Aksel Lund Svindal

Aksel Lund Svindal

— Alpine skier —
Svindal in February 2011
Disciplines	Downhill, Super-G, Giant slalom, Combined
Club	Nero Alpin
Born	26 December 1982 Lørenskog, Akershus, Norway
Height	1.89 m (6 ft 2 ^1⁄2 in)
World Cup debut	28 October 2001 (age 18)
Website	aksellundsvindal.com
Olympics
Teams	3 – (2006, 2010, 2014)
Medals	3 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams	7 – (2003–15)
Medals	8 (5 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	13th – (2003–2014, 2016)
Wins	32
Podiums	66
Overall titles	2 – (2007, 2009)
Discipline titles	9 – (2 DH, 5 SG, 1 GS, 1 K)
Medal record Men's alpine skiing Competitor for  Norway Olympic Games 2010 Vancouver Super-G 2010 Vancouver Downhill 2010 Vancouver Giant slalom World Championships 2007 Åre Downhill 2007 Åre Giant slalom 2009 Val-d'Isère Combined 2011 Garmisch Combined 2013 Schladming Downhill 2005 Bormio Combined 2009 Val-d'Isère Super-G 2013 Schladming Super-G Junior World Ski Championships 2002 Tarvisio Combined 2002 Tarvisio Super-G 2002 Tarvisio Downhill 2002 Tarvisio Slalom

Aksel Lund Svindal (born 26 December 1982) is a World Cup alpine ski racer from Kjeller, Norway.

Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion (2007 and 2009), an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined (2007 Åre, 2009 Val-d'Isère, 2011 Garmisch, and 2013 Schladming). With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.^[1]

Career

Through December 4, 2015, Svindal has won eight World Championship medals, three Olympic medals, two overall World Cup and nine discipline titles (in downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and combined), and 28 World Cup races. Additionally, he won four medals at the World Junior Championships in 2002, including gold in combined.

On 27 November 2007, during the first training run for the Birds of Prey downhill race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Svindal crashed badly after landing a jump. He somersaulted into a safety fence and was taken to Vail Valley Medical Center with broken bones in his face and a six-inch (15 cm) laceration to his groin and abdominal area. Svindal missed the remainder of the 2008 season, and returned to World Cup racing in October 2008. His first two victories following his return were a downhill and a super-G in Beaver Creek, on the same Birds of Prey course where he was injured the year before.^[2]

Svindal's silver medal downhill run
at the 2010 Olympics at Whistler

At the 2009 World Championships, Svindal won the gold in the super combined. Fulfilling his comeback during the 2009 season, Svindal won his second overall World Cup over Benjamin Raich of Austria. Entering the last race of the season, a slalom at the World Cup finals in Åre, Sweden, Svindal led Raich by just two points. They had won the two previous races (a downhill and giant slalom respectively), with Svindal leading but Raich was the favorite as a specialist in slalom. Both skiers went off course and did not finish the slalom, so the Norwegian became the overall World Cup winner.^[3] He also won his fourth discipline title, his second in super G.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics on 15 February, Svindal won the silver medal in the downhill competition in Whistler, 0.07 seconds behind the winner, Didier Défago of Switzerland, and 0.02 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Bode Miller of the United States. Svindal's medal was Norway's hundredth silver medal at the Winter Olympics, the most for any nation.

Four days later on 19 February, Svindal won the super-G, his first-ever Olympic gold medal – ahead of Miller (+ 0.28 seconds) and Andrew Weibrecht (+ 0.31 seconds), both of the U.S.

Svindal successfully defended his world title in the super combined in 2011 at Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany.^[4]

After an Achilles tendon injury in October 2014,^[5] Svindal did not compete in World Cup events during the 2015 season. He did enter the World Championships in Colorado in February,^[5] and placed sixth in both the downhill and super-G events.

After his season long injury, Svindal had a very strong start to the 2016 season. He managed seven world cup victories before he sustained a season-ending knee injury under tough conditions in Kitzbühel, Austria.^[6]

Svindal dated alpine racer Julia Mancuso of the U.S. for three years, until the couple split up in September 2013.

