Tora Berger

Tora Berger (born 18 March 1981) is a retired Norwegian biathlete and Olympic champion.^[1]

Tora Berger
Full name	Tora Berger
Born	(1981-03-18) 18 March 1981 (age 44) Ringerike, Norway
Height	1.64 m (5 ft 5 in)
World Cup career
Seasons	2001–2014
Indiv. podiums	63
Indiv. wins	28
Discipline titles	2 (2012–13, 2013–14)
Medal record Women's biathlon Representing  Norway Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games (4 medals) 2 1 1 World Championships (18 medals) 8 5 5 Junior/Youth World Championships      (1 medal) 0 0 1 Total (23 medals) 10 6 7 Olympic Games 2010 Vancouver 15 km individual 2014 Sochi Mixed relay 2014 Sochi 10 km pursuit 2014 Sochi 4 × 6 km relay World Championships 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk Mixed relay 2012 Ruhpolding 15 km individual 2012 Ruhpolding 12.5 km mass start 2012 Ruhpolding Mixed relay 2013 Nové Město 15 km individual 2013 Nové Město 10 km pursuit 2013 Nové Město 4 × 6 km relay 2013 Nové Město Mixed relay 2006 Pokljuka Mixed relay 2008 Östersund 12.5 km mass start 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Mixed relay 2013 Nové Město 7.5 km sprint 2013 Nové Město 12.5 km mass start 2007 Antholz-Anterselva 4 × 6 km relay 2007 Antholz-Anterselva Mixed relay 2009 Pyeongchang 15 km individual 2011 Khanty-Mansiysk 12.5 km mass start 2012 Ruhpolding 4 × 6 km relay Junior World Championships 2000 Hochfilzen 7.5 km sprint
Updated on 20 March 2014.

Personal life

Berger married in 2010, having met her husband in high school.^[2] They have two dogs.^[3] She is the younger sister of biathlete and cross-country skier Lars Berger.^[4]

Career

She has been a member of the Norwegian women's biathlon team since 1999. She has 28 individual victories in the World Cup. ^[1]

Tora Berger

At the 2008 World Championship, she received three 4th places, before earning the silver medal in the mass start.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 February 2010, she became the first Norwegian woman to win an Olympic gold medal in biathlon by winning the women's 15 km individual at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. By doing this, she won Norway's 100th Olympic gold medal at the Winter Olympic Games, as well as winning the 10th Norwegian biathlon gold medal. This historic medal makes Norway the first ever nation to win 100 gold medals at the Winter Olympic Games.^[4]

At the Biathlon World Championships 2012 in Ruhpolding, Berger took two golds in the 15 km individual and the 12.5 km mass start.^[4]

At the Biathlon World Championships 2013 in Nove Mesto, she won medals in every event she entered,^[4] taking gold in the mixed relay, silver in the sprint and gold in the pursuit before becoming the first woman to defend her 15k individual title. She followed this up with a stunning final-leg performance in the relay, making up a deficit of nearly 40 seconds on the leaders to take another gold medal, before taking silver in the mass start. As the holder of 18 world championship medals she is second in the table of total medals, one medal behind Uschi Disl. At the same championships, she also became the first biathlete (male or female) to win 6 medals at a single biathlon world championships, with four golds and two silvers.^{[citation needed]}

Berger competed in Biathlon at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi where she won 3 medals. Gold in the Mixed relay together with Tiril Eckhoff, Ole Einar Bjørndalen and Emil Hegle Svendsen, a silver in the Women's Pursuit, and a silver in the Women's relay.^[4]

IBU World Cup

Although Tora Berger had been part of the Norwegian women's biathlon team since 1999, up until the end of the 2011–12 season she had never been the world cup winner either overall or in any of the individual disciplines. Her highest finish was third in the overall standings in the 2008–09 and 2011–12 seasons, second in the Pursuit discipline in the 2008–09 season, and second in the Mass Start discipline in the 2011–12 season.

Success came in the 2012–13 World Cup season, with Tora taking 11 wins and missing the podium only seven times. Her 19 podium finishes equalled Magdalena Forsberg's record for the highest number of podium finishes in a single season. She won all three races at Oslo Holmenkollen to secure the crystal globes for both the Overall women's world cup and the Pursuit discipline. By the end of the season she had also won the crystal globe for the Individual, Sprint and Mass Start disciplines, completing a clean sweep of the five women's crystal globes (a feat last achieved by Magdalena Forsberg in the 2001–02 season). With Berger's contribution, Norway also won the 2012/13 season's Women's Nation Cup, Women's Relay Cup and Mixed Relay Cup.

Season	Overall			Sprint			Pursuit			Individual			Mass Start
	Races	Points	Position	Races	Points	Position	Races	Points	Position	Races	Points	Position	Races	Points	Position
2002–03	11/23	1	68th	5/9	1	65th	4/7	–	–	2/3	–	–	0/4	–	–
2003–04	-	-	-	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
2004–05	26/27	389	17th	10/10	160	13th	8/9	102	21st	4/4	64	14th	4/4	47	21st
2005–06	20/26	253	22nd	9/10	104	22nd	6/8	75	26th	2/3	20	33rd	3/5	54	23rd
2006–07	25/27	450	14th	9/10	175	12th	8/8	124	16th	3/4	92	5th	5/5	53	24th
2007–08	24/26	664	6th	9/10	271	6th	8/8	238	4th	2/3	40	15th	5/5	102	12th
2008–09	23/26	894	3rd	9/10	352	3rd	7/7	246	2nd	3/4	122	3rd	4/5	146	6th
2009–10	20/25	564	12th	9/10	215	15th	4/6	101	24th	2/4	87	13th	5/5	139	9th
2010–11	24/26	963	4th	9/10	356	3rd	6/7	268	4th	4/4	133	4th	5/5	206	3rd
2011–12	26/26	1054	3rd	10/10	373	4th	8/8	361	3rd	3/3	108	5th	5/5	241	2nd
2012–13	26/26	1234	1st	10/10	428	1st	8/8	417	1st	3/3	168	1st	5/5	262	1st
2013–14	22/22	856	1st	9/9	361	2nd	8/8	319	2nd	2/2	58	9th	3/3	121	4th

*Key:Races—number of entered races/all races; Points—World Cup points; Position—World Cup season ranking.

