Thierry Gueorgiou (; born 30 March 1979) is a French orienteer who has won more than 20

gold medal A gold medal is a medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture. Since the eighteenth century, gold medals have be ...

s in international competitions, including the

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 2 ...

(WOC) middle distance event eight times: 2003–2005, 2007–2009, 2011 and 2017. In November 2016 it was announced he will become the Swedish national team head coach following the 2017 World Championships.

Clubs

Gueorgiou runs for two orienteering clubs, the French NO St-Etienne and the Finnish

Kalevan Rasti Kalevan Rasti is an orienteering club based in Finland. Recently it has been one of the most successful clubs in world orienteering, winning the Jukola and Tiomila relays multiple times. The club won the Tiomila relay in 1983 with Risto Vairin ...

. With Kalevan Rasti he has won the Jukola Relay five times (2004, 2005, 2007, 2013 and 2014). Running for

Fédération Française de Course d'Orientation The French Orienteering Federation (french: Fédération Française de Course d'Orientation) (FFCO) is the national orienteering Federation of France. It is a full member of the International Orienteering Federation.http://www.orienteering.org/ ...

, he made his senior international debut at WOC 1997 in

Grimstad Grimstad () is a municipality in Agder county, Norway. It belongs to the geographical region of Sørlandet. The administrative center of the municipality is the town of Grimstad. Some of the villages in Grimstad include Eide, Espenes, Fevik ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

, at the age of 18.

World Orienteering Championships

After his Debut in 1997, it took Gueorgiou 6 years to achieve his first medal. Gueorgiou has said that this was his hardest period in orienteering. in 2001 Gueorgiou came 19th in the Short distance after a near perfect run, which led him to make changes to his technique that would eventually lead him to multiple world championship victories. His breakthrough season came in 2003, where he won his first gold medal in the Middle Distance. Gueorgiou has since won all 3 individual disciplines, winning the Sprint Distance for the first time in

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

in 2007 and the Long Distance for the first time in 2011. Gueorgiou won his most recent Long Distance gold medal in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the April ...

, winning the gold in the Long Distance at Glen Affric ahead of

Daniel Hubmann Daniel Hubmann (born 16 April 1983 in Eschlikon, Thurgau) is a Swiss orienteering competitor, world champion in all three individual disciplines and multiple winner of the overall Orienteering World Cup. He is the brother of Martin Hubmann. Da ...

and

Olav Lundanes Olav Lundanes (born 11 November 1987) is a Norwegian orienteering competitor, hailing from Ålesund. He has won gold medal at the World Orienteering Championships ten times and the European Orienteering Championships four times. He competes for ...

. Thierry has won 14 gold medals at world championships. Gueorgiou announced his retirement from international competition after the

2017 World Orienteering Championships The 34th World Orienteering Championships were held in Tartu, Estonia in June/July 2017. The official name of the event is Nokian Tyres World Orienteering Championships 2017 after the title sponsor Nokian Tyres Nokian Tyres plc ( fi, Nokian Re ...

Estonia Estonia, formally the Republic of Estonia, is a country by the Baltic Sea in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, an ...

, where he won his final gold medal in the Middle Distance. Gueorgiou was a member of the French relay team at WOC 2008 in Olomouc,

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. While running in a clear lead on the third leg, he suffered a bee sting on the back of his

tongue The tongue is a muscular organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for mastication and swallowing as part of the digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper surface (dorsum) is covered by taste ...

. He left the course to go directly to the finish, where he collapsed, barely able to breathe. He was transported by helicopter to a hospital.

Martin Johansson 2009 WOC injury

At WOC 2009 in Miskolc, Hungary, during the last leg of the relay race Gueorgiou,

Anders Nordberg Anders Nordberg (born 17 February 1978) is a Norwegian orienteering competitor. He received a bronze medal at the 2004 World Orienteering Championship, and again a bronze medal in 2007.

(Norway), and

Michal Smola Michal Smola (born 21 December 1981) is a Czech orienteering competitor, silver medalist from the world championships, and junior world champion. He became Junior World Champion in the ''short distance'' in Nove Mesto na Morave in 2000, and wi ...

(Czech Republic) were close behind the lead runner, Martin Johansson (Sweden), when Johansson suffered a 12 cm deep

penetrating trauma Penetrating trauma is an open wound injury that occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters a tissue of the body, creating a deep but relatively narrow entry wound. In contrast, a blunt or ''non-penetrating'' trauma may have some deep da ...

from a stick in his right

thigh In human anatomy, the thigh is the area between the hip ( pelvis) and the knee. Anatomically, it is part of the lower limb. The single bone in the thigh is called the femur. This bone is very thick and strong (due to the high proportion of ...

. While Nordberg ran for help, Gueorgiou and Smola stayed with Johansson. Gueorgiou pulled out the stick, then applied compression to the wound using his own shirt and

GPS tracking A GPS tracking unit, geotracking unit, satellite tracking unit, or simply tracker is a navigation device normally on a vehicle, asset, person or animal that uses satellite navigation to determine its movement and determine its WGS84 UTM g ...

harness. Gueorgiou and Smola then carried Johansson to a road. Nordberg brought a physician there.

World Championship results

Style of orienteering

Gueorgiou has stated in interviews that his style is "Full speed, no mistakes". Gueorgiou is noted for his incredible map- reading, and is frequently named as "The King of Middle Distance" for his multiple victories at world championships. Alongside his victories in Classic foot orienteering, Gueorgiou was the 2006 European champion in

trail orienteering Trail orienteering (TrailO) is an orienteering sport that involves precise reading of an orienteering map and the corresponding terrain. Trail orienteers must identify, in the terrain and in the presence of decoys, control points shown on the map ...

Personal life

Gueorgiou's

nickname A nickname is a substitute for the proper name of a familiar person, place or thing. Commonly used to express affection, a form of endearment, and sometimes amusement, it can also be used to express defamation of character. As a concept, it is ...

is Tero and he is commonly known as Tero Kettunen in Finland and Terje Gundersen in Norway. He was born in St. Étienne, and currently lives in

Uppsala Uppsala (, or all ending in , ; archaically spelled ''Upsala'') is the county seat of Uppsala County and the fourth-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm, Gothenburg, and Malmö. It had 177,074 inhabitants in 2019. Located north of the ca ...

, Sweden with his partner elite orienteer Annika Billstam.

References

External links

Nordberg, Smola and Gueorgiou are jogging to the finish of the 2009 relay in Miskolc. Gueorgiou lost his shirt to harness the wound of Johansson
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gueorgiou, Thierry 1979 births Living people French orienteers Male orienteers Foot orienteers World Orienteering Championships medalists World Games gold medalists Competitors at the 2005 World Games French expatriate sportspeople in Sweden World Games medalists in orienteering Junior World Orienteering Championships medalists