Emil Hegle Svendsen facts for kids

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Emil Hegle Svendsen

Emil Hegle Svendsen in 2009
Personal information
Nickname(s)	Super-Svendsen
Born	(1985-07-12) 12 July 1985 (age 39) Trondheim, Norway
Height	1.85 m
Professional information
Sport	Biathlon
Club	Trondhjems Skiskyttere
World Cup debut	15 December 2005
Olympic Games
Teams	4 (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals	8 (4 gold)
World Championships
Teams	9 (2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016)
Medals	21 (12 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	11 (2005/06–2017/18)
Individual victories	37
All victories	58
Individual podiums	79
All podiums	115
Overall titles	1 (2009–10)
Discipline titles	4: 2 Individual (2010–11, 2013–14); 1 Sprint (2009–10); 1 Mass start (2010–11)
Medal record Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 4 3 1 World Championships 12 6 3 Junior/Youth World Championships 2 1 2 Total 18 8 6 Olympic Games Gold 2010 Vancouver 20 km individual Gold 2010 Vancouver 4 × 7.5 km relay Gold 2014 Sochi 15 km mass start Gold 2014 Sochi Mixed relay Silver 2010 Vancouver 10 km sprint Silver 2018 Pyeongchang 4 × 7.5 km relay Silver 2018 Pyeongchang Mixed relay Bronze 2018 Pyeongchang 15 km mass start World Championships Gold 2008 Östersund 20 km individual Gold 2008 Östersund 15 km mass start Gold 2009 Pyeongchang 4 × 7.5 km relay Gold 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 15 km mass start Gold 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 4 × 7.5 km relay Gold 2012 Ruhpolding 4 × 7.5 km relay Gold 2012 Ruhpolding Mixed relay Gold 2013 Nové Mesto 10 km sprint Gold 2013 Nové Mesto 12.5 km pursuit Gold 2013 Nové Mesto 4 × 7.5 km relay Gold 2013 Nové Mesto Mixed relay Gold 2016 Oslo 4 × 7.5 km relay Silver 2008 Östersund 4 × 7.5 km relay Silver 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Mixed relay Silver 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 12.5 km pursuit Silver 2012 Ruhpolding 10 km sprint Silver 2015 Kontiolathi 20 km individual Silver 2015 Kontiolahti 4 × 7.5 km relay Bronze 2007 Antholz-Anterselva Mixed relay Bronze 2013 Nové Mesto 15 km mass start Bronze 2016 Oslo 12.5 km pursuit Junior World Championships Gold 2005 Kontiolahti 15 km individual Gold 2005 Kontiolahti 10 km sprint Silver 2005 Kontiolahti 12.5 km pursuit Youth World Championships Gold 2004 Haute Maurienne 10 km pursuit Gold 2004 Haute Maurienne 3 × 7.5 km relay Bronze 2003 Kościelisko 12.5 km individual Bronze 2003 Kościelisko 10 km pursuit Men's cross-country skiing Junior World Championships Silver 2005 Rovaniemi 4 × 10 km relay Bronze 2005 Rovaniemi 10 km freestyle
Updated on 23 February 2018.

Emil Hegle Svendsen (born 12 July 1985) is a retired Norwegian biathlete. He has won eight medals at Winter Olympics (four gold) and five individual gold medals and seven relay gold medals at World Championships.

He skis with Trondhjems Skiskyttere, based in Trondheim.

Career

The 2005–06 season was Svendsen's first season on the World Cup tour, before then he competed as a junior in the European Cup, now known as the IBU cup. During his first season in the World Cup Svendsen finished fifth in three races, two of them in sprints (Brezno-Osrblie and Ruhpolding), and the other in a mass start (Holmenkollen). He also finished races in seventh, ninth, and four more within the top twenty (14th, 15th, 17th, 19th). He finished the overall season in 22nd place. He was 32nd in the pursuit, 21st in the sprint, and 7th in the mass start, only seven points behind Sven Fischer in fourth place.

