 Simone Niggli-Luder in 2006. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Swiss | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 9 January 1978 Burgdorf | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Bern | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years active | 1988 - 2013 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Sport | Orienteering | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | OLV Hindelbank | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Simone Niggli-Luder (born 9 January 1978) is a Swiss orienteering athlete who has twice won (in 2003 and 2005) all four women's competitions at the world championships.[ citation needed ] She is widely seen as one of the greatest orienteers of all time.
Born as Simone Luder, she grew up in Burgdorf in the Canton of Bern. She studied biology at the University of Bern, where she graduated in 2003. That same year, she married Matthias Niggli, also a Swiss orienteering athlete. They currently live in Münsingen near Bern and in Ulricehamn, Sweden.[ citation needed ]
She began competing in orienteering early on, joining the Swiss club OLV Hindelbank; at the age of ten, she participated in her first competition. Since then, her palmarès has been impressive: she won a gold medal at the junior world championships in 1997, has been 20 times Swiss champion, won the Finnish championships once and the Swedish championships nine times, has won the world cup five times, and won seven gold medals at European championships and a total of 23 gold medals at world championships.[ citation needed ]
In 2003, she won all four women's competitions of the world championships held at Rapperswil in Switzerland (sprint, middle, and long distance, and— together with Birgitte Wolf and Vroni König-Salmi — the relay). She managed to repeat this extraordinary feat two years later at the world championships in Aichi, Japan.[ citation needed ]
At the European Championships in 2006 in Otepää, Estonia, she won gold in the sprint and long distance competitions, and finished fifth in the middle distance competition. The Swiss team finished second in the relay, beaten only by the Finnish team. At the world championships 2007 in Kyiv, Ukraine, she again won gold on the middle and sprint distances and finished third on the long distance, behind two Finnish athletes who shared first place.[ citation needed ]
Niggli-Luder took time off from competitive orienteering in 2008 to give birth to her first child and again in 2011, twins. She made a successful return to the international orienteering scene in 2009 by winning bronze medals in the middle and sprint distances at the World Orienteering Championships in Miskolc, Hungary, and the gold medal in the long distance. At the World Championships 2013 at Vuokatti, Finland, she won all three single competitions (sprint, middle, and long distance) and finished third in the team relay event (together with Sara Luescher and Judith Wyder).[ citation needed ]
In 2001, she spent one year in Finland, running for the Finnish club Turun Suunnistajat, and won the Finnish championship. She ran for the Swedish club Ulricehamns OK after July 2003. In September 2013, Niggli-Luder announced that she was retiring from elite orienteering at the end of the year, after the last World Cup race in New Zealand. Niggli holds over 60 World Cup race victories.[ citation needed ]
| Year | ||||||
| Age | Long | Middle | Sprint | Relay | Sprint Relay | |
| 1999 | 21 | — | 15 | — | — | — |
| 2001 | 23 | Gold | 4 | Bronze | 4 | — |
| 2003 | 25 | Gold | Gold | Gold | Gold | — |
| 2004 | 26 | 4 | 6 | Gold | 4 | — |
| 2005 | 27 | Gold | Gold | Gold | Gold | — |
| 2006 | 28 | Gold | Gold | Silver | 3 | — |
| 2007 | 29 | Bronze | Gold | Gold | 4 | — |
| 2008 | 30 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2009 | 31 | Gold | Bronze | Bronze | 4 | — |
| 2010 | 32 | Gold | Silver | Gold | 4 | — |
| 2011 | 33 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2012 | 34 | Gold | 5 | Gold | Gold | — |
| 2013 | 35 | Gold | Gold | Gold | Bronze | — |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
Thierry Gueorgiou is a French orienteer who holds the record for gold medals won at the World Orienteering Championships for a male athlete, with 14 gold medals between 2003 and 2017. Gueorgiou has won more than 20 gold medals in international competitions, including the World Orienteering Championships (WOC) middle distance event a record eight times: 2003–2005, 2007–2009, 2011 and 2017.
