Bjørn Erlend Dæhlie (born 19 June 1967) is a Norwegian businessman and retired cross-country skier. From 1992 to 1999, Dæhlie won the Nordic World Cup six times, finishing second in 1994 and 1998.[1] Dæhlie won a total of 29 medals in the Olympics and World Championships between 1991 and 1999, making him the most successful male cross-country skier in history.
During his career, Dæhlie measured a VO2 max of 96 ml/kg/min.[2] Dæhlie's result was achieved out of season, and physiologist Erlend Hem who was responsible for the testing stated that he would not discount the possibility of the skier passing 100 ml/kg/min at his absolute peak.[citation needed]
Since retiring, Dæhlie has become a successful businessman in real estate and fashion. His real estate investments have produced a fortune of more than half a billion kroner.[3]
Early life and career
Born in Elverum, Norway, Dæhlie later moved to Nannestad, where he settled down. Dæhlie attributes much of his success in sports to his upbringing where he was active in hunting, fishing, hiking, kayaking, football and, of course, skiing from a very early age. For much of his childhood Dæhlie wanted to be a football player, but after being prompted by a coach, he tried Nordic skiing. Dæhlie did not have immediate success as a junior racer, but he consistently improved and eventually qualified for the FIS World Cup competitions.
In 2018 he claimed that his family comes from Alvdal; the claim was made while answering the public during a meeting prior to getting municipal recommendation in regard to building what media calls "his Coop store" - a store in the chain Coop.[4]
Athletic career
Dæhlie was first on the Norwegian skiing team for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada. However, he did not participate in any races and was there to learn from more senior skiers. He later claimed these Olympics were the turning point for Norwegian skiing before their following period of success.[5] He made his debut in the World Cup in January 1989, finishing 11th on the 15km freestyle in Kavgolovo. In December of the same year, he won his first World Cup race. He finished first on the 15km freestyle, the first World Cup race of the season.[6]
In the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1991 in Val di Fiemme, Dæhlie won his first World Championship gold medal. He beat skiing legend Gunde Svan on the 15km freestyle. The medal was unexpected, since Dæhlie was young and still largely unknown.[7] It was Norway's first individual male gold medal in the World Championships since Oddvar Brå won gold in the same race in Oslo in 1982. Dæhlie also skied the last leg on the winning 4 × 10km relay team.
In 1992, Dæhlie's period of dominance started. He won the World Cup overall for the first time, a feat he would accomplish five more times in the next seven years. In Albertville, Dæhlie won his first Olympic medals. He won gold in 10/15km freestyle pursuit, 50km freestyle and was on the winning team for the 4 × 10km relay. He won a silver in 30km classical style. Dæhlie also finished fourth on the 10km freestyle, where his teammate Vegard Ulvang won the gold. Dæhlie completed the fourth leg of the relay, and crossed the finishing line backwards, having won by a margin of over one and a half minutes.[8] Dæhlie and Ulvang completed a clean sweep of the cross-country skiing gold medals, each winning three golds and a silver. Dæhlie was awarded Fearnley's Olympic Prize for his performance, a prize given to the best performing Norwegian athlete in the Olympics.[9]
In the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, Dæhlie won gold in the 10km classical style and the 15km freestyle pursuit. He won silver in the 30km freestyle, where he was beaten by his compatriot Thomas Alsgaard. The 4 × 10km relay was a very tight race between Norway and Italy. The Italians won the gold after Silvio Fauner beat Dæhlie on the sprint on the last leg.[10] In later years, Thomas Alsgaard took over the fourth leg on the Norwegian relay team with Dæhlie skiing the third leg, since Alsgaard was the better sprinter.
The 1997 Skiing World Championships were Dæhlie's most successful World Championships. In front of the home crowd in Trondheim, he won a medal in every race, taking gold in the 10km classical race, the 10+15km combined pursuit and the 4 × 10km relay. In addition he won a silver in the 30km freestyle and bronze in the 50km classical. Dæhlie said the championships were like "Lillehammer all over again" and that "For me, it's very special to compete in Norway".[11]
Dæhlie won three golds and one silver in his last Olympics in Nagano. He won the 10km classical style, the 50km freestyle and the 4 × 10km skiing relay. In the 15km freestyle pursuit, he got a silver medal having been beaten by Thomas Alsgaard on the sprint. Dæhlie won the 50km freestyle ahead of Niklas Jonsson by only eight seconds. Both skiers collapsed on the finishing line, having given everything in pursuit of victory.[12] Dæhlie described the race as his hardest ever.[13] Dæhlie also formed a lasting friendship with Phillip Boit, the Kenyan skier. Dæhlie waited for Boit on the finish line for 20 minutes following the 10km race, saying Boit deserved encouragement.[14] Philip went on to name one of his children Dæhlie Boit.