Svendsen was selected for the Olympics, to compete in the mass start, in which he came sixth, after hitting 18/20 targets and finished 53.8 seconds behind winner Michael Greis of Germany. As a junior Svendsen won four gold medals in junior World Championships, his first and second gold was in the pursuit, and the relay in Haute Maurienne in 2004, and the third and fourth gold in the individual and the sprint in Kontiolahti in 2005. He also has two bronze medals from the individual and the pursuit in Kościelisko in 2003. During his three seasons in the European Cup, Svendsen won two races (individual and pursuit), one second place (sprint), and came third three times (all in the sprint).

For his first season in the World Cup Svendsen had an 82% shooting average, making him the 42nd best shot of the tour, but the same shooting percentage as Halvard Hanevold and Vincent Defrasne. He hit 243 out of 295 targets. He shot both 82% in his prone and standing shoot, he averaged 70% in the individual, 84% in the sprint, 81% in the pursuit, 87% in the mass start, and 76% in the relay.

On 13 December 2007, Svendsen took his first world cup victory, at the 20 km in Pokljuka. However, his big breakthrough came when he won two individual gold medals at the 2008 World Championships, winning both the individual and the mass start ahead of Ole Einar Bjørndalen. He went on winning more victories and podiums for the rest of the season, and eventually finished third overall.

The 2008/2009 season started off well for Svendsen. By placing on the podium in every of the five first races, he took the lead in the overall world cup. After the Christmas holiday however, Svendsen struggled to maintain the early season's results, and when he fell ill during the world championships and did not compete in several races, he lost the overall lead. After a couple of middle placings, he returned with a third place at the mass start event in Trondheim, and a fourth place and a victory in Khanty Mansiysk the consecutive week.

Emil Hegle Svendsen Kontiolahti, 2010

He won a silver medal in the 10 km sprint at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver on the first day of men's biathlon competition and then followed it up with two gold medals in the 20 km individual and the relay event.

He won 2 gold medals in 2014 Winter Olympics: in mass-start and mixed relay (together with Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Tiril Eckhoff and Tora Berger).

Svendsen is 6 ft 1 in (185 cm) tall, and weighs 170 lb (77 kg, 12 st 2 lb)

On 9 April 2018, he announced his retirement from biathlon following the 2017–2018 season.

Personal life

Svendsen was in a relationship with a fellow biathlete Kaja Eckhoff, sister of the biathletes Stian and Tiril Eckhoff, for several years after meeting her in the early 2000s at the Norges Toppidrettsgymnas in Lillehammer where they both studied as teenagers, before breaking up in the summer of 2011.

He then was in a relationship with Samantha Skogrand from November 2013 to autumn 2022. They got engaged in December 2016, but never married. In January 2019 the couple became parents to a son whom they named Magnus and in July 2021 they welcomed their second child - daughter Elsa. The family resided in Oslo. They announced their separation in a joint statement on Instagram on 28 April 2023.

After retiring from competition in 2018 Svendsen decided to study for a bachelor's degree in business administration. While studying he worked as a biathlon expert for the Norwegian TV channel NRK in 2019-2021 and a coach with the privately-funded Norwegian biathlon youth team Meistebakken. As of 2023 he has finished his studies and is working for the Norwegian real estate company Fredensborg Fritid as a real estate developer.

Biathlon results

All results are sourced from the International Biathlon Union.

Olympic Games

8 medals (4 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze)

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Mass start	Relay	Mixed relay
2006 Turin	—	—	—	6th	—	N/A
2010 Vancouver	Gold	Silver	8th	13th	Gold	N/A
2014 Sochi	7th	9th	7th	Gold	4th	Gold
2018 Pyeongchang	10th	18th	20th	Bronze	Silver	Silver

*The mixed relay was added as an event in 2014.

