Anja Pärson

Medal record
Anja Pärson
Women's alpine skiing
Competitor for  Sweden
Olympic Games
Gold	2006 Turin	Slalom
Silver	2002 Salt Lake	Giant slalom
Bronze	2002 Salt Lake	Slalom
Bronze	2006 Turin	Downhill
Bronze	2006 Turin	Combined
Bronze	2010 Vancouver	Combined
World Championships
Gold	2007 Åre	Super-G
Gold	2007 Åre	Combined
Gold	2007 Åre	Downhill
Gold	2005 Bormio	Super-G
Gold	2005 Bormio	Giant slalom
Gold	2003 St. Moritz	Giant slalom
Gold	2001 St. Anton	Slalom
Silver	2007 Åre	Team Event
Silver	2005 Bormio	Combined
Bronze	2011 Garmisch	Combined
Bronze	2011 Garmisch	Team Event
Bronze	2007 Åre	Slalom
Bronze	2001 St. Anton	Giant slalom

Anja Pärson in Aspen in 2006.

Anja Pärson in Monaco in 2006.

Anja Sofia Tess Pärson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˌanjaˈpæːʂɔn]; born 25 April 1981, in Tarnaby, Sweden) is a former Swedish-Sámi^[1] alpine skier. She is an Olympic gold medalist, seven-time gold medalist at the World Championships, and two-time overall Alpine Skiing World Cup champion. She has won a total of 42 World Cup races.

Biography

Pärson was introduced to ski racing by her sister, Frida, and is now trained by her father, Anders. Her first World Cup race was a giant slalom at the World Cup Finals at Crans-Montana, Switzerland (on 15 March 1998). She qualified for that race as the new junior World Champion but only finished 25th in last place. She won her first World Cup race, a slalom at Mammoth Mountain, California, in December 1998 at age 17, and her first gold medal at St. Anton, Austria, in 2001. She clinched the silver medal in the giant slalom and the bronze medal in the slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and added the gold in slalom plus two more bronze medals in downhill and combined in 2006 Winter Olympics.

Pärson won the Alpine Skiing World Cup overall title in 2004 and 2005. The latter title was won by the smallest margin ever, only 3 points over her fierce rival, Janica Kostelić. Initially a slalom and giant slalom specialist, she won her first Super-G and downhill races in March 2005 at San Sicario, Italy, during the pre-Olympic competitions. As of January 2010, she has won a total of 41 World Cup races in all five disciplines.

Pärson has won seven gold medals in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, in 2001 (slalom), 2003 (giant slalom), 2005 (giant slalom, Super-G) and 2007 (Super-G, Super-combined, downhill). These go along with two silver and three bronze medals in other events in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2011. With her three gold medals in 2007 at Åre, Sweden, she became the first skier in history to win World Championship golds in all five disciplines.

Pärson has earned a total of 17 individual medals in World Championships and Olympics, exceeding the record by Christl Cranz in women's alpine skiing. (In men's alpine skiing it's only beaten by Kjetil André Aamodt, with 20.)

After two disappointing seasons (2006/07 and 2007/08 where she finished fifth and sixth in the overall cup), she was back to her best over the 2008/09 season, finishing third in the overall cup.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, while trying to chase down eventual downhill champion Lindsey Vonn of the United States, Pärson lost balance on the last jump before the finish, resulting in a 60-metre flight and subsequent fall, without however suffering serious injury.^[2] She recovered from the fall and one day later won the bronze medal in the Combined event.

With a downhill victory in March 2011, she has won at least one race for ten consecutive World Cup seasons, trailing only Alberto Tomba and Vreni Schneider who won races in eleven consecutive World Cup seasons, and equalling the mark of Renate Götschl and Ingemar Stenmark.

On March 12, 2012, Pärson officially announced her retirement, and that her last competion would be the World Cup final in Schladming the coming weekend.^[3]

Personal life

Pärson's athletics club is Fjällvinden, Tärnaby, the same to which skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark and Stig Strand belonged.

She currently lives in Monaco. Her height is 170 cm^[4] (5 ft 7 in). She was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 2006 and in 2007.

World Cup victories

Season titles

7 titles – (2 overall, 3 GS, 1 SL, 1 SC)

Individual races

42 wins – (6 DH, 4 SG, 11 GS, 18 SL, 3 SC)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline
1999	3 Dec 1998	Mammoth Mountain, USA	Slalom
2002	9 Dec 2001	Sestriere, Italy	Slalom
	29 Dec 2001	Lienz, Austria	Slalom
	5 Jan 2002	Maribor, Slovenia	Slalom
	6 Jan 2002		Slalom
2003	30 Nov 2002	Aspen, USA	Slalom
	15 Dec 2002	Sestriere, Italy	KO-Slalom
	19 Jan 2003	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Giant Slalom
	25 Jan 2003	Maribor, Slovenia	Giant Slalom
	26 Jan 2003		Slalom
	6 Mar 2003	Åre, Sweden	Giant Slalom
2004	28 Nov 2003	Park City, USA	Giant Slalom
	29 Nov 2003		Slalom
	16 Dec 2003	Madonna di Campiglio, Italy	Slalom
	28 Dec 2003	Lienz, Austria	Slalom
	5 Jan 2004	Megève, France	Slalom
	24 Jan 2004	Maribor, Slovenia	Giant Slalom
	25 Jan 2004		Slalom
	7 Feb 2004	Zwiesel, Germany	Giant Slalom
	8 Feb 2004		Slalom
	21 Feb 2004	Åre, Sweden	Giant Slalom
	14 Mar 2004	Sestriere, Italy	Giant Slalom
2005	23 Nov 2004	Sölden, Austria	Giant Slalom
	23 Jan 2005	Maribor, Slovenia	Slalom
	25 Feb 2005	San Sicario, Italy	Super-G
	26 Feb 2005		Downhill
2006	11 Dec 2005	Aspen, USA	Slalom
	22 Dec 2005	Špindlerův Mlýn, Czech Rep.	Slalom
	28 Dec 2005	Lienz, Austria	Giant Slalom
	13 Jan 2006	Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria	Downhill
	27 Jan 2006	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Super-G
	4 Feb 2006	Ofterschwang, Germany	Giant Slalom
	11 Mar 2006	Levi, Finland	Slalom
	15 Mar 2006	Åre, Sweden	Downhill
2007	15 Mar 2007	Lenzerheide, Switzerland	Super-G
2008	15 Dec 2007	St. Moritz, Switzerland	Downhill
	16 Dec 2007		Super-G
	9 Mar 2008	Crans-Montana, Switzerland	Combined
2009	19 Dec 2008	St. Moritz, Switzerland	Combined
	18 Jan 2009	Altenmarkt-Zauchensee, Austria	Downhill
2010	29 Jan 2010	St. Moritz, Switzerland	Combined
2011	5 Mar 2011	Tarvisio, Italy	Downhill

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Anja Pärson

• Anja Pärson at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com – World Cup season standings – Anja Pärson
• Ski-db.com – results – Anja Paerson
• Sports Reference.com – Olympic results – Anja Pärson
• anjapaerson.com – personal site
• Head Skis – teams – Anja Pärson