 1981) is a retired Norwegian biathlete and Olympic champion.[1]

Personal background

Tora Berger was born in Ringerike but grew up in the mountainous municipality of Lesja, in Oppland county, and lives in Meråker, Nord-Trøndelag. Her sports club is Dombås IL of Dombås, Oppland. She is the younger sister of biathlete and cross-country skier Lars Berger.

Berger married in 2010, having met her husband at high school.[2] They have two dogs Tussi (Eeyore in English) and Tarzan – Tarzan often joins her on training runs.[3] Whilst away from home during the biathlon season she enjoys knitting[4] and reading (especially books about crime[2]). Outside biathlon she enjoys hunting and fishing.[4] She had consistently said that she will continue with her biathlon career until the 2013/14 season and the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but then intended to retire.

Her career finished with a 17th gold medal at the Norwegian National Biathlon Championships on 30 March 2014.

Since retiring, Tora has been coaching the Norwegian junior girls team, alongside Roger Grubben. Tora and her husband Trond Teveldal had a baby boy in April 2015.

Career

She has been a member of the Norwegian women's biathlon team since 1999. She has 28 individual victories in the World Cup. [1]

Tora Berger

At the 2008 World Championship, she received three 4th places, before earning the silver medal in the mass start.

On February 18, 2010, she became the first Norwegian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in biathlon by winning the women's 15 km individual at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. By doing this, she won Norway's 100th Olympic gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games, as well as winning the 10th Norwegian biathlon gold medal. This historic medal makes Norway the first ever nation to win 100 gold medals at the Winter Olympic Games.

At the Biathlon World Championships 2013 in Nove Mesto, she won gold in the mixed relay, silver in the sprint and gold in the pursuit before becoming the first woman to defend her 15k individual title. She followed this up with a stunning final-leg performance in the relay, making up a deficit of nearly 40 seconds on the leaders to take another gold medal, before taking silver in the mass start. As the holder of 18 world championship medals she is second in the table of total medals, one medal behind Uschi Disl. At the same championships, she also became the first biathlete (male or female) to win 6 medals at a single biathlon world championships, with four golds and two silvers.

Berger competed in Biathlon at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi where she won 3 medals. Gold in the Mixed relay together with Tiril Eckhoff, Ole Einar Bjørndalen and Emil Hegle Svendsen, a silver in the Women's Pursuit, and a bronze in the Women's relay,

World Cup

Although Tora Berger had been part of the Norwegian women's biathlon team since 1999, up until the end of the 2011/12 season she had never been the world cup winner either overall or in any of the individual disciplines. Her highest finish was third in the overall standings in the 2008/09 and 2011/12 seasons, second in the Pursuit discipline in the 2008/09 season, and second in the Mass Start discipline in the 2011/12 season.

Success came in the 2012/13 world cup season, with Tora taking 11 wins and missing the podium only seven times. Her 19 podium finishes equalled Magdalena Forsberg's record for the highest number of podium finishes in a single season. She won all three races at Oslo Holmenkollen to secure the crystal globes for both the Overall women's world cup and the Pursuit discipline. By the end of the season she had also won the crystal globe for the Individual, Sprint and Mass Start disciplines, completing a clean sweep of the five women's crystal globes (a feat last achieved by Magdalena Forsberg in the 2001/2 season). With Berger's contribution, Norway also won the 2012/13 season's Women's Nation Cup, Women's Relay Cup and Mixed Relay Cup.

Season Overall Sprint Pursuit Individual Mass Start
Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position Races Points Position
2002–03 11/23 1 68th 5/9 1 65th 4/7 2/3 0/4
2003–04 - - -
2004–05 26/27 389 17th 10/10 160 13th 8/9 102 21st 4/4 64 14th 4/4 47 21st
2005–06 20/26 253 22nd 9/10 104 22nd 6/8 75 26th 2/3 20 33rd 3/5 54 23rd
2006–07 25/27 450 14th 9/10 175 12th 8/8 124 16th 3/4 92 5th 5/5 53 24th
2007–08 24/26 664 6th 9/10 271 6th 8/8 238 4th 2/3 40 15th 5/5 102 12th
2008–09 23/26 894 3rd 9/10 352 3rd 7/7 246 2nd 3/4 122 3rd 4/5 146 6th
2009–10 20/25 564 12th 9/10 215 15th 4/6 101 24th 2/4 87 13th 5/5 139 9th
2010–11 24/26 963 4th 9/10 356 3rd 6/7 268 4th 4/4 133 4th 5/5 206 3rd
2011–12 26/26 1054 3rd 10/10 373 4th 8/8 361 3rd 3/3 108 5th 5/5 241 2nd
2012–13 26/26 1234 1st 10/10 428 1st 8/8 417 1st 3/3 168 1st 5/5 262 1st
2013–14 22/22 856 2nd 9/9 361 2nd 8/8 319 2nd 2/2 58 9th 3/3 121 4th
*Key:Races—number of entered races/all races; Points—World Cup points; Position—World Cup season ranking.

