Ole Einar Bjørndalen (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈûːɽə ˈæ̂ɪnɑr ˈbjø̂ːɳˌɖɑːɫn̩]; born 27 January 1974) is a retired Norwegian professional biathlete and coach, often referred to by the nickname, the "King of Biathlon". With 14 Winter Olympic Games medals, he is second on the list of multiple medalists behind Marit Bjørgen who has won 15 medals. He is also the most successful biathlete of all time at the Biathlon World Championships, having won 45 medals. With 95 World Cup wins, Bjørndalen is ranked first all-time for career victories on the Biathlon World Cup tour. He has won the Overall World Cup title six times, in 1997–98, in 2002–03, in 2004–05, in 2005–06, in 2007–08 and in 2008–09.
In 1992, he won his first career medal at the junior world championships. A year later in 1993, after winning three junior world championship titles, a medal haul only previously achieved by Sergei Tchepikov, Bjørndalen made his Biathlon World Cup debut. His breakthrough came in 1994 when he featured on his first World Cup podium in a sprint race held in Bad Gastein, Austria. Bjørndalen first competed in the Olympic Games at the Lillehammer 1994 Winter Olympics, held in his home country of Norway. He obtained his first major victory on 11 January 1996 in an individual competition held in Antholz-Anterselva, Italy. On 20 February 2014, Bjørndalen was elected to an eight-year term at the International Olympic Committee's athlete commission. He resigned from this role in 2016 as he elected to continue his career.
At the age of 16 Bjørndalen left home to pursue his sporting career at a sports academy in Geilo, where he initially trained in both cross-country skiing and biathlon, although after one year there he decided to focus on the latter.
In 1993, at the age of 19, Bjørndalen first came into focus by winning 3 out of 4 possible gold medals at the Junior Biathlon World Championships, which among other things led to him being chosen to represent Norway in the 1994 Olympics, at the cost of highly merited biathlete Eirik Kvalfoss. At those Games Bjørndalen's best finish was a 28th position in the sprint.
He has won the World Cup six times (1997–98, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2007–08, and 2008–09), finished second six times (1996–97, 1998–99, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2003–04, and 2006–07), and third once (2001–02). In his first season (1992–93) he finished 62nd, the season after, 30th and the season after that, fourth. In the 1995–96 season, he dropped down to ninth, but finished in the runner-up position in 1996–97. When winning the overall world cup in 1998, at the age of 24, he won titles at each of the three major championships in biathlon in one season – a world championship gold medal, an Olympic gold medal and the overall World Cup title. He finished second in the overall World Cup for the following three seasons and then third in 2001–02.
His World Cup podium record is 179 podium finishes, 95 1st places, 53 2nd places, and 31 3rd places in the individual events. Bjørndalen has 1 World Cup victory in the team event. In relay Bjørndalen has won 37 races, he has also 21 2nd places and 14 3rd.places. In total he has 72 podium finishes in the world cup, relay event. Bjørndalen has 259 World cup podium finishes, individual, team and relay races combined in Biathlon, and 5 podium finishes in cross-country skiing World cup. In total Ole Einar Bjørndalen has 257 World cup podium finishes. When he took his 87th World Cup race victory in February 2009, he overtook Ingemar Stenmark as the skier with the most World Cup wins in history.
Bjørndalen has won the Sprint world cup nine times in the seasons: 1994–1995, 1996–1997, 1997–1998, 1999–2000, 2000–01, 2002–03, 2004–05, 2007–08 and 2008–09. Ole Einar Bjoerndalen also came 2nd in the Sprint world cup in the seasons: 2003–04 and 2005–06. Ole Einar has won Pursuit world cup five times from 1999 to 1900, 2002–03, 2005–06, 2007–08 and 2008–09. He has 2nd place in the seasons 2000–01, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2006–07 and 3rd places in 1996–97, 1998–99 and 2001–02. Bjoerndalen has been winner of the Mass start world cup five times in: 2002–03, 2004–05, 2005–06, 2006–07 and 2007–08. He came 2nd in 2000–01, 2003–04 and 2008–09.
