Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #60 - Marit Bjorgen

Marit Bjorgen

Norway

Cross Country Skiing

Overall Ranks

#4 among Norwegian Olympians

#3 among Cross Country Skiers

#2 among Norwegian Cross Country Skiers

#1 among Female Norwegian Olympians

Olympic Results

2002

Relay - Silver

2006

10 km - Silver

2010

Sprint - Gold

10 km - Bronze

30 km - Silver

Skiathlon - Gold

Relay - Gold

2014

30 km - Gold

Skiathlon - Gold

Team Sprint - Gold

2018

10 km - Bronze

30 km - Gold

Skiathlon - Silver

Relay - Gold

Team Sprint - Bronze

Total

Events - 24

Gold - 8

Silver - 4

Bronze - 3

Marit Bjorgen was born on March 21, 1980 in Trondheim, Norway, and though her Olympic career started slowly, by the time she retired she was undoubtedly one of the all-time greats. She made her first Olympic team in 2002, when she was 21 years old, competing in Salt Lake City.

Her first Olympic event was the 15 km race, where she finished in 50th place, more than 7 minutes behind the gold medalist. She then took the first leg for Norway in the relay, where they were expected to win due to Russia losing a couple of their best skiers to doping. Bjorgen had Norway in 4th place after her leg, 14 seconds behind Germany, but the next skier took the lead back late in her leg, and they held it until the final 100 meters, when the final German skier shot ahead and took the gold, leaving Norway to take silver after losing by 1.3 seconds.

She also competed in the 30km, where she finished in 14 place, just over 6 minutes behind the official champion, but nearly 8 minutes behind the original champion, who lost her medal to doping. In 2003, she broke through at the World Championship, winning gold in the sprint, then followed that up with 3 golds, a silver, and a bronze in 2005. 

Expectations were high for Bjorgen heading to Turin, but she got bronchitis the week before the games, and it affected her performance. She withdrew halfway through her first event, the skiathlon, where she was a pre-race favorite. In the team sprint, the Canadian skier snapped a pole early in the final, and the Norwegian coach gave her a new one, enabling her to stay with the leaders. Norway never took the lead, but remained close for most of the race, eventually finishing in 4th. Many were angry at the coach for helping an opponent, but the Canadians, who finished 2nd, were very grateful.

She was the favorite in the 10km race, but Sara Renner of Canada led most of the race, until she dropped off in the final quarter of the race. At that point, Kristina Smigun of Estonia took the lead, and she pulled away from the pack to win easily. Bjorgen had her best finish of the Olympics though, outskiing the rest of the pack to come in second and earn a silver medal.

In the relay, Bjorgen was assigned to the anchor leg, and they were one of the favorites. They stayed near the front for the entire race, and Bjorgen was in 2nd place when she took off for her leg, but she didn't ski well, and the team dropped to 5th and out of the medals. She failed to advance out of the quarterfinal round in the sprint, and left Turin before the 30km, which would have been her final event.

She didn't perform well in the next two world championships, but returned for the 2010 Olympics, where she would finally perform up to her potential. She started out in the 10km race, where she was able to finished in 3rd place, earning a bronze medal to open the games. 

Her second event was the sprint, and she was the fastest qualifier this time, then went on to win both of her heats to advance easily to the final. In the final, Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland kept it close for a while, but in the final 300 meters, Bjorgen pulled away to win by over a second, and she finally had her first Olympic gold medal.

Next up was the 15 km skiathlon, and Bjorgen was able to stay with the lead pack for most of the race, which consisted of 7 skiers at the halfway point, when they switched out their skis. The lead pack was down to 4 by the final section of the race, when Bjorgen pulled away from the others to win gold by 9 seconds, while the other three finished within half a second of each other.

She was again assigned the anchor leg in the relay. Sweden led them by 2 seconds after the first leg, then Italy took the lead in the second leg, with Norway 8 seconds back, but their third skier took the lead right at the switch-over point, barely ahead of Italy, but Bjorgen left Italy in the dust, and by the end, she coasted to the finish line and won the race by over 25 seconds.

Before her final event, the 30 km, her chief competitor, Kowalczyk, questioned her use of an asthma drug, which was normally banned, but for which Bjorgen had a valid exemption. There were several skiers close together through 20 km, but at that point Bjorgen and Kowalczyk pulled away from the field, with Bjorgen eventually gaining a 6-second advantage with just a few kilometers to go. On the final climb, Kowalczyk caught up, and it came down to a final sprint to the finish, with Bjorgen coming up just short, losing by 0.3 seconds and finishing up her great Olympics with a silver.

