Poll: Orienteering Achievement of 2014 - Women

» Runner profile Judith Wyder

    Vote for Judith Wyder

Story
When Simone Niggli retired from elite orienteering at the end of the 2013 season after dominating woman orienteering for years, there was a lot of speculations about who would be her successor. Tove Alexandersson, Minna Kauppi, Helena Jansson and many others were put forward - and some even mentioned Judith Wyder. But even if some believed in Wyder, the Swiss’s 6 gold medals at WOC and EOC in 2014 were a big surprise for almost everybody. Who would have thought that another Swiss woman would take over after Niggli? And what a mental strongness - top performance time after time in the most important races - especially in tough fights woman against woman.

» Runner profile Tove Alexandersson

    Vote for Tove Alexandersson

Story
After finishing second in the overall World Cup two years in a row, the Swedish multi-talent took the step to the top of the podium. Winning 5 World Cup victories in 2014 - victory in all disciplines from Sprint to Long distance. And that while combining orienteering with ski-orienteering - topping the World Ranking in both sports at the end of 2014. In February Alexandersson interrupted the ski-o season to win the first foot-orienteering World Cup race of the season in Turkey - then travelled to Russia and won the the European Championships middle distance in ski-orienteering. What a talent!

» Runner profile Svetlana Mironova

    Vote for Svetlana Mironova

Story
Two years ago Svetlana Mironova wrote history together with Tatiana Ryabkina and Natalia Efimova when they won the relay at the European Championships in Sweden - the first international relay victory ever for a Russian all-women team. Individually Mironova did not have the same success ahead of the 2014 season - with a 7th place from 2012 as her best World Cup result. A lot of hard work - and becoming full-time orienteer a year ago - was the turning point for Mironova. The Russian started the season with a surprising silver medal at the long distance at the European Championships in Portugal - and then impressed everybody with winning the gold medal at the WOC long distance - becoming the first Russian woman ever to win an individual WOC gold medal.

» Runner profile Signe Søes

    Vote for Signe Søes

Story
Signe Søes had an impressive career with an EOC silver from 2010 as highlight before she took a break in the 2012-2013 seasons due to childbirth. In the 2014-season she planned her comeback with one big goal: The European Championships in Portugal - with special focus on her favourite discipline the middle distance. It all looked perfect after the qualification - Søes winning her heat as always in the good old days - and securing a perfect start position ahead of the final. However the qualification was eventually cancelled after many discussions, and Søes had to start very early due to her long break from top orienteering. Totally unaffected by the early start time, Søes did an impressive race and took a very popular Danish gold medal. And this was indeed a short-lived comeback - Søes decided not to run the World Championships in Italy two months later.
Photo: Tutzon

» Runner profile Annika Billstam

    Vote for Annika Billstam

Story
Annika Billstam had to think before she went for the 2014 season at top level, because she started to work full-time last October. Billstam’s way to handle this was to focus 110% on the World Orienteering Championships in Italy, and skip most other World Cup races and the European Championships. And the focus paid off big time: The 38 year old Swede had 10 WOC medals ahead of Italy - but none on the middle distance. In Asiago she took her second WOC gold medal - winning the WOC middle distance on a day which started bad, but where she used all her experience and mental abilities to get back into the race. She was also part of the Swedish relay team who took the WOC bronze medal.

    Vote for Swiss Women Team

Story
Who would have thought that the Swiss women would dominate the relay scene the year after they lost their biggest star, Simone Niggli, due to retirement? And that with 5 different women in the golden teams? It started with a clear victory for Julia Gross, Sabine Hauswirth and Judith Wyder at the European Championships relay in Portugal. At the World Championships in Italy, Rahel Friederich and Judith Wyder could celebrate the gold medal in the new discipline "Mixed Sprint relay" along with Matthias Kyburz and Martin Hubmann. Finally on the last day of the World Orienteering Championships the Swiss women did it again: Sabine Hauswirth, Sara Lüscher and Judith Wyder won a very tight and exciting relay in Asiago, Italy. What a team spirit - what a mental strength!

» Runner profile Cat Taylor

    Vote for Cat Taylor

Story
Catherine Taylor has been a very devoted orienteer for years - putting in a lot of hard work, slowly building herself up to get closer and closer to the orienteering elite. Ahead of the 2014 season her best international result was a strong 10th place at WOC long distance in Vuokatti, Finland in 2013. Then at the European Championships in Portugal she did the big step all athletes dream about: All the way up onto the podium - winning a bronze medal at the long distance.
Photo: Joaquim Margarido

    Vote for OK Pan Århus

Story
The OK Pan Århus women have had an immense success the last years, culminating in the fantastic 2014 season where they won both 10Mila, Jukola and Smålandskavlen. At 10Mila in May the team had to run without one of their biggest stars - Emma Klingenberg. The team with Miri Thrane Ødum, Ita Klingenberg, Ida Bobach, Maja Alm and Signe Søes won with a big four minute margin ahead of Göteborg-Majorna. Six weeks later at Venla relay OK Pan Århus did it again while defending their 2013 title: This time Emma Klingenberg, Signe Søes, Maja Alm and Ida Bobach did the job for the Danish club.
Photo: Tutzon