Andrus Veerpalu

Andrus Veerpalu
Personal information
Born	8 February 1971(1971-02-08) Pärnu, Estonia
Height	1.82 m (6 ft 0 in)
Professional information
Club	Jõulu
Skis	Fischer
World Cup
Seasons	1990–2011
Wins	6
Updated on 22 March 2011.

Medal record
Veerpalu in Otepää in 2006.
Competitor for Estonia
Men's cross country skiing
Olympic Games
Gold	2002 Salt Lake City	15 km classical
Gold	2006 Turin	15 km classical
Silver	2002 Salt Lake City	50 km classical
World Championships
Gold	2001 Lahti	30 km classical
Gold	2009 Liberec	15 km classical
Silver	1999 Ramsau	50 km classical

Andrus Veerpalu (born 8 February 1971 in Pärnu) is a former and so far the most successful Estonian male cross country skier.

On 17 February 2006 he won his second Winter Olympics gold medal (in 15 km cross country skiing; his previous gold medal is from the Salt Lake City games), becoming the fourth Estonian to have won two Olympic gold medals (Kristjan Palusalu, Erika Salumäe and Kristina Šmigun-Vähi are the first three). He is the most successful Olympic athlete from Estonia with three medals. (Kristina Šmigun-Vähi tied that record at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics)

Veerpalu has also found success at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, winning a gold at 15 km in 2009 at Liberec, 30 km in 2001 at Lahti and a silver at 50 km in 1999 at Ramsau. He has also won the 50 km event at the Holmenkollen ski festival in 2003 and 2005. Veerpalu also competed in the men's 50 km, Mass Start Classic at the 2010 Winter Olympics, finishing at the 6th place.

Andrus Veerpalu became the oldest world champion in history with his victory at Liberec 2009 on the 15 km classical event. He was then 38 years old.^[1] He is also the oldest Olympic champion in individual distance.

Veerpalu earned the Holmenkollen medal in 2005, the first Estonian to do so.

Veerpalu is the fourth athlete to compete in cross-country skiing at six Winter Olympics, after Marja-Liisa Kirvesniemi, Harri Kirvesniemi, and Jochen Behle. (Kateřina Neumannová is also a cross-country skier who competed at six Olympics, but one of her appearances was in cycling.)

On 23 February 2011, Veerpalu announced that he will end his professional sportsman career.^[2] Although Veerpalu's team first claimed medical issues (knee injury and/or flu), later in that year it was announced that Veerpalu tested positive for HGH (growth hormone) but pleaded innocent in HGH treatment. Estonian biochemistry doctors explained that the verdict was untimely and that there was no reliable method to distinguish artificial HGH from natural background hormone.^[3][4][5] Veerpalu appealed the test result to the FIS and is ready to turn to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.^[6] The FIS antidoping commission founded Veerpalu guilty and extended his ban to three years, due to Veerpalu's team's lack of co-operation with FIS.^[7] A group of top Estonian biochemists investigated the matter and insist Veerpalu is false positive.^[8][9]

Individual World Cup races

6 wins (6 Individual, 0 Sprint)

Date	Location	Race
12 March 2005	Oslo	50k
8 January 2005	Otepää	15k
17 January 2004	Nove Mesto	15k
13 December 2003	Davos	15k
8 March 2003	Oslo	50k
15 February 2003	Asiago	10k

Personal life

He is married to Angela Veerpalu and they have five children: Andreas (b. 1994), Anette, Anders, Anlourdees and Andorres.

See also

• List of athletes with the most appearances at Olympic Games
• List of doping cases in sport

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Andrus Veerpalu

External links

• Andrus Veerpalu at the International Ski Federation
• Holmenkollen medalists – click Holmenkollmedaljen for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)
• Holmenkollen winners since 1892 – click Vinnere for downloadable pdf file (Norwegian)
• Sports-Reference Profile