World Cup results

Season titles

11 titles: (2 overall, 2 DH, 5 SG, 1 GS, 1 K)

Season	Discipline
2006	Super-G
2007	Overall
	Giant slalom
	Combined
2009	Overall
	Super-G
2012	Super-G
2013	Downhill
	Super-G
2014	Downhill
	Super-G

Season standings

Season	Age	Overall	Slalom	Giant slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
2003	20	39	38	26	23	58	4
2004	21	19	41	19	15	36	6
2005	22	21	37	17	11	30	—
2006	23	2	13	10	1	13	7
2007	24	1	21	1	5	7	1
2008	25	40	50	19	22	45	—
2009	26	1	—	5	1	4	11
2010	27	4	54	8	3	7	—
2011	28	4	59	2	16	10	5
2012	29	3	—	11	1	6	5
2013	30	2	47	7	1	1	5
2014	31	2	—	16	1	1	12
2015	32	injured: did not compete
2016	33	5	—	27	3	2	9

Race victories

32 wins – (12 DH, 15 SG, 4 GS, 1 SC)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline
2006	27 Nov 2005	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
	15 Mar 2006	Åre, Sweden	Downhill
2007	30 Nov 2006	Beaver Creek, USA	Super combined
	21 Dec 2006	Hinterstoder, Austria	Giant slalom
	14 Mar 2007	Lenzerheide, Switzerland	Downhill
	15 Mar 2007		Super-G
	17 Mar 2007		Giant slalom
2008	28 Oct 2007	Sölden, Austria	Giant slalom
	25 Nov 2007	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
2009	5 Dec 2008	Beaver Creek, USA	Downhill
	6 Dec 2008		Super-G
	11 Mar 2009	Åre, Sweden	Downhill
2010	18 Dec 2009	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
2011	8 Jan 2011	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant slalom
2012	27 Nov 2011	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
	14 Mar 2012	Schladming, Austria	Downhill
2013	24 Nov 2012	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill
	25 Nov 2012		Super-G
	14 Dec 2012	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
	25 Jan 2013	Kitzbühel, Austria	Super-G
	3 Mar 2013	Kvitfjell, Norway	Super-G
2014	1 Dec 2013	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
	6 Dec 2013	Beaver Creek, USA	Downhill
	20 Dec 2013	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
	29 Dec 2013	Bormio, Italy	Downhill
2016	28 Nov 2015	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill
	29 Nov 2015		Super-G
	4 Dec 2015	Beaver Creek, USA	Downhill
	18 Dec 2015	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
	19 Dec 2015		Downhill
	16 Jan 2016	Wengen, Switzerland	Downhill
	22 Jan 2016	Kitzbühel, Austria	Super-G

World Championship results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant   slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
2003	20	–	5	DNF	22	—
2005	22	12	6	7	7	2
2007	24	DNF1	1	13	1	5
2009	26	—	9	3	11	1
2011	28	—	4	DNF	5	1
2013	30	—	4	3	1	DNF2
2015	32	—	—	6	6	—

Olympic results

Year	Age	Slalom	Giant   slalom	Super-G	Downhill	Combined
2006	23	DNF2	6	5	21	DNF SL1
2010	27	—	3	1	2	DNF2
2014	31	—	—	7	4	8

References

1. "Svindal spectacular in winning World DH title". Ski Racing.com. 9 February 2013.
2. http://web.archive.org/web/20090226063230/http://www.google.com:80/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iGvYlj_hz3joeojrzv8se-zuvsdwD94SQFQ80. Archived from the original on 26 February 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2008. Missing or empty |title= (help)
3. www.gazzetta.it – 14 March 2009
4. Ski Racing.com – Svindal defends super combi gold at Worlds – 14 February 2011
5. McMillan, Kelley (February 3, 2015). "Aksel Lund Svindal set to compete at Alpine Championships". New York Times. Retrieved November 28, 2015.
6. – Aksel Lund Svindal out for season after World Cup crash – 24 January 2016

External links

• Aksel Lund Svindal at the International Ski Federation
• FIS-ski.com – World Cup season standings – Aksel Lund Svindal
• Ski-db.com – results – Aksel Lund Svindal
• Aksel Lund Svindal at Sports Reference – Olympic results
• Norwegian Ski Team – alpine skiing – Aksel Lund Svindal – (Norwegian)
• Head Skis – teams – Aksel Lund Svindal
• Official website – (English)
• Aksel Lund Svindal on Twitter