Biathlon skier Ole Einar Bjorndalen broke Bjorn Daehlie’s record of 46 World Cup victories on Sunday last week.
Five-time Olympic Gold medal winner, Ole Einar Bjorndalen of Norway had 45 World Cup victories at the beginning of last week and (first) tied Bjorn Dahlie’s record of 46 World Cup victories (see related story: Bjorndalen Closing In On Daehlie’s Record http://www.fasterskier.com/news.php?id=1752 ) when he won the sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany on Saturday by beating Raphael Poiree by 3.6 seconds. On Sunday he also won the pursuit by beating Lars Berger by 37 seconds and now stands with 47 World Cup victories!
Bjorndalen is also competing in cross country skiing until the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, but says that he will stop racing cross country after the Olympics and only compete in Biathlon in order to focus on the overall biathlon World Cup.
He is not thinking about alpine skier Ingemar Stenmark’s record of 86 World Cup victories.
– No that would be nuts. It would be crazy to think about things like that, says Bjorndalen.
Bjorndalen hopes however to race another 150 biathlon World Cup races before he retires after the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada.Â
Five Olympic Gold medals and two Worlds titles has not reduced his desire to win
– I’m privileged and lucky to be able to do what I like the best — to train for racing.
– I have learned a lot from my idol Bjorn Daehlie about motivation. I want to be best in everything. Best in skiing and best in shooting. He was incredible at wanting to be the best and did things in his training approach that no-one had ever done before him, said Bjorndalen after the race on Sunday.
Source: Norwegian newspaper VG ( www.VG.no )
