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Anja Pärson

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Anja Sofia Tess Pärson (Swedish pronunciation: [ˈânːja ˈpæ̌ːʂɔn]; born 25 April 1981) is a Swedish former alpine skier. She is an Olympic gold medalist, seven-time gold medalist at the World Championships, and two-time overall Alpine Skiing World Cup champion. This included winning three gold medals in the 2007 World Championship in her native Sweden. She has won a total of 42 World Cup races.[1]

Anja Pärson
Pärson in 2008
Personal information
Born (1981-04-25) 25 April 1981 (age 43)
Umeå, Sweden
OccupationAlpine skier
Height1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Skiing career
DisciplinesDownhill, super-G, slalom, combined, giant slalom
ClubTärna IK Fjällvinden
World Cup debut15 March 1998 (age 16)
Retired15 March 2012 (age 30)
Olympics
Teams3 – (2002–2010)
Medals6 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams7 – (1999–2011)
Medals13 (7 gold)
World Cup
Seasons15 – (1998–2012)
Wins42
Podiums95
Overall titles2 – (2004, 2005)
Discipline titles5 – (3 GS, 1 SL, 1 SC)
Medal record
Women's alpine skiing
Representing  Sweden
World Cup race podiums
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Slalom 17 9 7
Giant slalom 11 11 6
Downhill 6 3 6
Super-G 4 4 2
Combined 3 3 2
Parallel 1 0 0
Total 42 30 23
International competitions
Event 1st 2nd 3rd
Olympic Games 1 1 4
World Championships 7 2 4
Junior World Championships 4 0 2
Total 12 3 10
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2006 Turin Slalom
Silver medal – second place 2002 Salt Lake City Giant slalom
Bronze medal – third place 2002 Salt Lake City Slalom
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Turin Downhill
Bronze medal – third place 2006 Turin Combined
Bronze medal – third place 2010 Vancouver Combined
World Championships
Gold medal – first place 2001 St. Anton Slalom
Gold medal – first place 2003 St. Moritz Giant slalom
Gold medal – first place 2005 Bormio Super-G
Gold medal – first place 2005 Bormio Giant slalom
Gold medal – first place 2007 Åre Super-G
Gold medal – first place 2007 Åre Combined
Gold medal – first place 2007 Åre Downhill
Silver medal – second place 2005 Bormio Combined
Silver medal – second place 2007 Åre Team event
Bronze medal – third place 2001 St. Anton Giant slalom
Bronze medal – third place 2007 Åre Slalom
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Combined
Bronze medal – third place 2011 Garmisch-Partenkirchen Team event
Junior World Ski Championships
Gold medal – first place 1998 Megève Giant slalom
Gold medal – first place 1999 Pra Loup Slalom
Gold medal – first place 2000 Quebec City Slalom
Gold medal – first place 2000 Quebec City Giant slalom
Bronze medal – third place 1998 Megève Slalom
Bronze medal – third place 2000 Quebec City Super-G
Anja Pärson in Aspen in 2006
Anja Pärson in Monaco in 2006

Biography

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Pärson was born in Umeå, Sweden and has Sámi roots.[2] Pärson was introduced to ski racing by her sister, Frida, and is now trained by her father, Anders. Her first World Cup race was a giant slalom at the World Cup Finals at Crans-Montana, Switzerland (on 15 March 1998). She qualified for that race as the new junior World Champion but only finished 25th in last place. She won her first World Cup race, a slalom at Mammoth Mountain, California, in December 1998 at age 17, and her first gold medal at St. Anton, Austria, in 2001. She clinched the silver medal in the giant slalom and the bronze medal in the slalom at the 2002 Winter Olympics, and added the gold in slalom plus two more bronze medals in downhill and combined in 2006 Winter Olympics.

Pärson won the Alpine Skiing World Cup overall title in 2004 and 2005. The latter title was won by the smallest margin ever, only 3 points over her fierce rival, Janica Kostelić. Initially a slalom and giant slalom specialist, she won her first super-G and downhill races in March 2005 at San Sicario, Italy, during the pre-Olympic competitions. In total, she has won 42 World Cup races in all five disciplines.

