Skier Northug Petter: biography, achievements and interesting facts

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:46

Northug Petter is a famous Norwegian skier. He has many awards and records to his credit. He became the world champion 13 times, won the Olympic Games twice. At the world championships, he became the absolute record holder, having managed to win in all six disciplines. Having also become a two-time World Cup winner, he received the unofficial title of King of Skis. Twice recognized as the best athlete in Norway. Opponents know him for his unique ability to accelerate at the finish line, gaining victory with a powerful jerk. He especially succeeds in skating style.

Skier biography

Northug Petter was born in 1986. He was born in the Norwegian town of Musvik in the province of Nur-Trendelag. He began his career in professional sports with participation in continental competitions. In particular, he achieved some success in the Scandinavian races, making his way to the podium seven times. The most successful for him were pursuit races and 15-kilometer starts.

Nortug Petter made his debut in the World Cup in the 2005/06 season. He made his debut in the sprint, held in Drammen. Northug Petter finished 35th. At the same time, he continued to participate in parallel in the Scandinavian competitions. At the end of the seasonit was officially announced that he was getting a place in the national team.

At the same time, in his first season at the World Cup, Nortug won his first victory. On March 8, 2006, he finished first in the skiathlon in Falun, Sweden. Behind him he left two Germans - Tobias Angerer and Axel Teichmann.

Northug Petter finished second in the final race of that season. In the same skiathlon, he missed the victory, losing less than four seconds to the Swede Matthias Fredriksson at the finish line. Overall, he finished his first World Cup season in 15th place.

Future Star

Star of the future - this is what many journalists called Nortug at the beginning of his sports career, and they did not fail. Several manufacturers of ski equipment competed for a contract with him at once. The victory in this confrontation was won by Fisher. At that time, Nortug was still a junior, but nevertheless, a tariff rate was included in his contract. This has never been done before for a young athlete. The fare was multiplied by 5, provided that Nortug would lead the Norwegian national team to the world elite by the end of 2007.

In 2006, the Winter Olympics were held in Turin, Italy, but Nortug was not included in the national team. The Scandinavians won 3 silver and one bronze medal. This performance was considered a failure. Then many, like Nortug himself, wondered why he was not taken to the Olympics.

The first major success came to him at the World Championships, which took place in 2007 in Sapporo, Japan. Nortug won the relay. And two years later inCzech Liberec won his first gold medal in the world championship in the individual race. The Norwegian came first in the pursuit race, covering 15 kilometers in classic style, and then the same amount in skating. A brilliant victory in that race was recognized as one of Petter Northug's best finishes.

Royal Year

2010 was a truly stellar year for Nortug. At the end of the season, he won the World Cup for the first time in his career. 9 times Nortug came to the finish line first, another 6 times he was second and once he took third place. Only the Czech Lukas Bauer, who became the second in the overall standings, managed to impose the appearance of a struggle on him. But in reality, there was no fight, because the advantage of Northug was 600 points.

In the same year, the Norwegian triumphantly performed at the Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada. Although at first everything went wrong. Nortug finished 41st in the 15 km freestyle and was in the group of leaders in the pursuit until he fell behind on the last climb, taking only 11th place.

But in the 50 km mass start at the finish line, he managed to outrun the German Axel Teichmann by three tenths of a second, winning the first Olympic gold medal.

In the relay, Nortug ran at the last stage, starting the distance from fourth place. He managed to overtake the leaders, but by that time the Swede Markus Hellner broke away from his pursuers, so the Norwegians won silver.

In the final sprint Nortug fought two Russians NikitaKryukov and Alexander Panzhinsky, losing to them and winning bronze.

In the final team sprint, Nortug won another Olympic gold paired with Øystein Pettersen. For the Norwegian team, it was a triumphant Olympics, where they took first place in the overall standings of cross-country skiing.

Second World Cup triumph

In the 2010/11 World Cup, Nortug lost the victory to Swiss Dario Colognier, taking second place. In the 2011/12 season, he became third, allowing Cologna to make a golden double. Only in the 2012/13 season he regained the title of the strongest skier on the planet.

In the overall standings, he was ahead of Swiss Dario Colognier, who this time was third, and Russian Alexander Legkov, who finished in second place. His final advantage was almost 200 points from the closest pursuer.

Second Olympic triumph

But the second Olympic Games in his career were unsuccessful. To begin with, he missed the 15 km race in classic style. Then he failed the skiathlon, taking only 17th place.

In the race for 50 kilometers from the mass start came to 18th position. Closest to the Olympic medal Nortug was in the relay. He ran again on the last leg. But this time he could not close the gap that his compatriots had created at the beginning of the distance. Nortug brought the Norwegian team to fourth place, almost 40 seconds behind France's Ivan Bouate.

In the freestyle sprint race, Northug unexpectedlylost in the semi-finals, and on the final day of the Olympiad, paired with Ola Vigen Hattestad, he became only fourth in the men's team sprint. In the end, he failed to win a single medal, but this did not prevent his team from winning the overall cross-country skiing.

Private life

Petter Northug's personal life is developing very successfully, although he remains officially unmarried all this time. It is known that at the beginning of his career he met with the hurdler Reich Nordtomme. Then there was a mysterious affair with pornographic actress Aylar Lee, which the representatives of the skier denied in every possible way.

In 2015, Petter Northug and Caroline Dahl, a Scandinavian pop singer, were spotted together. There are also persistent rumors about his romance with novice skier Caroline Vollan, who is 9 years younger than him.

In 2014, Nortug was at the center of a high-profile scandal. Drunk, he got into an accident near Trondheim. The 23-year-old man who was in his car broke his collarbone. Petter himself fled the scene of the accident, but then nevertheless admitted that he was driving.

He was stripped of his driver's license, sentenced to 50 days in prison and heavily fined.