She won 4 golds and a silver in each of the next 2 World Championships, meaning that expectations were still high in Sochi. She started out with the skiathlon, where she was the defending champ. A group of 6 reached the midway point together, and five of them remained together for the entire second half. On the final climb, Charlotte Kalla of Sweden tried to break away, but Bjorgen kept pace, and the pair ended up in a sprint for the finish, which Bjorgen won by 1.8 seconds.

In the sprint, she qualified in third, and advanced to the semifinal, but in that race she finished last and failed to make the final. In the 10km, Bjorgen was in second place for the majority of the race, behind Kowalczyk's time, but she faded over the final 2 km and finished in 5th. They were also expected to win the relay, but fell behind early and were never able to make up group, spending nearly the entire race in 5th place.

After a few disappointing finishes, she finally put it back together in the team sprint. Norway was in second when she started her first leg, but she took the lead quickly, and they never gave it back, extending it each time that Bjorgen was on the course, and they ended up winning the gold medal by over 9 seconds over Finland.

In the final event, the 30km, Bjorgen and two Norwegian teammates pulled away from the field after 10 km, extending their lead to a full minute and maintaining it for the remainder of the race. The three took turns in the lead, working as a team until the final 2 km, when Bjorgen and Therese Johaug left their teammate behind, then sprinted it out for the finish, which Bjorgen took by 2.6 seconds to win her 3rd gold of the games.

She came back for one final run at the Olympics in 2018. She entered 5 events, the first of which was the skiathlon, which she had won the last two times. She was in the back of the lead pack of 9 with 3 km to go when Kalla pulled away from the pack, and she had to fight her way through the pack before pursuing Kalla, and by that point it was too late, though Bjorgen was able to come through with a silver medal.

Bjorgen was one of the favorites in the 10km, and she was the first of the favorites to compete, setting the mark to beat. Unfortunately, two were able to beat it, and Bjorgen ended up having to settle for bronze. In the relay Bjorgen skied the anchor leg again. Norway was behind early, 30 seconds behind Russia at the midway point, but the third skier closed the gap, and Bjorgen was only 3 seconds behind when she took over, and she soon took the lead over Sweden and their sprint champion. She maintained the lead, never allowing a chance to get passed, and ended up winning the gold medal by 2 seconds.

In the team sprint, Norway, Sweden, and the USA were together heading into the final downhill, with Sweden leading and Norway in second heading into the final sprint, when Jessie Diggins of the USA passed Falla of Norway, then caught Nilsson of Sweden at the finish line to take the gold, while Norway ended up with a bronze medal.

In her final Olympic event, the 30 km, Bjorgen left no doubt who would win from the start. She broke away from the pack at the 10 km mark, and was 51 seconds ahead by the midway point, and 80 seconds ahead with 10 km to go. Her lead ballooned to over 2 minutes in the final kilometers, when she finally slowed down to celebrate, which cost her some time, leaving her a win by "only" 1 minute and 50 seconds.

She retired after the 2018 Olympics as the most decorated Winter Olympian of all time, with 15 total medals, which is #3 among all Olympians ever. She also had the most Winter Olympic golds of all time until this year, when she was passed by Johannes Hosflot Klaebo, also of Norway, who currently has 11. Even though she only won a single medal at each of her first two Olympics, she overcame and retired as one of the greatest Olympians of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #127 - Ireen Wust

Ireen Wust

Netherlands

Speed Skating

Overall Ranks

#4 among Speed Skaters

#3 among Dutch Olympians

#2 among Dutch Speed Skaters

#2 among Female Speed Skaters

#1 among Dutch Female Speed Skaters

Olympic Results

2006

1500m - Bronze

3000m - Gold

2010

1500m - Gold

2014

1000m - Silver

1500m - Silver

3000m - Gold

5000m - Silver

Team Pursuit - Gold

2018

1500m - Gold

3000m - Silver

Team Pursuit - Silver

2022

1500m - Gold

Team Pursuit - Bronze

Total

Events - 20

Gold - 6

Silver - 5

Bronze - 2

Irene Karlijn Wust was born on April 1, 1986 at Goirle, Netherlands, and began skating at age 11. By the time she was 17, she had won silver at the World Junior Championships, and the next year she won the all-around gold. This led to her Olympic debut in 2006, when she was 19 years old.