Pärson has won seven gold medals in the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships, in 2001 (slalom), 2003 (giant slalom), 2005 (giant slalom, super-G) and 2007 (super-G, super combined, downhill). These go along with two silver and three bronze medals in other events in 2001, 2005, 2007 and 2011. With her three gold medals in 2007 at Åre, Sweden, she became the first skier in history to win World Championship golds in all five disciplines.

Pärson has earned a total of 17 individual medals in World Championships and Olympics, exceeding the record by Christl Cranz in women's alpine skiing. In men's alpine skiing this achievement has been beaten only by Kjetil André Aamodt, with 20. After two disappointing seasons (2006/07 and 2007/08 where she finished fifth and sixth in the overall cup), she was back to her best over the 2008/09 season, finishing third in the overall cup.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics, while trying to chase down eventual downhill champion Lindsey Vonn of the United States, Pärson lost her balance on the last jump before the finish, resulting in a 60-metre flight and subsequent fall, without however suffering serious injury.[3] She recovered from the fall and one day later won the bronze medal in the combined event.

With a downhill victory in March 2011, she has won at least one race for ten consecutive World Cup seasons, trailing only Alberto Tomba and Vreni Schneider who won races in eleven consecutive World Cup seasons, and equalling the mark of Renate Götschl, Ingemar Stenmark and Mikaela Shiffrin.

On 12 March 2012, Pärson officially announced her retirement, and that her last competition would be the World Cup final in Schladming the coming weekend.[4]

In 2014 she became an expert commentator for Viasat during the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

As of 2015, Pärson works as a sports expert for the broadcaster Sveriges Television, in addition to running a company with her wife.[5]

Pärson competes in the celebrity dance show Let's Dance 2017 broadcast on TV4.[6]

Personal life

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Pärson's athletics club is Fjällvinden, Tärnaby, the same to which skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark and Stig Strand belonged.

Her height is 170 cm[7] (5 ft 7 in). She was awarded the Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal in 2006 and in 2007.

After living several years in Monaco during her sports career, she returned to Sweden and has lived in Umeå since 2012.[8]

In June 2012, Pärson announced on the Swedish radio program Sommar that she has been in a relationship with a woman, Filippa Rådin, for the past five years, and that they are expecting a child together.[9] Their son, Elvis, was born on 4 July 2012.[10] On 2 August 2014, Anja Pärson and Filippa married in Umeå, Sweden. Former Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin officiated at the wedding.[11] In January 2015, the couple announced that Pärson was pregnant with their second child,[5] a boy named Maximilian who was born in May 2015.[12]

World Cup results

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Season standings

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Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
slalom		 Super-G Downhill Combined
1999 17 12 3 12 – – –
2000 18 8 3 15 39 – –
2001 19 11 10 2 – – –
2002 20 5 3 3 – – –
2003 21 3 2 1 34 – –
2004 22 1 1 1 15 42 –
2005 23 1 6 2 4 8 2
2006 24 2 3 1 9 7 2
2007 25 5 12 13 6 4 14
2008 26 6 15 15 7 4 3
2009 27 3 10 16 4 7 1
2010 28 3 16 10 7 3 2
2011 29 8 37 25 5 5 6
2012 30 32 – 39 21 28 9

Season titles

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7 titles (2 overall, 3 GS, 1 SL, 1 SC)

Season Discipline
2003 Giant slalom
2004 Overall
Giant slalom
Slalom
2005 Overall
2006 Giant slalom
2009 Combined

Individual races

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42 wins (6 DH, 4 SG, 11 GS, 18 SL, 3 SC)

