Ole Einar Bjørndalen (born January 27, 1974) from Simostranda in Modum, southeastern Norway, is a career biathlete. He lives in the village of Toblach in Italian South Tyrol with his girlfriend, Italian biathlete Nathalie Santer. January 27 is the 27th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1974 is a common year starting on Tuesday (click on link for calendar). ... The municipality Modum in the county of Buskerud, Norway, has 12,541 inhabitants as of January 1, 2002. ... Norway - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ... The name biathlon is used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines, but usually the winter sport which combines cross_country skiing and rifle shooting is meant. ... The Italian Republic or Italy (Italian: Repubblica Italiana or Italia) is a country in southern Europe. ... South Tyrol ( German Autonome Provinz Bozen-Südtirol, Italian Provincia autonoma di Bolzano-Alto Adige, Ladin Provinzia autonóma de Bulsan-Südtirol) is an autonomous province of Italy. ...

As of the end of January 2005, Bjørndalen has won five Olympic gold medals, two World Championship gold medals, and a record high of 50 Biathlon World Cup races (the most of any biathlete to date), as well as being the total World Cup winner once (the 2002/03 season). He is the only biathlete ever to win all four biathlon events in a single Winter Olympics (2002 Salt Lake City Games). This encompasses the Sprint, Pursuit, Individual, and Relay events, the latter together with three other participants. Olympic biathlon competitions were first held at the 1960 Winter Olympic Games, when only one event, the individual race for men, was held. ... The first Biathlon World Championship (BWCH) was held in 1958, with individual (official) and relay (unofficial) contests for men. ... The Biathlon World Cup (BWC) has been held since the winter seasons of 1977/78 and 1982/83, for men and women, respectively (for women, the seasons through 1986/87 were called the European Cup, although participation was not restricted to Europeans). ...

External links

• www.bjoerndalen.de.vu/
• Short O. E. Bjørndalen biography at Wintersport.com (http://www.wintersport.as/bjoerndalen/) – Partly outdated