Her Olympic debut came in the 3000m, which featured the past 3 World Champions and the world record holder, so Wust was an afterthought beforehand. Once she took the ice, though, people took notice, as she set a new track record, more than 7 seconds faster than any of the 18 athletes who had raced already. All of the favorites ran after her, but none was able to match her time, and she ended up taking the gold medal by just over a second, becoming the youngest Dutch Olympic champion ever.

Her next event was the 1000m, and she put herself in bronze medal position with just one pair to go, but she was edged out by Anni Friesinger of Germany in the final race, leaving her in 4th. In the next event, the 1500m, the roles were reversed, with Wust skating in the final pair and knocking Friesinger out of bronze medal position to take her second medal of 2006.

When 2010 came around, her first event was again the 3000m, where she was the defending champion. She was in the final pairing, but didn't run her best race, and ended up in 7th place. Her second event, the 1000m, went about the same, but in the 1500m, she was able to change her luck. She started out as fast as possible, then held on at the end to record the best time of the event so far by over a second, and when none of the 6 remaining skaters was able to match her time, she took home her second gold medal.

Her best Olympic performance came in Sochi in 2014. The 3000m came first, and featured the past 3 Olympic champions, two of whom were the most recent World Champions as well. Defending champion Martina Sablikova of Czechia had the time to beat when Wust took the ice, and Wust started out fast as always, but didn't slow down until the final quarter of the race, and by that time she had built a big enough lead that she was able to still win by more than 1.5 seconds.

In the 1000m, which came next, Zhang Hong of China set the time to beat early, more the 1.5 seconds ahead of any of the earlier racers, and nobody came within a second of her until the final 3 pairs, when Margot Boer and Wust, both Dutch, managed to get somewhat close, but neither was able to surpass the Chinese skater, leaving Wust with a silver.

The 1500m event was very similar. Jorien ter Mors, a fellow Dutchwoman, set a new Olympic record at the halfway point of the event, and the only skater in the second half to get within a second of her was Wust, who finished just more than half a second behind to take another silver medal.

Her next event was the 5000m, which she had not previously entered in the Olympics, and she was paired with Sablikova, the defending champion and overwhelming favorite. Wust started fast as usual, and led the race through 3800m, but then Sablikova made her move and left Wust in the dust, winning by more than 2.5 seconds, though Wust's performance was still good enough for her third straight silver of the games.

The final event of 2014 was the team pursuit, which the Dutch had not done well in during the previous 2 Olympics, but with the top 4 skaters from the 1500m all forming a team, they came in favored to win, and they made sure to leave no doubt, setting a new Olympic record in qualifying, then again in the semifinals, and then beating the record again in the gold medal race, which they won over Poland by more than 7 seconds.

She returned to defend her 3000m medal in 2018, but she had been battling injuries, so she wasn't regarded as the favorite. Carlijn Achtereekte, another Dutch athlete, set the early pace, and Wust started strong as usual, sitting 1.5 seconds ahead of the pace with 2 laps left, but she slowed down considerably toward the end, and ended up losing by 0.08 seconds, leaving her with yet another silver medal.

She was assigned to one of the earliest pairs in the 1000m, and she had the lead by more than a second when she left the ice, but it didn't hold up, as 8 other skaters ran faster, leaving her far behind the eventual winner. In the 1500m, defending champion ter Mors failed to qualify at the Dutch trials, so Wust was one of the favorites, and she again left the ice with a lead of more than a second, but this time her time stood up, with Miho Takagi of Japan making it close in the final pairing, but just falling short by 0.2 seconds to give Wust another gold medal.

The Dutch and Japanese were co-favorites heading into the team pursuit, and the Dutch set a new Olympic record in qualifying, just ahead of Japan. They took it a little easy in the semifinals, and the USA team was nowhere near their quality, earning a spot in the gold medal match against Japan. The race was as good as expected, with the two teams alternating the lead for most of the race, before Japan pulled away in the final laps to win by 1.5 seconds, while the Dutch still beat their earlier Olympic record in the losing effort.

She came back for one final Olympics in 2022. She raced in the 1000m again, which had never been her strongest event, finishing in 6th place. Up next was her best event, the 1500m, where she was the defending champion, and it went almost exactly as it had 4 years earlier, with Wust building up a 1.5 second lead, then watching Takagi get close but fall short again. This made Wust the first athlete in Olympic history to win an individual gold medal in 5 straight Olympics.