Biathlon results

Olympic Games

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Mass start	Relay	Mixed relay
2006 Turin	13th	23rd	18th	25th	5th	—
2010 Vancouver	Gold	33rd	5th	18th	4th	—
2014 Sochi	16th	10th	Silver	14th	Silver	Gold

World Championships

• 18 medals – (8 gold, 5 silver, 5 bronze)

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Mass start	Relay	Mixed relay
2005 Hochfilzen	21st	11th	19th	13th	5th	—
2005 Khanty-Mansiysk	—	—	—	—	—	10th
2006 Pokljuka	—	—	—	—	—	Silver
2007 Antholz-Anterselva	4th	10th	19th	25th	Bronze	Bronze
2008 Östersund	4th	4th	4th	Silver	6th	—
2009 Pyeongchang	Bronze	19th	9th	15th	11th	4th
2010 Khanty-Mansiysk	—	—	—	—	—	Silver
2011 Khanty-Mansiysk	10th	7th	5th	Bronze	5th	Gold
2012 Ruhpolding	Gold	6th	4th	Gold	Bronze	Gold
2013 Nové Město	Gold	Silver	Gold	Silver	Gold	Gold

Junior/Youth World Championships

Event	Individual	Sprint	Pursuit	Relay
2000 Hochfilzen	13th	Bronze	9th	5th
2001 Khanty-Mansiysk	21st	24th	38th	5th

Individual victories

28 victories (7 Sp, 9 Pu, 5 In, 7 MS)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline	Level
2007/08 2 victories (1 Sp, 1 Pu)	2 December 2007	Kontiolahti	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	5 January 2008	Oberhof	7.5 km Sprint	Biathlon World Cup
2008/09 2 victories (1 Sp, 1 MS)	22 January 2009	Antholz	7.5 km Sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	22 March 2009	Trondheim	12.5 km Mass Start	Biathlon World Cup
2009/10 2 victories (1 Sp, 1 In)	5 December 2009	Östersund	7.5 km Sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	18 February 2010	Vancouver	15 km Individual	Winter Olympic Games
2010/11 6 victories (2 Sp, 2 Pu, 1 In, 1 MS)	16 December 2010	Pokljuka	15 km Individual	Biathlon World Cup
	15 January 2011	Ruhpolding	7.5 km Sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	16 January 2011	Ruhpolding	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	21 January 2011	Antholz	7.5 km Sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	22 January 2011	Antholz	12.5 km Mass Start	Biathlon World Cup
	6 February 2011	Presque Isle, Maine	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
2011/12 4 victories (2 Pu, 1 In, 1 MS)	4 December 2011	Östersund	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	15 January 2012	Nové Město	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	7 March 2012	Ruhpolding	15 km Individual	Biathlon World Championships
	11 March 2012	Ruhpolding	12.5 km Mass Start	Biathlon World Championships
2012/13 11 victories (2 Sp, 4 Pu, 2 In, 3 MS)	29 November 2012	Östersund	15 km Individual	Biathlon World Cup
	1 December 2012	Östersund	7.5 km Sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	2 December 2012	Östersund	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	16 December 2012	Pokljuka	12.5 km Mass Start	Biathlon World Cup
	13 January 2013	Ruhpolding	12.5 km Mass Start	Biathlon World Cup
	19 January 2013	Antholz	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	10 February 2013	Nové Město	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Championships
	13 February 2013	Nové Město	15 km Individual	Biathlon World Championships
	1 March 2013	Oslo	7.5 km Sprint	Biathlon World Cup
	2 March 2013	Oslo	10 km Pursuit	Biathlon World Cup
	3 March 2013	Oslo	12.5 km Mass Start	Biathlon World Cup
2013/14 1 victory (1 MS)	5 January 2014	Oberhof	12.5 km Mass Start	Biathlon World Cup

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

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).^[5]

World Cup

Season standings

Season	Age	Discipline standings			Ski Tour standings
		Overall	Distance	Sprint	Nordic Opening	Tour de Ski	World Cup Final
2012	31	61	46	—	—	—	—

Team podiums

• 1 podium – (1 RL)

No.	Season	Date	Location	Race	Level	Place	Teammates
1	2011–12	20 November 2011	Sjusjøen, Norway	4 × 5 km Relay C/F	World Cup	2nd	Jacobsen / Østberg / Kristoffersen

Awards and nominations

• 2013: Awarded the Holmenkollen medal
• 2013: Winner of Norwegian Sportsperson of the Year 2012
• 2013: Winner of the "Female athlete of the year" for 2012 at the Sports Gala 2013
• 2013: Nominated for the "Name of the year" for 2012 at the Sports Gala 2013
• 2012: Nominated for the "Female athlete of the year" for 2011 at the Sports Gala 2012
• 2011: Nominated for "Name of the year" for 2010 at the Sports Gala 2011
• 2011: Nominated for "Female athlete of the year" for 2010 at the Sports Gala 2011
• 2010: Nominated for "Female athlete of the year" for 2009 at the Sports Gala 2010