Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a specially prepared orienteering map, which they use to find control points. Originally a training exercise in land navigation for military officers, orienteering has developed many variations. Among these, the oldest and the most popular is foot orienteering. For the purposes of this article, foot orienteering serves as a point of departure for discussion of all other variations, but almost any sport that involves racing against a clock and requires navigation with a map is a type of orienteering.
The Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire is responsible for the organization and governance of worldwide sports competitions for student-athletes between the ages of 17 and 25. It was founded in 1949 as the world governing body of national university sports organizations and currently has 174 member associations from five continents. Between 1949 and 2011, it was based in Brussels (Belgium); it was relocated to Lausanne (Switzerland) since 2011.
The World Orienteering Championships is an annual orienteering event organized by the International Orienteering Federation. The first World Championships was held in Fiskars, Finland in 1966. They were held biennially up to 2003. Since 2003, competitions have been held annually. Participating nations have to be members of the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).
The Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) are an annual orienteering competition. They were first held in 1990. Entry is open to national teams aged 20 and below as of 31 December in the year of competition. Representative countries must be members of the International Orienteering Federation (IOF).
Emil Wingstedt is a Swedish orienteering competitor. He won the 2005 and 2006 Sprint World Orienteering Championships, and finished third on the long distance in 2003. He is Relay World Champion from 2003 with the Swedish team, as well as having a silver medal from 2007, and bronze medals from 2004 and 2006. He is a four-time European Champion, winning the Sprint distance in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008. He won the classical relay race Tiomila in 2006, 2007 and 2012 with his club team Halden SK.
Daniel Hubmann is a Swiss orienteering competitor, world champion in all three individual disciplines and multiple winner of the overall Orienteering World Cup. He is the brother of Martin Hubmann. Daniel also has his own fan club which is run by New Zealand Orienteer Joseph Lynch.
Tatiana Ryabkina is a Russian orienteering competitor. She won the O-Ringen in 2012 and had international success.
Øystein Kvaal Østerbø is a Norwegian orienteering and ski-orienteering competitor. He finished overall third in the Orienteering World Cup in 2004, and won a silver medal in the relay in the 2004 World Ski Orienteering Championships. He has competed in all fifteen World Orienteering Championships since his debut in 2004 until 2018, obtaining his first two medals in Inverness in 2015; in the relay and mixed sprint relay, respectively. His best individual achievements are fourth places in the sprint in 2005 and 2010.
Eva Svensson is a Swedish orienteering and ski-orienteering competitor, and junior world champion in both sports.
Emma Klingenberg is a Danish orienteering competitor, and junior World champion.
Søren Bobach is a Danish orienteering competitor, and world champion at both junior and senior level. He runs for OK Pan Århus.
Maja Møller Alm is a Danish orienteering and Athletics competitor who has won seven World Championships and two World Games titles. She is especially known for her four gold medals on the sprint distance, where she has won the title four years in a row: 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. She is also a medalist from the Junior World Championships. Since 2006 she has been coached by Danish national coach Lars Lindstrøm. Alm is remarkable for her dominant running speed, which gives her a great advantage over other competitors at the sprint distance.
Šárka Svobodná is a Czech orienteering competitor.
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
Foot orienteering is the oldest formal orienteering sport, and the one with the most "starts" per year. Usually, a FootO is a timed race in which participants start at staggered intervals, are individually timed, and are expected to perform all navigation on their own. The control points are shown on the orienteering map and must be visited in the specified order. Standings are determined first by successful completion of the course, then by shortest time on course.
Matthias Müller is a Swiss orienteering competitor.
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 orienteer, ski orienteer, skyrunner and ski mountaineer. She has won a total of 17 gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and 10 gold medals at the World Ski Orienteering Championships. In 2018, she won the Sky Marathon event at the Skyrunning World Championships, in her second skyrunning race ever. In 2021, she won the combined discipline at the World Championships of Ski Mountaineering. She competes for Stora Tuna OK in orienteering and Alfta-Ösa OK in ski orienteering. 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.
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.
Kristian Jones or Kris Jones is a competitor in orienteering and athletics, competing for Great Britain. He also competes for Lillomarka OK in Norway, Forth Valley orienteers and Wales.
Jyväskylä, Finland 
St. Gallen, Switzerland 
Česká Lípa, Czechoslovakia 
Jönköping, Sweden 
Miskolc, Hungary 
Trondheim, Norway 
Plavinas, USSR-Latvia 
Aberdeen, Great Britain 
Roanne, France 
Varna, Bulgaria 
Košice, Slovakia 
Tartu, Estonia 
Alicante, Spain 
