Björn Ferry (born 1 August 1978 in
Stensele
Stensele () is a locality situated in Storuman Municipality, Västerbotten County, Sweden with 546 inhabitants in 2010. It lies not far from the municipal seat of Storuman itself. The town boasts Sweden's largest wooden church.
History
Stensele ...
,
Storuman
Storuman (, Ume Sami language, Ume Sami: ''Lusspie'') is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and the seat of Storuman Municipality in Västerbotten County, provinces of Sweden, province of Lapland, Sweden, Lapland, Sweden with 2,207 inhabitants in 2 ...
,
Västerbotten
Västerbotten (), sometimes called West Bothnia or Westrobothnia, is a province (''landskap'') in northern Sweden, located by the Gulf of Bothnia. It borders the provinces of Ångermanland, Lapland and Norrbotten. The region is famous for Väs ...
) is a former
Swedish biathlete and medal winning Olympian. He began competing internationally in World Cup competitions in 2001, but did not win his first international race until the 2007–2008 season. In 2007, he won gold in the mixed relay event at the Biathlon World Championships. In 2010, at his third
Winter Olympics
The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held i ...
appearance, he won the gold medal in the
pursuit event. He started the event in 8th place as determined by the previous sprint event, but managed to overtake the race leader on the final lap.
Career
Ferry debuted in 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 name is ...
in
Hochfilzen
Hochfilzen is a town and municipality in the Kitzbühel (district), Kitzbühel district of the Austrian state of Tyrol (state), Tyrol. It is located in the Pillersee valley 5 km east of Fieberbrunn. Population was 1,147 in 2016.
It is a popu ...
in 2001, and earned his first World Cup points after only skiing three races. He finished his first season ranked 36th in World Cup standings. In World Cup competition, he slowly improved his ranking, and by the 2006–2007 season was ranked in the top ten worldwide. His first Olympic appearance, at the
2002 Winter Olympics
The 2002 Winter Olympics, officially the XIX Olympic Winter Games and commonly known as Salt Lake 2002 (; Gosiute dialect, Gosiute Shoshoni: ''Tit'-so-pi 2002''; ; Shoshoni language, Shoshoni: ''Soónkahni 2002''), were an international wi ...
in
Salt Lake City
Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...
,
Utah
Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...
, was disappointing, but four years later at the
2006 Games in
Turin
Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...
,
Italy
Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
he was a member of a Swedish relay team that placed fourth, just off the medal stand.
Ferry has seen some of his strongest efforts and best finishes in Italy, even beyond the 2006 success. His first two World Cup victories both came in the pursuit in
Antholz-
Anterselva
Rasen-Antholz (; ) is a municipality in South Tyrol in northern Italy.
Geography
The municipal area stretches along the Antholz valley, a northern side valley of the larger Puster Valley. In the northeast, the Staller Saddle mountain pass, at a ...
, in the 2007–2008 and 2008–2009 seasons. In 2007, he won a gold medal in the mixed relay in the 2007 World Championships alongside
Helena Jonsson,
Anna Carin Olofsson, and
Carl Johan Bergman. Although his 2009–2010 season was lackluster, and Ferry saw his ranking drop from 9th to 16th place in the World Cup, Ferry was again selected for the Swedish team for the
2010 Olympic Games
The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...
in
Vancouver, British Columbia
Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
. In the
pursuit event held on February 16, Ferry finished in first place, winning the gold medal after catching and passing the race leader on the final lap of the race.
He beat second-place finisher
Christoph Sumann
Christoph "Sumi" Sumann (19 January 1976) is a former Austrian biathlete.
Life and career
As was the case with many of his fellow biathletes, Sumann switched over from cross-country skiing, which he had been doing since childhood. By the mid-199 ...
of
Austria
Austria, formally the Republic of Austria, is a landlocked country in Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine Federal states of Austria, states, of which the capital Vienna is the List of largest cities in Aust ...
by only 16.5 seconds. The victory marked the first Olympic biathlon gold for a Swedish male athlete in a half-century.
Ferry practices with the Storuman IK club. His personal coach was German
Wolfgang Pichler until Pichler left his role as coach of the Swedish biathlon team in 2010. He subsequently described the atmosphere in the team under Pichler as being like a
cult
Cults are social groups which have unusual, and often extreme, religious, spiritual, or philosophical beliefs and rituals. Extreme devotion to a particular person, object, or goal is another characteristic often ascribed to cults. The term ...
