Skiing
Svindal signs off in style with silver in his final race
With a last great show, the Norwegian legend says goodbye to ski racing, while we look back at his stellar career.
Aksel Lund Svindal ended his phenomenal skiing career with downhill silver at the 2019 FIS World Championships in Åre, Sweden.
Only 0.02s separated him from team-mate Kjetil Jansrud in the very last race, landing him – after being in the lead mid-race – in a nail-biting second-place finish.
After several injuries and as many successful comebacks, the 36-year-old 'Norwegian Viking' decided to bow out in style, admitting earlier this season he had pushed the limit further than his knees were able to tolerate. However, he leaves a glittering legacy as one of the most successful alpine skiers in history.
Aksel Lund Svindal is that rarest of creatures – the truly nice guy who finished first.
Svindal’s magnificent achievements – double Olympic champion, double overall World Cup champion, five-time world champion, to name but a few – could only have been executed by a man with raging and unyielding intensity, commitment and passion for racing.
That determination radiates out from underneath the big smile.
Yet Aksel is a real gentleman, a genuinely kind human being, and someone who always instinctively understood the responsibilities that came with being a serial alpine champion.
World Cup record
- World Cup titles: 11 Overall (2), downhill (2), super-G (5), giant slalom (1) and combined (1)
- World Cup wins: 36 – Downhill (14), super-G (17), giant slalom (4) and combined (1)
- World Cup podiums: 80 First (36), second (19) and third (25). Downhill 32 (14-8-10), Super-G 30 (17-6-7), Giant slalom 10 (4-2-4), Combined 7 (1-2-4) and Parallel slalom 1 (0-1-0)
- World Cup debut: October 28, 2001, giant slalom, Solden
- Total number of World Cup seasons: 17 (2002-2014, 2016-2019)
- World Cup starts: 386
Back in 2010, for instance, his team-mates just marvelled how, on the bus to the downhill in Whistler, the biggest race of his career, he spent the trip handing out freshly-baked rolls that he’d bought, while encouraging his young team-mates.
Eight years later, he and his great pal Kjetil Jansrud were to be found chilling out, laughing and playing cards together just 20 minutes before their historic first and second places in Pyeongchang.
That was Aksel – the chilled team-mate who'd be as friendly as he can be, and then instantly transform into the racing legend, completed with manic game face, as he roared down the mountain.
Watch him racing the infamous Streif downhill in Kitzbühel:
1 h 55 min
Streif
Four world-class skiers prepare to take on the ultimate challenge in downhill ski racing: the Streif.
Like all the finest racers seeking to shave off hundredths of a second on the most precipitous lines, Svindal occasionally paid the price with horrendous falls and injuries. Yet his calmness, his refusal to feel sorry for himself and his streak of resilience were an object lesson in indefatigability.
Take Kitzbühel in 2016; just hours after a terrible crash on the Hahnenkamm, he lay in a hospital bed next to a fellow faller playing rock-paper-scissors to see which of them should get operated on first.
Watch him race the Birds of Prey downhill:
15 min
Crunch time
Skiers take on one of the most iconic downhill tracks, the Birds of Prey in Beaver Creek, Colorado, USA.
Then there was his infamous aerial crash on the Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek in 2007. The hospital doctors in Vail told him he had an 11cm deep laceration in his thigh, his teeth had cracked, his intestines had been rearranged, a bone in his back had fractured and he’d need his appendix removed.
“Then almost as an afterthought, they told me, ‘Oh, you’ve got five broken bones in your face too.’ I thought, that’s at the end, like a bonus? That can’t be good,” he laughed at the time.
Yet while others would go out of their minds with boredom during the long, dark hours of rehabilitation, Svindal would turn his agile mind to improving himself.
Other career highlights
- Olympic Games medals: 4 – Gold (Pyeongchang 2018 downhill, Vancouver 2010 super-G), Silver (Vancouver 2010 downhill) and Bronze (Vancouver 2010 giant slalom) Olympics (4): (2006-2018) Olympic races (15)
- World Championship medals: 9 – Gold (Åre 2007, downhill and giant slalom, Val-d’Isère 2009 combined, Garmisch 2011 combined, Schladming 2013 downhill), Silver (Bormio 2005 combined, Åre 2019 downhill) and Bronze (Val-d’Isère 2009 super-G, Schladming 2013 super-G) World championships competed (8): (2003-2015, 2019) World championships starts (30)
- Most successful venues: Lake Louise - 8 World Cup victories (2 downhill, 6 super-G) Val Gardena - 7 (2 downhill, 5 super-G) and Beaver Creek - 6 (4 downhill, 1 combined, 1 super-G)
- Junior World Skiing Championships record: 2002 (Gold combined, Silver super-G, Bronze downhill and slalom)
Once during a long injury layoff, this serious environmentalist packed himself off to Silicon Valley to meet tech entrepreneurs, preparing for life beyond the white circus and helping him form the ideas for a successful new sustainable fashion line.
“In a few years’ time, no-one will mention my name,” he told the press in Åre this week, typically downplaying the enormity of his legacy.
For once, Svindal had it wrong. Skiing won’t forget Aksel, the champion who won while showing the world how you should win – with modesty and charm, with style and a smile.
Svindal's milestones
- At 35, he became the oldest skier to win an Olympic gold medal in alpine skiing at Pyeongchang 2018 (Austria’s Mario Matt, the slalom champion in Sochi 2014 was 34)
- Became the first Norwegian ever to win gold in the Olympic men’s downhill (after they had previously won four silver medals)
- The first man to win Olympic gold in both speed events – downhill and super-G (Austrian woman Michaela Dorfmeister won both in Turin in 2006)
- The only man to have won three major global downhill titles – World Championships in 2007 and 2013 and Olympics in 2018
- He's won World Cup races in 12 different seasons. Only Sweden’s Ingemar Stenmark, 13, has won in more
- When he won the 2013 downhill title in Schladming, Svindal became the first male racer to win titles in four straight consecutive championships.
#ThankYouAksel, for everything you have given to the sport, for the thrill you shared with your fans and the kindness you've shown to the world.