Ole Einar Bjoerndalen was number 3 in the Mass start world cup in the season 1998–99. He has also once won the Individual distance world cup. It was in 2004–05. Bjoerndalen has also finished number 2 in the 1998–99, 2000–01, 2001–02 and 2005–06 seasons.
Ole Einar also came 3rd in the 1997–98 season. He has won a total of 20 times, 13 times finished in second place and five times came in 3rd place. Overall, he has been on the podium 38 times.
Bjørndalen has won the relay world cup 11 times in the seasons: 1997–98, 1999–00, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2009–10, 2010–11, 2015–16 and 2017–18. He has 6 times finished second in the world cup relay in: 1996–97, 2006–07, 2008–09, 2011–12, 2012–13 and 2014–15.
Bjoerndalen also came in third place in 1998–99 and 2002–03. Altogether he has been on the podium 19 seasons in the world cup relay. Bjørndalen has won the mixed relay world cup 4 times. It happened in the seasons: 2012–13, 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16.
Bjørndalen has won (together with the Norwegian biathlon team) the nations cup ten times. It happened in the: 1998–99, 2002–03, 2003–04, 2004–05, 2007–08, 2008–09, 2010–11, 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16 season. Bjørndalen has also achieved five-second places in the nations cup in the years: 1999–00, 2000–01, 2001–02, 2005–06 and 2012–13. He has finished in third place in the nations cup 3 times, in the: 1996–97, 1997–98 and 2006–07 season. In total he has finished 18 times at the podium in the nations cup for men.
He is the only biathlete ever to win all biathlon events in a single Winter Olympics (2002 Salt Lake City Games). This encompassed the sprint, pursuit, individual, and relay events, the latter together with three other participants. He was the most successful competitor at these Games. This also made him only the third Winter Olympian to win four golds at one Games, and he was also the first biathlete to win more than two gold medals at a single Games. In addition, he had won all three competitions staged at the Olympic test event in Salt Lake City the previous year. He also took a four gold medal haul at the Biathlon World Championships 2005 in Hochfilzen, Austria and at the Biathlon World Championships 2009 in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Bjørndalen's 95 biathlon World Cup victories and one cross-country victory is two behind of Gunda Niemann-Stirnemann's record of 98 World Cup victories for a winter sport athlete.
At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Bjørndalen took three medals from five events, winning two silvers and a bronze. At the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Bjørndalen became the most successful biathlete in Winter Olympic history by surpassing the previous record of nine career Olympic medals, which he shared with Uschi Disl of Germany. He then anchored Norway to gold in the 4 × 7.5 km relay. This was the second time that Norway had won a title in this event, with the other being at the 2002 Winter Olympics (also anchored by Bjørndalen). With this victory he became the second most decorated Winter Olympian of all time and one of only two athletes to win 11 medals at the Winter Olympics. With his gold medal in 10 km sprint at the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, he tied fellow Norwegian Bjørn Dæhlie for most Winter Olympic medals, with 12 in total, before overtaking Dæhlie by winning his second gold of the Games as part of the Norwegian mixed relay team.
Bjørndalen has won eight Olympic gold medals, four silver and a bronze. He has also won 20 World Championship gold medals, 14 silver and 11 bronze (more than anybody in biathlon history), along with a record 95 World Cup victories in biathlon and 1 World Cup victory in cross-country skiing, 179 podium finishes in biathlon individual races and 3 in cross-country skiing. He also finished in the top three of the Overall World Cup rankings for a record thirteen successive seasons between the 1996–97 and 2008–09 seasons. In total Ole Einar Bjørndalen has won 44 Norwegian Championship gold medals. He has won 30 gold medals in the Norwegian Championship, biathlon, winter event: 20 individual gold medals: individual (4), sprint (6), pursuit (6), mass start (4) and 10 gold medals in relay and the team event: relay (8) and team (2). Bjørndalen has also achieved 14 individual gold medals in the Norwegian Championship, biathlon, summer event: sprint (7) and pursuit (7).