Pernilla Wiberg (born 15 October 1970) is a Swedish former alpine ski racer and businesswoman. She competed on the

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

circuit between 1990 and 2002, where she became one of the few all-event winners. Having won two Olympic gold medals, four World Championships and one World Cup overall title, she is one of the most successful alpine ski racers of the 1990s. On club level, she represented Norrköpings SK. She was born in

Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linkö ...

.FIS-Ski – Biography
Retrieved on 11 September 2008.

Career

After competing without much success in two junior world championships in 1987 and 1988, Wiberg got her international breakthrough in the early 1990s. In her World Cup debut in

Vemdalen Vemdalen () is a village situated in Härjedalen Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 542 inhabitants in 2010. Vemdalen has been developed as a skiing center. There are three popular ski resorts close to the Vemdalen; Vemdalsskalet, Klövsj ...

, Sweden, on 13 March 1990, she finished 5th in

slalom To slalom is to zigzag between obstacles. It may refer to: Sports ;Alpine skiing and/or snowboarding * Slalom skiing, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Giant slalom, an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline * Super-G ...

, and five days later she finished 3rd in

giant slalom Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles ("gates") spaced at a greater distance from each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G. Giant slalom and slalom make up th ...

Åre Åre () is a locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpen. 25% of the local eco ...

. In the following season of 1991, she claimed three World Cup victories and a giant slalom gold medal at the 1991 World Championships in Saalbach. Her Alpine World Championship gold was the first for a Scandinavian woman in 33 years. Until the end of her career in 2002, Wiberg won an additional 21 World Cup races, earning her a total of 24 World Cup race victories, including at least one victory in each of the five different alpine disciplines. In five

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

she won six medals: four gold, one silver, and one bronze. Her finest season was in 1996–1997 when she won ten World Cup races and took the overall, slalom, and combined titles. She dethroned the previous years World Cup Overall winner Katja Seizinger by over 500 points. In the slalom discipline she was incredibly dominant with 5 wins, 2 silvers, 1 bronze, and 1 4th in 9 World Cup slalom races. She won her first ever World Cup downhill in the World Cup finale weekend, making her one of the first women ever to win World Cup races in all 5 disciplines. She also led the World Cup Super G standings until the final race, and needed only a 5th-place finish in the Super G on World Cup finale weekend (with Gerg's 2nd-place finish) to secure the season Super G title. Unfortunately on pace for a 2nd or 3rd-place finish and to easily reach this, she went off course, losing the season Super G crystal globe to

Hilde Gerg Mathilde Gerg (born 19 October 1975) is a German former alpine skier. Career She was Olympic Champion in the Slalom at the 1998 Winter Olympics, an astounding win as most of her career she was known as predominantly a speed specialist; with 1998 ...

. Wiberg considers the Super G her second best event after the slalom and her favorite event to ski, but it is where she has had the most bad luck and disappointment through her 4th place in Lillehammer, mistakes at the 96 and 97 worlds, and highly unlucky loss of the Super G season crystal globe in the 97 season. Today, Wiberg comments alpine skiing for

Sveriges Television Sveriges Television AB ("Sweden's Television Stock Company"), shortened to SVT (), is the Sweden, Swedish national public broadcasting, public television broadcaster, funded by a public service tax on personal income set by the Riksdag (national ...

Olympics

Wiberg won the

gold in the

1992 Winter Olympics ) , nations = 64 , athletes = 1,801 (1313 men, 488 women) , events = 57 in 6 sports (12 disciplines) , opening = 8 February 1992 , closing = 23 February 1992 , opened_by = President François Mitterrand , cauldron ...

Albertville Albertville (; Arpitan: ''Arbèrtvile'') is a subprefecture of the Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Southeastern France. It is best known for hosting the 1992 Winter Olympics and Paralympics. In 2018, the commune had ...

and the combination gold medal in

1994 File:1994 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1994 Winter Olympics are held in Lillehammer, Norway; The Kaiser Permanente building after the 1994 Northridge earthquake; A model of the MS Estonia, which sank in the Baltic Sea; Nels ...

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the munic ...

. At both of these Olympics, Wiberg was the most successful Swedish athlete. In

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...

in Nagano, she won the downhill silver medal; Wiberg holds this achievement to be the best of her career.Pernilla Wiberg official website
. Retrieved on 11 September 2008. In her final Olympics in

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

at age 31, she failed to reach the top ten and finished 14th in downhill and 12th in

super-G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event d ...

. The Olympic super-G was to be her final international race, as she announced her retirement a few weeks later, following surgery on her knees.

