Name Anja Parson Siblings Frida Parson Teams 3 – (2002–2010) Spouse Filippa Radin (m. 2014) | Website anjapaerson.com Height 1.70 m Retired 15 March 2012 (age 30) | |
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Club Tarna IK Fjallvinden, Tarnaby Children Elvis Diego Anders Radin, Emmi Diego Anders Radin Parents Anders Parson, Madeline Parson Similar People Janica Kostelic, Pernilla Wiberg, Maria Hofl‑Riesch, Julia Mancuso, Nicole Hosp | ||
World Cup debut 15 March 1998 (age 16) | ||
Anja Sofia Tess Pärson ([ˈanˈja ˈpæːʂɔn]; 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. She has won a total of 42 World Cup races.
Contents
- Anja Prson tar guld i alpina VM 2007
- Anja Prson wins downhill St Moritz 2007
- Biography
- Personal life
- Season titles
- Individual races
- References
Anja Pärson tar guld i alpina VM 2007
Anja Pärson wins downhill (St. Moritz 2007)
Biography
Pärson was born in Tärnaby, Sweden and has Sami roots. 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. 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 and Ingemar Stenmark.
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.
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.
Personal life
Pärson's athletics club is Fjällvinden, Tärnaby, the same to which skiing legend Ingemar Stenmark and Stig Strand belonged.
Her height is 170 cm (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. In June 2012, Pärson announced on the Swedish radio program Sommar that she has been in a relationship with a woman for the past five years, and that they are expecting a child together. Their son, Elvis, was born on 4 July 2012. On 2 August 2014, Anja Pärson and her long-time partner Filippa Rådin married in Umeå, Sweden. Former Swedish Social Democratic Party leader Mona Sahlin officiated at the wedding. In January 2015, the couple announced that Pärson was pregnant with their second child, a boy who was born in May 2015.
Season titles
7 titles (2 overall, 3 GS, 1 SL, 1 SC)