Aksel Lund Svindal


Aksel Lund Svindal is a Norwegian former World Cup alpine ski racer.
Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined. With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.
With his successes many consider him the best Norwegian alpine skier ever. While the great Kjetil Andre Aamodt has been more successful at the Olympics, Svindal is by far the most successful on the World Cup circuit.
In late-January 2019, he announced his retirement from alpine skiing following the 2019 Ski World Championships.

Career

During his career, Svindal won nine World Championship medals, four Olympic medals, two overall World Cup and nine discipline titles, and 36 World Cup races. Additionally, he won four medals at the World Junior Championships in 2002, including gold in combined.
On 27 November 2007, during the first training run for the Birds of Prey downhill race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Svindal crashed badly after landing a jump. He somersaulted into a safety fence and was taken to Vail Valley Medical Center with broken bones in his face and a six-inch laceration to his groin and abdominal area. Svindal missed the remainder of the 2008 season, and returned to World Cup racing in October 2008. His first two victories following his return were a downhill and a super-G in Beaver Creek, on the same Birds of Prey course where he was injured the year before.
At the 2009 World Championships, Svindal won the gold in the super combined. Completing his comeback during the 2009 season, Svindal won his second overall World Cup over Benjamin Raich of Austria. Entering the last race of the season, a slalom at the World Cup finals in Åre, Sweden, Svindal led Raich by just two points. They had won the two previous races, with Svindal leading but Raich was the favourite as a specialist in slalom. Both skiers went off course and did not finish the slalom, so the Norwegian became the overall World Cup winner. He also won his fourth discipline title, his second in super G.
At the 2010 Winter Olympics on 15 February, Svindal won the silver medal in the downhill competition in Whistler, 0.07 seconds behind the winner, Didier Défago of Switzerland, and 0.02 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Bode Miller of the United States. Svindal's medal was Norway's hundredth silver medal at the Winter Olympics, the most for any nation.
Four days later on 19 February, Svindal won the super-G, his first-ever Olympic gold medal – ahead of Miller and Andrew Weibrecht, both of the U.S.
Svindal successfully defended his world title in the super combined in 2011 at Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany.
After an Achilles tendon injury in October 2014, Svindal did not compete in World Cup events during the 2015 season. He did enter the World Championships in Colorado in February, and placed sixth in both the downhill and super-G events.
After his season long injury, Svindal had a very strong start to the 2016 season. He managed seven world cup victories before he sustained a season-ending knee injury under tough conditions in Kitzbühel, Austria.
After a fairly good start to the 2016–2017 season including 1 World Cup win, for the third straight season he suffered a season ending/interrupting injury, and this time missed both the majority of the World Cup season and the 2017 World Alpine Ski Championships.
He won another Olympic Gold in the downhill event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, becoming the oldest ever Alpine skiing gold medallist.
In his final race, the downhill at the 2019 World Alpine Ski Championships in Åre in February of that year, Svindal finished second in a Norwegian one-two, being pipped to the gold by team-mate Kjetil Jansrud by a margin of two hundredths of a second.

Personal life

Svindal dated alpine racer Julia Mancuso of the U.S. for three years, until the couple split up in September 2013.
In his spare time he devotes himself to freeskiing and has already appeared in several freeskiing film documentaries.
One of his best friends is his teammate Kjetil Jansrud.

World Cup results

Season titles

11 titles:
SeasonDiscipline
2006Super-G
2007Overall
2007Giant slalom
2007Combined
2009Overall
2009Super-G
2012Super-G
2013Downhill
2013Super-G
2014Downhill
2014Super-G

Season standings

Race victories

36 wins –
SeasonDateLocationDiscipline
2006 27 November 2005 Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G
2006 15 March 2006 Åre, SwedenDownhill
200730 November 2006 Beaver Creek, USASuper combined
200721 December 2006 Hinterstoder, AustriaGiant slalom
200714 March 2007 Lenzerheide, SwitzerlandDownhill
200715 March 2007 Lenzerheide, SwitzerlandSuper-G
200717 March 2007 Lenzerheide, SwitzerlandGiant slalom
200828 October 2007 Sölden, AustriaGiant slalom
200825 November 2007 Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G
20095 December 2008 Beaver Creek, USADownhill
20096 December 2008 Beaver Creek, USASuper-G
200911 March 2009 Åre, SwedenDownhill
201018 December 2009 Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G
20118 January 2011 Adelboden, SwitzerlandGiant slalom
201227 November 2011 Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G
201214 March 2012 Schladming, AustriaDownhill
201324 November 2012 Lake Louise, CanadaDownhill
201325 November 2012 Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G
201314 December 2012 Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G
201325 January 2013 Kitzbühel, AustriaSuper-G
20133 March 2013 Kvitfjell, NorwaySuper-G
2014 1 December 2013 Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G
2014 6 December 2013 Beaver Creek, USADownhill
2014 20 December 2013 Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G
2014 29 December 2013 Bormio, ItalyDownhill
2016 28 November 2015 Lake Louise, CanadaDownhill
2016 29 November 2015 Lake Louise, CanadaSuper-G
2016 4 December 2015 Beaver Creek, USADownhill
2016 18 December 2015 Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G
2016 19 December 2015 Val Gardena, ItalyDownhill
2016 16 January 2016 Wengen, SwitzerlandDownhill
2016 22 January 2016 Kitzbühel, AustriaSuper-G
2018 2 December 2017 Beaver Creek, USADownhill
2018 16 December 2017 Val Gardena, ItalyDownhill
2018 19 January 2018 Kitzbühel, AustriaSuper-G
201914 December 2018 Val Gardena, ItalySuper-G

World Championship results

Olympic results