Dæhlie was planning to compete in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, but he was prevented from participating by a career-ending roller skiing accident in August 1999. The resulting back injury prevented Dæhlie from adding more medals to his collection. He retired from the sport in March 2001, having tried extensive rehabilitation and surgery to come back.[15] His decision to retire shocked the nation of Norway, where Dæhlie was idolized for his great winning record.[16]
Dæhlie's eight Olympic titles are a record for the Winter Olympics, as are his total of 12 Olympic medals (he also won four silver medals) which he amassed in three Olympics (Albertville, Lillehammer and Nagano). In addition to his achievements at the Olympics he had great success in the World Championships where he won 17 medals of which nine were gold medals. He was particularly successful in the Trondheim1997 World Championships, where he earned medals in all five events. Despite his unanticipated early exit from the sport, Dæhlie is considered by many to be one of the greatest Winter Olympic athletes of all time.[17] In his illustrious career, Dæhlie never won a race at the Holmenkollen ski festival, but he was still awarded the Holmenkollen medal in 1997 (shared with Bjarte Engen Vik and Stefania Belmondo).
In 2011, Dæhlie won the downhill event in the Kicksled World Championships in Hurdal.[19] Also in 2011, Dæhlie announced a comeback, stating his intention to participate in long-distance races like Marcialonga and Vasaloppet[20]
Dæhlie also participated in long-distance running in his youth, representing Ullensaker/Kisa IL. He participated in the Nordic junior match versus Denmark/Iceland, Finland and Sweden in 1987.[21]
Ole Einar Bjørndalen is a retired Norwegian professional biathlete and coach, often referred to by the nickname, the "King of Biathlon". With 13 Winter Olympic Games medals, he is second on the list of multiple medalists behind Marit Bjørgen who has won 15 medals. He is also the most successful biathlete of all time at the Biathlon World Championships, having won 45 medals. With 95 World Cup wins, Bjørndalen is ranked first all-time for career victories on the Biathlon World Cup tour. He has won the Overall World Cup title six times, in 1997–98, in 2002–03, in 2004–05, in 2005–06, in 2007–08 and in 2008–09.
The 1994 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XVII Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Lillehammer '94, were an international winter multi-sport event held from 12 to 27 February 1994 in and around Lillehammer, Norway. Having lost the bid for the 1992 Winter Olympics to Albertville in France, Lillehammer was awarded the 1994 Winter Games on 15 September 1988, two days before the 1988 Summer Olympics opening ceremonies at the 94th IOC Session in Seoul, South Korea. Due to the calendar changes made in 1985, this was the only time that the Winter Olympics took place two years after the previous Winter Games, and the first to be held in a different year from the Summer Olympics. This was the second Olympic Games of any type hosted in Norway — the first being the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo — and the fourth Olympics overall to be held in a Nordic country, after the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm, Sweden, and the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland. Lillehammer is the northernmost city ever to host the Olympic Games.
Thomas Alsgaard is a Norwegian former professional cross-country skier. Alsgaard is regarded by many as the best performer of the freestyle technique (skating) in cross-country skiing and many of today's best skiers have studied his technique. In total, Alsgaard won 15 medals in the Winter Olympics and FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, making him one of the most successful skiers of all time.
Frode Estil is a retired Norwegian cross-country skier. He lives in Meråker with his wife Grete whom he married in the summer of 2001. They have two sons, Bernhard, born in August 2002, and Konrad. Estil was classical specialist and also a specialist at succeeding in World Championships and Olympics. While Estil only won four World Cup races, he won one individual Olympic Gold and one individual World Championship gold. In addition, he won three team events in the World Championships and another team gold in the Olympics.
Stefania Belmondo is an Italian former cross-country skier, a two-time Olympic champion and four-time world champion.
Philip Kimely Boit is a cross-country skier and the first Kenyan to participate in the Winter Olympics. His first name is sometimes spelled as "Phillip".
