Simone Niggli-Luder
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Simone Niggli-Luder (born January 9, 1978) is a Swiss orienteering athlete who has won twice (in 2003 and 2005) all four women's competitions at the world championships.
Born as Simone Luder, she grew up in Burgdorf in the Canton of Berne. She studied biology at the University of Berne, where she was graduated in 2003. That same year, she married Matthias Niggli, also a Swiss orienteering athlete. They live currently in Münsingen near Berne and in Ulricehamn, Sweden.
She began competing in orienteering early on, joining the Swiss club OLV Hindelbank; at the age of ten, she participated at her first competition. Since then, her palmarès has been impressive: she won a gold medal at the junior world championships in 1997, has been 14 times Swiss champion, won the Finnish championships once and the Swedish championships five times, has won the world cup three times, and won five gold medals at European championships and a total of fourteen gold medals at world championships. 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 Lea Müller and Vroni König-Salmi—the relay). She managed to repeat this extraordinary feat two years later at the world championships in Aichi, Japan. 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 Kiev, 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. Simone Niggli-Luder is also the current number one of the world rating.
In 2002, she spent one year in Finland, running for the Finnish club Turun Suunnistajat, and won the Finnish championship. Since July 2003, she starts for the Swedish club Ulricehamns OK.
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| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
Preceded by Natascha Badmann |
Swiss Sportswoman of the Year 2003 |
Succeeded by Karin Thürig |
| Preceded by Karin Thürig |
Swiss Sportswoman of the Year 2005 |
Succeeded by Tanja Frieden |
| Preceded by Tanja Frieden |
Swiss Sportswoman of the Year 2007 |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
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