Kari Traa
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| Medal record | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Women's freestyle skiing | |||
| Gold | 2002 Salt Lake City | Moguls | |
| Silver | 2006 Turin | Moguls | |
| Bronze | 1998 Nagano | Moguls | |
Kari Traa (born January 28, 1974 in Voss, Norway) is a Norwegian freestyle skier. She won the Olympic title in the moguls event at the 2002 Winter Olympics, finished second at the 2006 games, and finished third at the 1998 games.
She is four times World Champion, from 2001 (moguls + parallel moguls) and 2003 (moguls + parallel moguls), and has also three silver medals (both moguls and parallel moguls in 1999, and moguls in 2005).[1] She has a total of 37 World Cup victories.
Traa attracted attention when she posed almost nude in a series of pictures in the sports magazine Ultrasport in 2001.[2] She started a company in 2002, selling sports clothes, and has later won awards for successfully launching her collections.[3] Her autobiography Kari was issued in 2006.[4] After finishing her active career she has been engaged in recruitement of young ski talents and participated as arranger of world cup events. She is also engaged in the festival Ekstremsportveko (Extreme Sports Week) held at her home community Voss, regarded as one of the world's largest extreme sports festivals.
Kari Traa was elected "Most sexy woman in Norway" in 2002 by the magazine MANN.[5] Her og Nå and TV 2 Nettavisen elected her as "Most sexy woman" in both 2003 and 2004.[6] In 2007 she was second on a similar list compiled by the TV-program «God Kveld, Norge!».[7]
Kari Traa missed the cut for the final round and finished 14th in Albertville - the first official Olympic mogul competition. Kari did not compete when the Games came to Lillehammer, Norway in 1994. She injured her knee after wiping out on a training run just three weeks before the Olympics. After the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan - Kari finally had an Olympic medal to wear when she won bronze. The medal now hangs inside her favorite restaurant in her hometown of Voss. "Freestyle skiing is still pretty small in my country. Everyone knows all the cross-country skiers because that sport is so popular. But in the last two years I've been winning a lot so more people know of me," says Kari.[citation needed]
Kari believes blondes have more fun and that's one of the reasons for her success.[citation needed] "I'm always having fun when I'm on the course - even when I don't win the race. That's the best way to start in this sport. Go slow at first just over small jumps and play around. I'm still having fun - but now I'm going faster and over bigger jumps." She is also considered one of the "hottest" female athletes.[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ "World Freestyle Skiing Champions" – hickoksports.com (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)
- ^ Picture series: Kari Traa – Ultrasport (2001) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)
- ^ Interview: "Endelig tid til kjæresten" (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)
- ^ Kari Traa, Sarah Sørheim, Lasse Berre, "Kari", Damm 2006. ISBN 9788204118745
- ^ "Nest mest sexy" Dagbladet – Fredag 23.08.2002 (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)
- ^ "Mest sexy" – www.midtsiden.no : 20:07:04 (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)
- ^ "Norges mest sexy kvinne" (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)
[edit] External links
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