Anja Paerson Famous Skier By Agata Michalowicz

Anja was born on the 25 th of April She comes from Sweden, the village she comes from is called Tärnaby, the village of 500 people in the north of Sweden. The sport she does is Alpine skiing.

On her way, Anja from Sweden encountered Janica the Croat. Pärson and Kostelic, a formidable rivalry which drove the pair to dominate the world of alpine skiing. For Anja, the Olympic Games began in 2002 in Salt Lake City. Like most Scandinavians, she excelled in the technical events, winning two Olympic medals, silver in the giant slalom (behind Kostelic) and bronze in the slalom. As time went on, the Swede improved in the speed events. In 2006 at the Games in Turin, she placed third in the combined, a performance she repeated in the downhill. But slalom was still her favourite event. On 22 February 2006, Anja Pärson won the Olympic slalom…and her first gold medal.

If you were wondering what slalom means here it is: Alpine skiing has four different disciplines - downhill, super-G, giant slalom, slalom. Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles (gates) spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom. The slalom is the most technically challenging of all, and putting a ski a fraction out of place can be the difference between a gold medal and instant disqualification. Each skier has two runs down the course. They must pass through alternate red and blue gates, set along the course at intervals of between 0.75m and 15m.

In one of the pictures you saw she crashed here is what happened: A crash and a In Vancouver, Anja was hoping to excel once more. It was now in the speed events that she bronze could best display her talent. In the downhill, she was on course for a medal but lost her balance on the last jump and fell over more than 60 metres. It looked worse than it was, but the champion was badly shaken. The next day, she overcame her fear and was back on the course at Whistler for the combined. This time, there was no fall and a splendid third place. This bronze was her sixth Olympic medal. With seven small and large crystal globes and 41 World Cup victories, the bomb from Tärnaby is quite simply one of the greatest female skiers.