*Statistics as at 17 March 2013.

Record

Olympic Games

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
Italy 2006 Turin 13th 23rd 18th 25th 5th
Canada 2010 Vancouver Gold 33rd 5th 18th 4th
Russia 2014 Sochi 16th 10th Silver 14th Bronze Gold

World Championships

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Mass start Relay Mixed relay
Austria 2005 Hochfilzen 21st 11th 19th 13th 5th
Russia 2005 Khanty-Mansiysk 10th
Slovenia 2006 Pokljuka Silver
Italy 2007 Antholz-Anterselva 4th 10th 19th 25th Bronze Bronze
Sweden 2008 Östersund 4th 4th 4th Silver 6th
South Korea 2009 Pyeongchang Bronze 19th 9th 15th 11th 4th
Russia 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Silver
Russia 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 10th 7th 5th Bronze 5th Gold
Germany 2012 Ruhpolding Gold 6th 4th Gold Bronze Gold
Czech Republic 2013 Nové Město Gold Silver Gold Silver Gold Gold

Junior/Youth World Championships

Event Individual Sprint Pursuit Relay
Austria 2000 Hochfilzen 13th Bronze 9th 5th
Russia 2001 Khanty-Mansiysk 21st 24th 38th 5th

Individual victories

28 victories (7 Sp, 9 Pu, 5 In, 7 MS)

Season Date Location Discipline Level
2007/08
2 victories
(1 Sp, 1 Pu)
December 2, 2007 Finland Kontiolahti10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
January 5, 2008 Germany Oberhof7.5 km SprintBiathlon World Cup
2008/09
2 victories
(1 Sp, 1 MS)
January 22, 2009 Italy Antholz7.5 km SprintBiathlon World Cup
March 22, 2009 Norway Trondheim12.5 km Mass StartBiathlon World Cup
2009/10
2 victories
(1 Sp, 1 In)
December 5, 2009 Sweden Östersund7.5 km SprintBiathlon World Cup
February 18, 2010 Canada Vancouver15 km IndividualWinter Olympic Games
2010/11
6 victories
(2 Sp, 2 Pu, 1 In, 1 MS)
December 16, 2010 Slovenia Pokljuka15 km IndividualBiathlon World Cup
January 15, 2011 Germany Ruhpolding7.5 km SprintBiathlon World Cup
January 16, 2011 Germany Ruhpolding10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
January 21, 2011 Italy Antholz7.5 km SprintBiathlon World Cup
January 22, 2011 Italy Antholz12.5 km Mass StartBiathlon World Cup
February 6, 2011 United States Presque Isle, Maine10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
2011/12
4 victories
(2 Pu, 1 In, 1 MS)
December 4, 2011 Sweden Östersund10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
January 15, 2012 Czech Republic Nové Město10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
March 7, 2012 Germany Ruhpolding15 km IndividualBiathlon World Championships
March 11, 2012 Germany Ruhpolding12.5 km Mass StartBiathlon World Championships
2012/13
11 victories
(2 Sp, 4 Pu, 2 In, 3 MS)
November 29, 2012 Sweden Östersund15 km IndividualBiathlon World Cup
December 1, 2012 Sweden Östersund7.5 km SprintBiathlon World Cup
December 2, 2012 Sweden Östersund10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
December 16, 2012 Slovenia Pokljuka12.5 km Mass StartBiathlon World Cup
January 13, 2013 Germany Ruhpolding12.5 km Mass StartBiathlon World Cup
January 19, 2013 Italy Antholz10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
February 10, 2013 Czech Republic Nové Město10 km PursuitBiathlon World Championships
February 13, 2013 Czech Republic Nové Město15 km IndividualBiathlon World Championships
March 1, 2013 Norway Oslo7.5 km SprintBiathlon World Cup
March 2, 2013 Norway Oslo10 km PursuitBiathlon World Cup
March 3, 2013 Norway Oslo12.5 km Mass StartBiathlon World Cup
2013/14
1 victory
(1 MS)
January 5, 2014 Germany Oberhof12.5 km Mass StartBiathlon World Cup
*Results are from IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

Awards and nominations

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tora Berger.
Awards
Preceded by
Alexander Dale Oen
Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year
2012
Succeeded by
Magnus Carlsen
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