Simone Niggli-Luder

Simone Niggli-Luder

Simone Niggli-Luder in 2006
Medal record
Women's orienteering
Representing   Switzerland
World Championships
2001 Tampere Long
2003 Rapperswil-Jona Sprint
2003 Rapperswil-Jona Middle
2003 Rapperswil-Jona Long
2003 Rapperswil-Jona Relay
2004 Västerås Sprint
2005 Aichi Sprint
2005 Aichi Middle
2005 Aichi Long
2005 Aichi Relay
2006 Aarhus Middle
2006 Aarhus Long
2007 Kiev Sprint
2007 Kiev Middle
2009 Miskolc Long
2010 Trondheim Sprint
2010 Trondheim Long
2012 Lausanne Sprint
2012 Lausanne Long
2012 Lausanne Relay
2013 Vuokatti Sprint
2013 Vuokatti Middle
2013 Vuokatti Long
2006 Aarhus Sprint
2010 Trondheim Middle
2001 Tampere Sprint
2006 Aarhus Relay
2007 Kiev Long
2009 Miskolc Middle
2009 Miskolc Sprint
2013 Vuokatti Relay
World Games
2005 Duisburg Middle
2005 Duisburg Relay
World Cup
2002 WC Overall
2004 WC Overall
2005 WC Overall
2006 WC Overall
2007 WC Overall
2009 WC Overall
2010 WC Overall
2012 WC Overall
2013 WC Overall
2000 WC Overall
European Championships
2002 Sümeg Classic
2004 Roskilde Sprint
2004 Roskilde Long
2006 Otepää Sprint
2006 Otepää Long
2010 Primorsko Middle
2010 Primorsko Long
2012 Falun Sprint
2012 Falun Middle
2012 Falun Long
2000 Truskavets Short
2002 Sümeg Relay
2006 Otepää Relay
2010 Primorsko Sprint
2010 Primorsko Relay
Nordic Championships
2007 Bornholm Middle
2007 Bornholm Long
2001 Mikkeli Classic
2005 Notodden Sprint
2005 Notodden Middle
2005 Notodden Long
2007 Bornholm Relay
2005 Notodden Relay
Junior World Championships
1997 Leopoldsburg Classic
1996 Govora Relay
1997 Leopoldsburg Relay
1998 Reims Relay

Simone Niggli-Luder (born 9 January 1978) is a Swiss orienteering athlete who has twice won (in 2003 and 2005) all four women's competitions at the world championships. She is widely seen as one of the greatest orienteers of all time.

Personal Life

Born as Simone Luder, she grew up in Burgdorf in the Canton of Bern. She studied biology at the University of Bern, where she graduated in 2003. That same year, she married Matthias Niggli, also a Swiss orienteering athlete. They currently live in Münsingen near Bern and in Ulricehamn, Sweden.

Orienteering Achievements

She began competing in orienteering early on, joining the Swiss club OLV Hindelbank; at the age of ten, she participated in her first competition. Since then, her palmarès has been impressive: she won a gold medal at the junior world championships in 1997, has been 20 times Swiss champion, won the Finnish championships once and the Swedish championships nine times, has won the world cup five times, and won seven gold medals at European championships and a total of 23 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 Birgitte Wolf and Vroni König-Salmi— the relay). She managed to repeat this extraordinary feat two years later at the world championships in Aichi, Japan.

Simone Niggli-Luder and Marianne Andersen at World Orienteering Championships 2007
Simone Niggli-Luder and Frenchman Thierry Gueorgiou, middle distance gold medalists, World Orienteering Championships 2007

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.

Niggli-Luder took time off from competitive orienteering in 2008 to give birth to her first child and again in 2011, twins. She made a successful return to the international orienteering scene in 2009 by winning bronze medals in the middle and sprint distances at the World Orienteering Championships in Miskolc, Hungary, and the gold medal in the long distance. At the World Championships 2013 at Vuokatti, Finland, she won all three single competitions (sprint, middle, and long distance) and finished third in the team relay event (together with Sara Luescher and Judith Wyder).

In 2001, she spent one year in Finland, running for the Finnish club Turun Suunnistajat, and won the Finnish championship. She ran for the Swedish club Ulricehamns OK after July 2003.

In September 2013, Niggli-Luder announced that she was retiring from elite orienteering at the end of the year, after the last World Cup race in New Zealand. Niggli holds over 60 World Cup race victories.

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
Ariella Kaeslin
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