Vladimir Mikhaylovich Smirnov is a Kazakh former cross-country skier of Russian descent who raced from the 1982 until 1991 for the USSR and, later, for Kazakhstan. He is the first Olympic champion from independent Kazakhstan and the most decorated Olympian in history of Kazakhstan. He is also a vice president of the International Biathlon Union. Smirnov is a former member of International Olympic Committee.
Petter Northug Jr. is a Norwegian former cross-country skier and double Olympic champion. He won a total of 13 World Championship and two Winter Olympic gold medals with 20 medals overall, and 18 individual FIS Cross-Country World Cup wins with 13 podium places. He is also the record holder for most stage wins (13) in Tour de Ski. By winning his ninth gold medal in the Nordic World Ski Championships in 4 × 10 km relay in Val di Fiemme 2013, he leveled the achievement of Bjørn Dæhlie who had been the most successful World Champion male skier up to that point. He is considered by many as the greatest cross-country skier of all time.
Giorgio Vanzetta is an Italian former cross-country skier who competed from 1980 to 2002. His best known victory was part of the 4 × 10 km relay team that upset Norway at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer. He also won three medals at the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville with a silver in the 4 × 10 km relay and bronzes in the 10 km + 15 km combined pursuit and 50 km.
Niklas Jonsson is a Swedish cross-country skier who competed from 1990 to 2002. He won the silver medal in the 50 km at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. At that event, Jonsson started 30 seconds ahead of the gold medal favourite Bjørn Dæhlie. Soon Dæhlie caught up Jonsson, and they were skiing together for most of the distance. Shortly before the finish line, Jonsson escaped, but Dæhlie still finished 20 seconds behind, which was good enough for the gold medal. Jonsson finished second.
The FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 1993 took place 19–28 February 1993 in Falun, Sweden, for the third time. This event saw the creation of the combined pursuit where competitors would skate one distance in the classical interval style one day, then follow the next day in the freestyle pursuit with the first distance winner going first in the pursuit. Additionally it was the first competition since the breakup of the Soviet Union in late 1991 and the first competition with Czechoslovakia having been split up as the Czech Republic and Slovakia, however, the two nations competed as combined teams in women's relay in cross-country skiing and team large hill in ski jumping.
Kenya competed in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. The country's participation at the Games marked its Winter Olympics debut, although it had competed in the Summer Olympics since 1956. The delegation consisted of a single cross-country skier, Philip Boit. He had been trained as part of a scheme created by American sportswear company Nike, Inc. Although Boit did not win a medal, his efforts received worldwide attention after gold medallist Bjørn Dæhlie of Norway waited for him at the finish line as Boit completed the race in difficult conditions in last place.
The men's 4 × 10 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, was held on 19 February at Pragelato.
The men's 4 × 10 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, was held on 24 February at Whistler Olympic Park at 11:15 PST.
Maiken Caspersen Falla is a Norwegian former cross-country skier who specialized in sprint and short-distance races. She is the 2014 Olympic champion in the individual sprint and three-time Olympic medalist. She became the individual sprint World champion at the 2017 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships and successfully defended her World title in 2019. Falla won a total of five gold, one silver and four bronze medals at the World Championships in her career and she is the most medalled skier in the individual sprint discipline in the Championship history with five medals. Winner of three consecutive Sprint World Cup crystal globes, Falla's highest finish in the overall World Cup standings was sixth-place which she achieved in 2014–15 and 2015–16 World Cup seasons.
The men's 4 × 10 km relay, a part of the cross-country skiing at the 1994 Winter Olympics, took place on 22 February at Birkebeineren Ski Stadium in Lillehammer, Norway. The race saw Italy beat Norway by 0.4 seconds on the finish line, with Finland finishing third. The three had followed each other closely through the first three rounds, but in the fourth heat, Silvio Fauner and Bjørn Dæhlie managed to break with Jari Isometsä. The event was the best attended of any in the games, with an estimated 100,000 spectators at the stadium and along the tracks. About 203,000 people applied for the 31,000 seats at the stadium, and some 75,000 ultimately watched from the track-side.
The men's 10 kilometre classical cross-country skiing competition at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was held on 12 February at Snow Harp in Nozawa Onsen.
The men's 15 kilometre freestyle pursuit cross-country skiing competition at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, was held on 19 February at Birkebeineren Ski Stadium in Lillehammer. The Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie was the 1993 World champion and the 1992 Olympic champion.
The men's 4 × 10 kilometre relay cross-country skiing competition at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, was held on 18 February at Snow Harp.
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