, although he praised Pichler for the energy he brought to the role.
In March 2014, Ferry confirmed that he would be retiring from the sport at the end of the
2013–14 season.
Opposition to doping
Ferry has been outspoken in his opposition to the use of banned substances by athletes who participate in international competition, a practice known as doping. In 2009, he was quoted referring to Russian athletes who had used such substances as 'idiots' and received a number of death threats. During the 2010 winter Olympics, he was quoted saying he would not mind if athletes who use banned substances would get the
death penalty
Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty and formerly called judicial homicide, is the state-sanctioned killing of a person as punishment for actual or supposed misconduct. The sentence ordering that an offender be punished in s ...
or, "at least lots of kicks in the balls."
Further comments referred to dopers as people with low moral standards and suggested that the problem of use of banned substances in sport would not go away until more severe penalties were imposed.
Personal life
Ferry is married to arm wrestler
Heidi Andersson, who has won multiple world championships in
arm wrestling
Arm wrestling (also spelled "armwrestling") is a sport in which two participants, facing each other with their bent elbows placed on a flat surface (usually a table) and hands firmly gripped, each attempt to "pin" their opponent's hand by forcing ...
.
In November 2017, he announced he'd given up flying because of the environment.
In March and April 2018, SVT aired programme series ''
Storuman Forever'', depicting the Heidi Andersson and Björn Ferry couple's climate engagement.
''
Flygskam'', translating as ‘Flight Shame’, or ‘Flight Conscience’, a social pressure not to fly because of the rising greenhouse gas emissions of the airline industry, was originally championed by Björn Ferry but has since gained considerable momentum after
Greta Thunberg
Greta Tintin Eleonora Ernman Thunberg (; born 3January 2003) is a Swedish climate activist, climate and political activist initially known for challenging world leaders to take immediate action to climate change mitigation, mitigate the effec ...
’s refusal to fly on environmental grounds. Sweden has reported a 4% drop in domestic travel for 2019 and a 9% increase in rail use. The
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
claims that the movement could halve the growth of global air travel, but Airbus and Boeing claim that it will continue to grow at around 4% until 2035.
Biathlon results
All results are sourced from the
International Biathlon Union
The International Biathlon Union (IBU; ) is the international governing body of biathlon. Its headquarters were in Salzburg, Austria, until May 2020, when the Federation moved to Anif, on the outskirts of the city. It was rocked by a corruption ...
.
Olympic Games
''1 medal (1 gold)''
:''*Mass start was added as an event in 2006, with the mixed relay being added in 2014.''
World Championships
''3 medals (1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze)''
:''*During Olympic seasons competitions are only held for those events not included in the Olympic program.''
:''**The mixed relay was added as an event in 2005.''
Individual victories
''7 victories (2 Sp, 4 Pu, 1 MS)''
:''*Results are from UIPMB and IBU races which include the
Biathlon World Cup
The Biathlon World Cup is a top-level biathlon season-long competition series. It has been held since the winter seasons of 1977–78 for men and 1982–83 for women. The women's seasons until 1986–87 season were called the European Cup, alt ...
,
Biathlon World Championships
The first Biathlon World Championships (BWCH) was held in 1958, with individual and team contests for men. The original team event, Team (time), was held for the last time in 1965, to be replaced in 1966 by the team event, Relay (4 × 7.5 km) ...
and the
Winter Olympic Games
The Winter Olympic Games (), also known as the Winter Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event held once every four years for sports practiced on snow and ice. The first Winter Olympic Games, the 1924 Winter Olympics, were held in ...
.''
Cross-country skiing results
All results are sourced from the
International Ski Federation (FIS).
World Cup
Season standings
References
External links
*
2001 interview with Björn Ferry
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferry, Bjorn
1978 births
Living people
Swedish male biathletes
Biathletes at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Biathletes at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Biathletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Biathletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Olympic biathletes for Sweden
Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Olympic medalists in biathlon
Olympic gold medalists for Sweden
Biathlon World Championships medalists
People from Stensele