Aksel Lund Svindal

Born in Lørenskog in Akershus county, Svindal is a two-time overall World Cup champion (2007 and 2009), an Olympic gold medalist in super-G at the 2010 Winter Olympics and in downhill at the 2018 Winter Olympics, and a five-time World Champion in downhill, giant slalom, and super combined (2007 Åre, 2009 Val-d'Isère, 2011 Garmisch, and 2013 Schladming). With his victory in the downhill in 2013, Svindal became the first male alpine racer to win titles in four consecutive world championships.

Aksel Lund Svindal

Svindal in February 2011
Personal information
Born	(1982-12-26) 26 December 1982 (age 41)
Occupation	Alpine skier
Height	189 cm (6 ft 2 in)
Skiing career
Disciplines	Downhill, super-G, giant slalom, combined
Club	Nero Alpin
World Cup debut	28 October 2001 (age 18)
Retired	9 February 2019 (age 36)
Website	aksellundsvindal.com
Olympics
Teams	4 – (2006, 2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals	4 (2 gold)
World Championships
Teams	8 – (2003–15, 2019)
Medals	9 (5 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	17 – (2002–14, 2016–19)
Wins	36
Podiums	80
Overall titles	2 – (2007, 2009)
Discipline titles	9 – (2 DH, 5 SG, 1 GS, 1 K)
Medal record International alpine ski competitions Event 1st 2nd 3rd Olympic Games 2 1 1 World Championships 5 2 2 Total 7 3 3 World Cup race podiums Event 1st 2nd 3rd Slalom 0 0 0 Giant 4 2 4 Super-G 17 6 7 Downhill 14 8 10 Combined 1 2 4 Parallel 0 1 0 Total 36 19 25 Olympic Games 2010 Vancouver Super-G 2018 Pyeongchang Downhill 2010 Vancouver Downhill 2010 Vancouver Giant slalom World Championships 2007 Åre Downhill 2007 Åre Giant slalom 2009 Val-d'Isère Combined 2011 Garmisch Combined 2013 Schladming Downhill 2005 Bormio Combined 2019 Åre Downhill 2009 Val-d'Isère Super-G 2013 Schladming Super-G Junior World Ski Championships 2002 Tarvisio Combined 2002 Tarvisio Super-G 2002 Tarvisio Downhill 2002 Tarvisio Slalom

He is sometimes considered the best Norwegian alpine skier ever.^{[citation needed]} While Kjetil Andre Aamodt has been more successful at the Olympics, Svindal is by far the most successful on the World Cup circuit.

In January 2019, he announced his retirement from alpine skiing following the 2019 Ski World Championships.

During his career, Svindal won nine World Championship medals, four Olympic medals (two of them gold), two overall World Cup and nine discipline titles (in downhill, super-G, giant slalom, and combined), and 36 World Cup races. Additionally, he won four medals at the World Junior Championships in 2002, including gold in combined.

On 27 November 2007, during the first training run for the Birds of Prey downhill race in Beaver Creek, Colorado, Svindal crashed badly after landing a jump. He somersaulted into a safety fence and was taken to Vail Valley Medical Center (now Vail Health Hospital) with broken bones in his face and a six-inch (15 cm) laceration to his groin and abdominal area. Svindal missed the remainder of the 2008 season, and returned to World Cup racing in October 2008. His first two victories following his return were a downhill and a super-G in Beaver Creek, on the same Birds of Prey course where he was injured the year before.

 

At the 2009 World Championships, Svindal won the gold in the super combined. Completing his comeback during the 2009 season, Svindal won his second overall World Cup over Benjamin Raich of Austria. Entering the last race of the season, a slalom at the World Cup finals in Åre, Sweden, Svindal led Raich by just two points. They had won the two previous races (a downhill and giant slalom respectively), with Svindal leading but Raich was the favourite as a specialist in slalom. Both skiers went off course and did not finish the slalom, so the Norwegian became the overall World Cup winner. He also won his fourth discipline title, his second in super G.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics on 15 February, Svindal won the silver medal in the downhill competition in Whistler, 0.07 seconds behind the winner, Didier Défago of Switzerland, and 0.02 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Bode Miller of the United States. Svindal's medal was Norway's hundredth silver medal at the Winter Olympics, the most for any nation.

