Pernilla Wiberg

Pernilla Wiberg
— Alpine skier —

Wiberg in 2011
Disciplines Downhill, Super G,
Giant Slalom, Slalom,
Combined
Club Norrköpings SK
Born 15 October 1970
Norrköping, Sweden
Height 1.61 m (5 ft 3 in)
World Cup debut 13 March 1990 - (age 19)
Retired March 2002
Website pernilla-wiberg.com
Olympics
Teams 4 – (1992-2002)
Medals 3 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams 5 – (1991-2001)
Medals 6 (4 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 12 – (1991-2002)
Wins 24
Podiums 61
Overall titles 1 – 1997
Discipline titles 4 – SL ('97), K ('94, '95, '97)

Pernilla Wiberg (born 15 October 1970 in Norrköping) is a Swedish former alpine ski racer, who competed on the World Cup circuit between 1990 and 2002, where she became one of the few all-event winners. Having won two Olympic gold medals, four World Championships and one World Cup overall title, she is one of the most successful alpine ski racers of the nineties. On club level, she represented Norrköpings SK.[1]

Career

After competing without much success in two junior world championships in 1987 and 1988, Wiberg got her international breakthrough in the early 1990s. In her World Cup debut in Vemdalen, Sweden, on 13 March 1990, she finished 5th in slalom, and five days later she finished 3rd in giant slalom in Åre. In the following season of 1991, she claimed three World Cup victories and a giant slalom gold medal at the 1991 World Championships in Saalbach. Her Alpine World Championship gold was the first for a Scandinavian woman in 33 years.[2] Until the end of her career in 2002, Wiberg won an additional 21 World Cup races, earning her a total of 24 World Cup race victories, including at least one victory in each of the five different alpine disciplines. Her finest season was in 1997 she won ten World Cup races and took the overall, slalom, and combined titles. In five World Championships she won six medals: four gold, one silver, and one bronze.[1]

Her best season was in 1996/1997 when she easily won her only Overall World Cup title as well as the slalom title, with victories in all disciplines this year. Her biggest career disappointment also occurred this year where needing only a 5th place finish at the World Cup final to win the season Super G title she went off course and lost the discipline title to Hilde Gerg.

Wiberg has worked as a commentator for Sveriges Television.[3]

Olympics

Wiberg won the giant slalom gold in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville and the combination gold medal in 1994 at Lillehammer. At both of these Olympics, Wiberg was the most successful Swedish athlete.[4] In 1998 in Nagano, she won the downhill silver medal; Wiberg holds this achievement to be the best of her career.[5] In her final Olympics in 2002 at age 31, she failed to reach the top ten and finished 14th in downhill and 12th in super-G.[1] The Olympic super-G was to be her final international race, as she announced her retirement a few weeks later, following surgery on her knees.[6]

Awards

In 1991, Wiberg was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal. The jury's motivation was: "For the sensational giant slalom victory in the World Championships, secured through a bold and skillful second leg."[7] The same year, 1991, she was awarded Jerringpriset, an award she received again the following year.[8]

International Olympic Committee

Wiberg was elected a member of the International Olympic Committee in 2002 and served an eight-year mandate until 2010. She was a member of the following commissions: Athletes’ (2002-), Sport and Environment (2002), Ethics (2003-), Coordination for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 (2003-), Nominations (2003-).[9] On 2 September 2008, IOC announced that Wiberg would chair a commission appointed by the president of IOC, Jacques Rogge. The commission would analyse the projects of the shortlisted cities candidating for 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games.[10]

Activism

Pernilla is today a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.[11]

Personal life

Together with her husband Bødvar Bjerke, Wiberg has two children; Axel (b. 2003) and Sofia (b. 2007).[12][13] Since 1995, she lives in Monaco.[5]

World Cup victories

Season titles

5 titles (1 overall, 1 slalom, 3 combined)

Season Discipline
1994 Combined
1995 Combined
1997 Overall
Slalom
Combined

Race victories[14]

24 race victories (2 downhill, 3 super G, 2 giant slalom, 14 slalom, 3 combined)

Season Date Location Race
1991 7 January 1991Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria Slalom
10 March 1991Lake Louise, Canada Giant Slalom
20 March 1991Waterville Valley, USA Slalom
1992 28 February 1992 Narvik, Norway Giant Slalom
1993 6 December 1992Steamboat Springs, USA Slalom
1994 12 December 1993Veysonnaz, Switzerland Slalom
6 January 1994Morzine, France Slalom
17 January 1994Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Super-G
5 February 1994Sierra Nevada, Spain Combined
199512 March 1995Lenzerheide, Switzerland Slalom
Combined
1996 22 December 1995Veysonnaz, Switzerland Slalom
29 December 1995Semmering, Austria Slalom
19971 December 1996Lake Louise, Canada Super-G
28 December 1996Semmering, AustriaSlalom
4 January 1997Maribor, Slovenia Slalom
12 January 1997Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria Super-G
19 January 1997Zwiesel, Germany Slalom
2 February 1997Laax, Switzerland Combined
7 March 1997Mammoth Mountain, USA Slalom
12 March 1997Vail, USA Downhill
16 March 1997 Slalom
19993 January 1999Maribor, Slovenia Slalom
200018 December 1999St. Moritz, Switzerland Downhill

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 FIS-Ski - Biography. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  2. ↑ "Sports briefly: ESPN commentator Axthelm dies at 47". Baltimore Sun (Baltimore). 3 February 1991. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "Pernilla Wiberg: Executive Profile & Biography". bloomberg.com. Retrieved 21 March 2015.
  4. ↑ Nationalencyklopedin - Pernilla Wiberg. (Swedish). Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pernilla Wiberg official website. Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  6. ↑ "Pernilla Wiberg opererad och karriären är över". ST.nu - Sundsvalls Tidning (TT). 2002-03-01. (Swedish). Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  7. ↑ "Bragdmedaljörer genom tiderna". SvD - Svenska Dagbladet. 2007-12-04. (Swedish). Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  8. ↑ Radiosporten - Jerringpriset. Radiosporten - sr.se. (Swedish). Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  9. ↑ IOC Members - Pernilla Wiberg. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.
  10. ↑ "Pernilla Wiberg heads IOC Evaluation Commission for 1st Winter Youth Olympic Games", www.olympic.org - Official website of the Olympic Movement. 2008-09-02. Retrieved on 2008-09-09.
  11. ↑ Peace and Sport
  12. ↑ "Pernilla och Bödvar fick en pojke". SvD - Svenska Dagbladet (TT). 2003-08-23. (Swedish). Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  13. ↑ "Pernilla Wiberg: "Det blev en liten Sofia"". Norrköping - Expressen. 2007-12-16. (Swedish). Retrieved on 2008-09-11.
  14. ↑ World cup results at www.fis-ski.com

External links


Preceded by
Stefan Edberg		 Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal
1991 		Succeeded by
Jan-Ove Waldner