Awards

In 1991, Wiberg was awarded the

Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal The Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal ( sv, Svenska Dagbladets guldmedalj, but usually simply called ''Bragdguldet'', "The Feat Gold") is an annual award "for the most significant Swedish sports achievement of the year". It has been awarded by a jury l ...

. The jury's motivation was: "For the sensational giant slalom victory in the World Championships, secured through a bold and skillful second leg." The same year, 1991, she was awarded

Jerring Award The Jerring Award ( sv, Jerringpriset or "Radiosportens Jerringpris") is a prize established by Radiosporten, the sport section of Sveriges Radio, voted by its radio audience who choose the Swedish athlete or team that has made the best sport perf ...

, an award she received again the following year.

International Olympic Committee

Wiberg was elected a member of the

International Olympic Committee The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swis ...

in 2002 and served an eight-year mandate until 2010. She was a member of the following commissions: Athletes’ (2002–), Sport and Environment (2002), Ethics (2003–), Coordination for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver in 2010 (2003–), Nominations (2003–). On 2 September 2008, IOC announced that Wiberg would chair a commission appointed by the president of IOC,

Jacques Rogge Jacques Jean Marie Rogge, Count Rogge (, ; 2 May 1942 – 29 August 2021) was a Belgian sports administrator and physician who served as the eighth President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) from 2001 to 2013. In 2013, Rogge bec ...

. The commission would analyse the projects of the shortlisted cities candidating for 1st Winter

Youth Olympic Games The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is an international multi-sport event for athletes between 15 and 18 years old, organized by the International Olympic Committee. The games are held every four years in staggered summer and winter events consiste ...

Activism

Pernilla is today a member of the ‘Champions for Peace’ club, a group of 114 (as of 29 November 2018) famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by

Peace and Sport Peace and Sport, also known as "L’Organisation pour la Paix par le Sport" is a neutral and independent organization based in the Principality of Monaco and under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco. Peace and Sport work in areas acros ...

, a

Monaco Monaco (; ), officially the Principality of Monaco (french: Principauté de Monaco; Ligurian: ; oc, Principat de Mónegue), is a sovereign city-state and microstate on the French Riviera a few kilometres west of the Italian region of Lig ...

-based international organization. Other Champions for Peace members include Ukrainian former pole vaulter,

Sergey Bubka Sergey Nazarovych Bubka ( uk, Сергій Назарович Бубка; born 4 December 1963) is a Ukrainian former pole vaulter. He represented the Soviet Union until its dissolution in 1991. Bubka was twice named Athlete of the Year by '' T ...

, British long-distance runner,

Paula Radcliffe Paula Jane Radcliffe MBE (born 17 December 1973) is a former British long-distance runner. She is a three-time winner of the London Marathon (2002, 2003, 2005), three-time New York Marathon champion (2004, 2007, 2008), and 2002 Chicago Marath ...

, and Serbian tennis player,

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. ...

Personal life

Together with her husband Bødvar Bjerke, Wiberg has two children; Axel (b. 2003) and Sofia (b. 2007). Since 1995, she lives in

. As a businesswoman she owns and runs the ''Pernilla Wiberg Hotel'' at in

Dalarna Dalarna () is a '' landskap'' (historical province) in central Sweden. English exonyms for it are Dalecarlia () and the Dales. Dalarna adjoins Härjedalen, Hälsingland, Gästrikland, Västmanland and Värmland. It is also bordered by Norwa ...

, Sweden.

World Cup results

Season titles

5 titles (1 overall, 1

, 3 combined)

Season standings

Race victories

24 race victories (2 downhill, 3

super G Super giant slalom, or super-G, is a racing discipline of alpine skiing. Along with the faster downhill, it is regarded as a "speed" event, in contrast to the technical events giant slalom and slalom. It debuted as an official World Cup event ...

, 2

, 14

, 3 combined)World cup results at www.fis-ski.com
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Discography

Singles

References

External links

* *
pernilla-wiberg.com
– official site
Pernilla Wiberg Hotel
in Sweden. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wiberg, Pernilla Swedish female alpine skiers Olympic alpine skiers of Sweden International Olympic Committee members Alpine skiers at the 1992 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1994 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 1998 Winter Olympics Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics Olympic gold medalists for Sweden Olympic silver medalists for Sweden Swedish expatriate sportspeople in Monaco Olympic medalists in alpine skiing 1970 births Living people People from Norrköping FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions Medalists at the 1998 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1994 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 1992 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Östergötland County