Four days later on 19 February, Svindal won the super-G, his first-ever Olympic gold medal – ahead of Miller (+ 0.28 seconds) and Andrew Weibrecht (+ 0.31 seconds), both of the U.S.

Svindal successfully defended his world title in the super combined in 2011 at Garmish-Partenkirchen, Germany.

After an Achilles tendon injury in October 2014, Svindal did not compete in World Cup events during the 2015 season. He did enter the World Championships in Colorado in February, and placed sixth in both the downhill and super-G events.

After his season long injury, Svindal had a very strong start to the 2016 season. He managed seven world cup victories before he sustained a season-ending knee injury under tough conditions in Kitzbühel, Austria.

After a fairly good start to the 2016–2017 season including 1 World Cup win, for the third straight season he suffered a season ending/interrupting injury, and this time missed both the majority of the World Cup season and the 2017 World Alpine Ski Championships.

He won another Olympic Gold in the downhill event at the 2018 Winter Olympics, becoming the oldest ever Alpine skiing gold medallist.

In his final race, the downhill at the 2019 World Alpine Ski Championships in Åre in February of that year, Svindal finished second in a Norwegian one-two, being pipped to the gold by team-mate Kjetil Jansrud by a margin of two hundredths of a second.

Svindal dated alpine racer Julia Mancuso of the U.S. for three years, until the couple split up in September 2013.

Svindal has been in a relationship with Danish-Norwegian hurdler Amalie Iuel since 2020. The couple welcomed their first child, a son, in September 2023. A month later, they announced their engagement.

In his spare time, he devotes himself to freeskiing, and has already appeared in several freeskiing film documentaries.

One of his best friends is his teammate Kjetil Jansrud.

Season titles

11 titles: (2 overall, 2 Downhill, 5 Super-G, 1 Giant slalom, 1 Combined)

Season standings

Standings through 17 March 2019

Race victories

36 wins – (14 DH, 17 SG, 4 GS, 1 SC)

Season	Date	Location	Discipline
2006	27 November 2005	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
	15 March 2006	Åre, Sweden	Downhill
2007	30 November 2006	Beaver Creek, USA	Super combined
	21 December 2006	Hinterstoder, Austria	Giant slalom
	14 March 2007	Lenzerheide, Switzerland	Downhill
	15 March 2007		Super-G
	17 March 2007		Giant slalom
2008	28 October 2007	Sölden, Austria	Giant slalom
	25 November 2007	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
2009	5 December 2008	Beaver Creek, USA	Downhill
	6 December 2008		Super-G
	11 March 2009	Åre, Sweden	Downhill
2010	18 December 2009	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
2011	8 January 2011	Adelboden, Switzerland	Giant slalom
2012	27 November 2011	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
	14 March 2012	Schladming, Austria	Downhill
2013	24 November 2012	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill
	25 November 2012		Super-G
	14 December 2012	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
	25 January 2013	Kitzbühel, Austria	Super-G
	3 March 2013	Kvitfjell, Norway	Super-G
2014	1 December 2013	Lake Louise, Canada	Super-G
	6 December 2013	Beaver Creek, USA	Downhill
	20 December 2013	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
	29 December 2013	Bormio, Italy	Downhill
2016	28 November 2015	Lake Louise, Canada	Downhill
	29 November 2015		Super-G
	4 December 2015	Beaver Creek, USA	Downhill
	18 December 2015	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G
	19 December 2015		Downhill
	16 January 2016	Wengen, Switzerland	Downhill
	22 January 2016	Kitzbühel, Austria	Super-G
2018	2 December 2017	Beaver Creek, USA	Downhill
	16 December 2017	Val Gardena, Italy	Downhill
	19 January 2018	Kitzbühel, Austria	Super-G
2019	14 December 2018	Val Gardena, Italy	Super-G