World Championships

21 medals (12 gold, 6 silver, 3 bronze)

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Mass start	Relay	Mixed relay
2007 Antholz-Anterselva	—	7th	5th	—	—	Bronze
2008 Östersund	Gold	12th	12th	Gold	Silver	—
2009 Pyeongchang	DNS	—	—	12th	Gold	—
2010 Khanty-Mansiysk	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	Silver
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk	4th	5th	Silver	Gold	Gold	—
2012 Ruhpolding	8th	Silver	5th	18th	Gold	Gold
2013 Nové Město	—	Gold	Gold	Bronze	Gold	Gold
2015 Kontiolahti	Silver	36th	19th	15th	Silver	—
2016 Oslo Holmenkollen	32nd	17th	Bronze	28th	Gold	—
2017 Hochfilzen	27th	36th	DNS	28th	8th	8th

*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.

Junior/Youth World Championships

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Relay
2002 Ridnaun-Val Ridanna	18th	13th	13th	11th
2003 Kościelisko	Bronze	7th	Bronze	4th
2004 Haute Maurienne	14th	6th	Gold	Gold
2005 Kontiolahti	Gold	Gold	Silver	10th

World Cup

Individual victories

38 victories (8 In, 11 Sp, 12 Pu, 7 MS)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline	Level
2007–08 6 victories (2 In, 2 Sp, 1 Pu, 1 MS)	13 December 2007	Pokljuka	20 km individual	Biathlon World Cup
	14 February 2008	Östersund	20 km individual	Biathlon World Championships
	17 February 2008	Östersund	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Championships
	27 February 2008	Pyeongchang	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	8 March 2008	Khanty-Mansiysk	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	13 March 2008	Oslo Holmenkollen	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
2008–09 5 victories (3 Sp, 2 Pu)	6 December 2008	Östersund	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	12 December 2008	Hochfilzen	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	13 December 2008	Hochfilzen	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	23 January 2009	Antholz-Anterselva	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	28 March 2009	Khanty-Mansiysk	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
2009–10 5 victories (2 In, 1 Sp, 1 Pu, 1 MS)	3 December 2009	Östersund	20 km individual	Biathlon World Cup
	12 December 2009	Hochfilzen	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	14 January 2010	Ruhpolding	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	16 January 2010	Ruhpolding	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Cup
	18 February 2010	Vancouver	20 km individual	Winter Olympic Games
2010–11 8 victories (2 In, 2 Sp, 2 Pu, 2 MS)	2 December 2010	Östersund	20 km individual	Biathlon World Cup
	4 December 2010	Östersund	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	12 January 2011	Ruhpolding	20 km individual	Biathlon World Cup
	10 February 2011	Fort Kent	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	12 February 2011	Fort Kent	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	12 March 2011	Khanty-Mansiysk	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Championships
	19 March 2011	Oslo Holmenkollen	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	20 March 2011	Oslo Holmenkollen	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Cup
2011–12 4 victories (1 Sp, 1 Pu, 2 MS)	10 December 2011	Hochfilzen	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	14 January 2012	Nové Město	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	5 February 2012	Oslo Holmenkollen	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Cup
	18 March 2012	Khanty-Mansiysk	15 km mass start	Biathlon World Cup
2012–13 3 victories (1 Sp, 2 Pu)	15 December 2012	Pokljuka	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	9 February 2013	Nové Město	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Championships
	10 February 2013	Nové Město	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Championships
2013–14 5 victories (1 In, 1 Sp, 2 Pu, 1 MS)	3 January 2014	Oberhof	10 km sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	4 January 2014	Oberhof	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	11 January 2014	Ruhpolding	20 km individual	Biathlon World Cup
	12 January 2014	Ruhpolding	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	18 February 2014	Sochi	15 km mass start	Winter Olympic Games
2014–15 2 victories (1 In, 1 Pu)	3 December 2014	Östersund	20 km individual	Biathlon World Cup
	20 December 2014	Pokljuka	12.5 km pursuit	Biathlon World Cup

*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the Biathlon World Cup, Biathlon World Championships and the Winter Olympic Games.

See also

In Spanish: Emil Hegle Svendsen para niños

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists