Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Hilde Gjermundshaug Pedersen (born 11 August 1964) is a Norwegian cross-country skier. Her first Olympic medal was a silver 4 × 5 km at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, she took the bronze medal in the 10 km classical interval start event. Pedersen is the oldest woman ever to win a cross country skiing World Cup race, which she did at age 41 in January 2006 in Otepää, Estonia.

Gjermundshaug Pedersen has also won five medals at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, including one gold (4 x 5 km: 2005), 2 silvers (4 x 5 km: 2001, 2003), and two bronzes (Individual sprint, 10 km: both 2003).

She also won the Egebergs Ærespris in 2003. This prestigious prize is awarded to athletes who reach international top level in one sport and concurrently perform at national level (or better) in a second sport. Gjermundshaug Pedersen is twice World Champion in ski orienteering, a sport in which she has also won the overall World Cup.

At age 42, Gjermundshaug Pedersen decided to make a comeback in the World Cup for the 2006/2007 season. In January 2008 she won her seventh Norwegian Championships gold medal, in the 10 km interval start race.

An unparallelled historic curiosum is the Norwegian Championship 3 x 5 km cross-country ski relay of 2006, where the entire winning team of Nybygda consisted of Gjermundshaug Pedersens: mother Hilde with her two twin daughters Eli and Ida.

[edit] References

• FIS-Ski: Hilde G. Pedersen - statistics

 This biographical article relating to Norwegian cross-country skiing is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This article about a Norwegian Winter Olympic medalist is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.