Season Date Location Discipline
1999 3 Dec 1998   Mammoth Mountain, USA Slalom
2002 9 Dec 2001   Sestriere, Italy Slalom
29 Dec 2001   Lienz, Austria Slalom
5 Jan 2002   Maribor, Slovenia Slalom
6 Jan 2002 Slalom
2003 30 Nov 2002   Aspen, USA Slalom
15 Dec 2002   Sestriere, Italy KO-slalom
19 Jan 2003   Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Giant slalom
25 Jan 2003   Maribor, Slovenia Giant slalom
26 Jan 2003 Slalom
6 Mar 2003   Åre, Sweden Giant slalom
2004 28 Nov 2003   Park City, USA Giant slalom
29 Nov 2003 Slalom
16 Dec 2003   Madonna di Campiglio, Italy Slalom
28 Dec 2003   Lienz, Austria Slalom
5 Jan 2004   Megève, France Slalom
24 Jan 2004   Maribor, Slovenia Giant slalom
25 Jan 2004 Slalom
7 Feb 2004   Zwiesel, Germany Giant slalom
8 Feb 2004 Slalom
21 Feb 2004   Åre, Sweden Giant slalom
14 Mar 2004   Sestriere, Italy Giant slalom
2005 23 Nov 2004   Sölden, Austria Giant slalom
23 Jan 2005   Maribor, Slovenia Slalom
25 Feb 2005   San Sicario, Italy Super-G
26 Feb 2005 Downhill
2006 11 Dec 2005   Aspen, USA Slalom
22 Dec 2005   Špindlerův Mlýn, Czech Republic Slalom
28 Dec 2005   Lienz, Austria Giant slalom
13 Jan 2006   Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria Downhill
27 Jan 2006   Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy Super-G
4 Feb 2006   Ofterschwang, Germany Giant slalom
11 Mar 2006   Levi, Finland Slalom
15 Mar 2006   Åre, Sweden Downhill
2007 15 Mar 2007   Lenzerheide, Switzerland Super-G
2008 15 Dec 2007   St. Moritz, Switzerland Downhill
16 Dec 2007 Super-G
9 Mar 2008   Crans-Montana, Switzerland Combined
2009 19 Dec 2008   St. Moritz, Switzerland Combined
18 Jan 2009   Altenmarkt, Austria Downhill
2010 29 Jan 2010   St. Moritz, Switzerland Combined
2011 5 Mar 2011   Tarvisio, Italy Downhill

World Championship results

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  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom 		 Super-G Downhill Combined
1999 17 DNF1 DNF1 — — —
2001 19 1 3 — — —
2003 21 4 1 — — —
2005 23 DNF2 1 1 7 2
2007 25 3 DNF2 1 1 1
2009 27 9 15 DNF 12 DNF1
2011 29 — 9 10 11 3

[13]

Olympic results

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  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom 		 Super-G Downhill Combined
2002 20 3 2 — — —
2006 24 1 6 12 3 3
2010 28 DNF2 22 11 DNF 3

[14]

References

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  1. ^ Anja Pärson at the International Ski and Snowboard Federation
  2. ^ "Anjas hemliga liv". Expressen. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022. Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  3. ^ Vignal, Patrick (18 February 2010). "Paerson soars in scary crash". Reuters. Archived from the original on 30 March 2010. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  4. ^ "Audi FIS Alpine Ski World Cup – Anja Pärson announces retirement". FIS Alpine Ski World Cup. 12 March 2012. Archived from the original on 30 August 2012. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
  5. ^ a b Sunnervik, Linus; Sporrong, Olle (16 January 2015). "Anja Pärson gravid – visade upp sin mage" [Anja Paerson is pregnant - showed off her belly]. Expressen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 18 January 2015. Retrieved 18 January 2015.
  6. ^ "Anja Pärson till "Let's dance"". 13 January 2017. Archived from the original on 18 January 2017. Retrieved 29 March 2017.
  7. ^ "The Swedish team for the 2006 Olympics". Svenska Dagbladet. 8 February 2006. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009.
  8. ^ (in Swedish) Pärson flyttar hem och bildar familj | Sport | SvD Archived 2 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Svd.se (23 June 2012). Retrieved on 29 July 2013.
  9. ^ (in Swedish) Anja Pärson: Plötsligt föll jag pladask | Sport | SvD Archived 22 March 2014 at the Wayback Machine. Svd.se (23 June 2012). Retrieved on 29 July 2013.
  10. ^ (in Swedish) Anja Pärson fick en son | Sport | SvD Archived 2 November 2013 at the Wayback Machine. Svd.se (6 July 2012). Retrieved on 29 July 2013.
  11. ^ Niklasson, Anette; Emanuelsson, Eric (2 August 2014). "Anja Pärson och Filippa Rådin har gift sig" [Anja Paerson and Filippa Rådin get married]. Aftonbladet (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 28 August 2014. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
  12. ^ Friberg, Anna (27 May 2015). "Anja och Filippa har fått sitt andra barn" [Anja and Filippa has received their second child]. Expressen (in Swedish). Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  13. ^ "Athlete: PAERSON Anja". International Ski Federation. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  14. ^ "Athlete: PAERSON Anja". International Ski Federation. Archived from the original on 30 May 2016. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
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