Bjørnar Valstad is a Norwegian former orienteering athlete who has won 4 World Orienteering Championships gold medals.
Hanne Staff is a Norwegian orienteering competitor who has won three individual World Orienteering Championships gold medals.
Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg is a Norwegian orienteering competitor, World champion and European champion. She took the overall victory in the 2008 World Cup.
Martin Johansson is a Swedish orienteering, ski-orienteering, and cross-country skiing competitor, a medallist at the orienteering world championships, and a 2004 Junior World Champion in relay. He received bronze medals in sprint at the World Orienteering Championships in Kyiv 2007 and Olomouc 2008. His brother, Lars, is a member of the Rockford Icehogs
2013 in sports is listing and describing the major sporting events from the current year: by month and by discipline. The year after the 2012 Summer Olympics and the year before the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Christine Schaffner is a Swiss mountain bike orienteer and world champion. She has participated in all seven World MTB Orienteering Championships from 2004 to 2010, and won gold medals in the long distance four times, in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Ida Bobach is a Danish orienteering competitor who was Junior World Champion in 2009, and became triple Junior World Champion from 2010, when she won the sprint, long distance and the relay. She represents the club OK Pan Århus, and since 2007, has received training from Danish national coach Lars Lindstrøm. In 2015 she won gold medals at the World Championships in the long and Relay.
Tove Alexandersson is a Swedish foot orienteer, ski orienteer, skyrunner, trail runner, ski mountaineer and skysnow runner. Alexandersson has won gold medals at world championships in five different sports plus a silver medal in a sixth sport, and has won a total of 19 gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships, making her the second most successful orienteer in history by number of gold medals at World Championships, behind Simone Niggli-Luder. Alexandersson holds the record for the number of gold medals in a row at the World Orienteering Championships, winning 11 in a row between 2018 and 2022.
Judith Wyder is a Swiss orienteering and ski orienteering competitor and runner. Her achievements include gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and the European Orienteering Championships, both individually and with the Swiss relay team.
Matthias Kyburz is a Swiss competitor in orienteering and athletics. In orienteering, Kyburz has attained gold medals in the Junior World Orienteering Championships, European Orienteering Championships and the World Orienteering Championships. In athletics, Kyburz is a long-distance specialist; Kyburz attained the world record in 50km on a treadmill of 2:56:35 on 16 April 2020, breaking a record held by Florian Neuschwander. On 7 April 2024 Kyburz ran 2:07:44 in his Marathon debut, becoming the third fastest Swiss athlete of all time over the distance after Tadesse Abraham and his coach Viktor Röthlin, and achieving the qualifying standard for the 2024 Olympic Games.
Ines Brodmann is a Swiss orienteering competitor and world champion. She won a gold medal in the relay at the 2012 World Orienteering Championships in Lausanne, together with Judith Wyder and Simone Niggli-Luder.
Gustav Bergman is a Swedish orienteering competitor. Bergman has won five gold medals for Sweden in relay events at the World Orienteering Championships, and four medals in individual events.
Tim Robertson is a New Zealand orienteering competitor. He won the gold medal in the sprint course at the Junior World Orienteering Championships in 2014, and 2015.
Olli Ojanaho is a Finnish orienteering competitor. He was born in Rovaniemi and started his youth career representing the club Ounasvaaran Hiihtoseura. As of 2017 Ojanaho lives in Helsinki and represents Helsingin Suunnistajat.
Andrine Benjaminsen is a Norwegian orienteer and ski orienteer.
Simona Aebersold is a Swiss orienteering competitor. She is the daughter of Christian Aebersold, who won the World Orienteering Championships 3 times.
Karolin Ohlsson is a Swedish orienteering competitor who competes internationally. She became world champion in the sprint relay in 2018.
Joey Hadorn is a Swiss orienteering competitor, born in Bern.
Hanna Lundberg is a Swedish orienteering competitor who represents the club OK Renen.
