Simone Niggli and Maja Alm in Stockholm 2010

Maja Møller Alm (born July 10, 1988) is a

Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...

orienteering Orienteering is a group of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed. Participants are given a topographical map, usually a s ...

and

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

competitor Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero-sum game). Competition can arise between entities such as organisms, indivi ...

who has won seven World Championships and two

World Games The World Games are an international multi-sport event comprising sports and sporting disciplines that are not contested in the Olympic Games. They are usually held every four years, one year after a Summer Olympic Games, over the course of 11 d ...

titles. She is especially known for her four gold medals on the sprint distance, where she has won the title four years in a row: 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018. She is also a medalist from the Junior World Championships. Since 2006 she has been coached by Danish national coach Lars Lindstrøm. Alm is remarkable for her dominant running speed, which gives her a great advantage over other competitors at the sprint distance.

Junior career

Alm won a

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

in ''

relay A relay Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off A relay is an electrically operated switch ...

'' at the

Junior World Orienteering Championships The Junior World Orienteering Championships (JWOC) are an annual orienteering competition. They were first held in 1990. Entry is open to national teams aged 20 and below as of 31 December in the year of competition. Representative countries must ...

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

in 2008, together with

Ida Bobach Ida Bobach (born 30 July 1991 in Silkeborg) is a Danish orienteering competitor who was Junior World Champion in 2009, and became triple Junior World Champion from 2010, when she won the sprint, long distance and the relay. She represents the clu ...

and Signe Klinting, and received an individual

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

in ''sprint'' at the 2007 championships in

Dubbo Dubbo () is a city in the Orana Region of New South Wales, Australia. It is the largest population centre in the Orana region, with a population of 43,516 at June 2021. The city is located at the intersection of the Newell, Mitchell, and Gol ...

.Junior World Orienteering Championships
– ''International Orienteering Federation'' (Retrieved on July 8, 2008)
– World of O Runners (Retrieved on July 8, 2008)

Senior career

In her early career, she competed for the Danish

relay team A relay race is a racing competition where members of a team take turns completing parts of Race track, racecourse or performing a certain action. Relay races take the form of professional races and amateur games. Relay races are common in runni ...

at the 2007

World Orienteering Championships The World Orienteering Championships (or WOC for short) is an annual orienteering event organized by the International Orienteering Federation. The first World Championships was held in Fiskars, Finland in 1966. They were held biennially up to 20 ...

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, where the team finished 8th. At the 2008

European Orienteering Championships The European Orienteering Championships were first held in 1962. They have been held biennially since 2000. From 2020, the European Orienteering Championships will be held annually, with sprint events and forest events in alternate years. Format T ...

Ventspils Ventspils (; german: Windau, ; see other names) is a state city in northwestern Latvia in the historical Courland region of Latvia, and is the sixth largest city in the country. At the beginning of 2020, Ventspils had a population of 33,906. It ...

, the Danish

finished 10th. She won a bronze medal at the

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

in 2010. In 2015, she won the first of four sprint gold medals in a row at the World Championships. Alm also won the Relay and Mixed Sprint Relay in the same year. In 2017, Alm took her first individual forest medal at the World Championships – a silver in the Classic – behind

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

runner

Tove Alexandersson Tove Alexandersson (born 7 September 1992) is a Swedish orienteer, ski orienteer, skyrunner and ski mountaineer. She has won a total of 17 gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and 10 gold medals at the World Ski Orienteering Champ ...

. In 2018, Alm won her fourth sprint gold medal at the

World Orienteering Championship The World Orienteering Championships (or WOC for short) is an annual orienteering event organized by the International Orienteering Federation. The first World Championships was held in Fiskars, Finland in 1966. They were held biennially up to 2 ...

Riga Riga (; lv, Rīga , liv, Rīgõ) is the capital and largest city of Latvia and is home to 605,802 inhabitants which is a third of Latvia's population. The city lies on the Gulf of Riga at the mouth of the Daugava river where it meets the Ba ...

, and in addition she brought the Danish mixed sprint relay team at the last leg from the seventh position to a bronze medal. She also won a silver medal in the long distance. Alm runs for OK Pan Århus, and won the Jukola relay for the club in 2013 and 2014.

World Championship results

Athletics

Alm competed in the

2018 European Cross Country Championships The 2018 European Cross Country Championships was the 25th edition of the cross country running competition for European athletes. It was hosted in Tilburg, Netherlands.Tilburg Tilburg () is a city and municipality in the Netherlands, in the southern province of North Brabant. With a population of 222,601 (1 July 2021), it is the second-largest city or municipality in North Brabant after Eindhoven and the seventh-larg ...

, where she finished 18th. In 2019, she competed in the senior women's race at the

2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships The 2019 IAAF World Cross Country Championships were hosted in the city of Aarhus in Denmark. It was the 43rd edition of the championships and was held on 30 March 2019. A part of the course was run on the grounds and grass roof of the Moesgaard ...

held in Aarhus, Denmark. She finished in 53rd place.

References

External links