She closed out her Olympic career with one final medal, a bronze in the team pursuit, giving her 13 total, the most of any speed skater in Olympic history. Though there were several times where she came up just short of the gold, or failed to medal at all, her longevity and ability to compete and so many distances made her one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #128 - Thorsten Margis

Thorsten Margis

Germany

Bobsled

Overall Ranks

#4 among German Olympians

#1 among Bobsledders

Olympic Results

2018

Two Man - Gold

Four Man - Gold

2022

Two Man - Gold

Four Man - Gold

2026

Four Man - Gold

Total

Events - 6

Gold - 5

Thorsten Margis was born on August 14, 1989 in Bad Honnef, West Germany, not long before the reunification of Germany. Germany has dominated the bobsled events for a long time, especially on the men's side, so making one of the teams is no small feat.

His first Olympic appearance came in 2014, when he joined the sled piloted by Francesco Friedrich, another Olympic newcomer. He only raced in the four-man event that year, and the team finished in 8th place overall, a pretty nondescript start to a stellar career.

By the time the Olympics returned in 2018, the team had improved quite a bit, having won the past 3 World Championships in the two-man, and the previous year's four-man as well. They still weren't considered the favorites in the two-man, and were in 5th place after the first two runs, but they set a new track record in their third run to move into 2nd place with one run to go. Their final run was enough to put them in first place with only the Canadian favorites left to run, and after they finished, they ended up with the exact same time, down to .01 of a second, and a tie for the gold medal was declared.

Riding their high from winning gold, they moved on to the 4-man event, where they posted the fastest time in each of the first three runs, giving them a lead of almost half a second headed into the final run, which is an eternity in bobsled. They ran a safe, controlled final run to take an easy second gold medal of the games.

Friedrich and Margis won two more World Championships in the two-man after their Olympic triumph, making them the favorites in 2022, and they didn't disappoint. The pair had the best time in 3 of their 4 runs, with the eventual silver medalists led by Johannes Lochner beating them by .09 seconds on the second run. Overall, they beat the other German team by 0.49 seconds for an easy gold.

The 4-man event was the same story. Margis' sled was best in 3 of the 4 runs, with Lochner's sled beating them one the other run, with Margis' team winning the event by 0.37 seconds, pulling them into a tie for most golds in bobsled history.

In 2024, Margis announced that he was switching bobsled teams from the one led by Friedrich to the one piloted by Lochner, who had finished right behind them in both events in 2022. The new team also included Georg Fleischhauer, who was #138 on my list, though Margis only competed in the four-man sled. They won the gold by more than half a second over his old teammate, Friedrich, in 2026, making Margis the first bobsledder to win 5 Olympic gold medals.

Margis announced his retirement after winning that final gold medal earlier this year, and with a perfect record in the past 3 Olympic games, he has established himself as one of the greatest Olympic athletes of all time.

Top 150 Olympic Athletes: #148 - Vic Wild

Vic Wild 

Russia

Snowboard

Overall Ranks

#7 among Russian Olympians

#1 among Snowboarders

Olympic Results

2014

Parallel Giant Slalom - Gold

Parallel Slalom - Gold

2022

Parallel Giant Slalom - Bronze

Total

Events - 4

Gold - 2

Bronze - 1

Victor Ivan Wild was born in White Salmon, Washington on August 23, 1986, and originally competed for the United States in international competitions, but after the US Olympic Committee decided to stop funding snowboard racing in 2010, and after his marriage to Russian snowboarder Alyona Zavarzina in 2011, he moved to Russia and applied for citizenship.

He made his Olympic debut in 2014, competing in the Parallel Slalom and Parallel Giant Slalom. He posted the second-best qualifying time in the Parallel Giant, which moved him to the round of 16. Starting in that round, matches consisted of 2 snowboarders racing at the same time, with the best overall time after 2 races determining the winner. Wild won all but one race in the competition, taking the gold medal just hours after his wife won the bronze medal in the same event.

He earned the best qualifying time in the Parallel Slalom a few days later, getting him the top seed in the 16-man field, and again he won the competition while losing only a single race, a loss which came by 0.04 of a second to a 2-time world champion in the event. His win made him the first snowboarder ever to win multiple gold medals at the same Olympics, and he is still the only one to do it in 2 individual events.

The Parallel Slalom did not return after the 2014 Olympics, but Wild came back to defend his title in the Parallel Giant in 2018, but after placing 9th in qualifying, he lost in his first race and was eliminated.

Despite getting divorced in 2021, he decided to continue living in and competing for Russia, and he again competed in the Parallel Giant Slalom in 2022, again taking 9th place in the qualifying round. After upsetting fellow Russian Dmitry Loginov in the first round, he took down the #1 seed in the next, advancing to the semifinals. He lost his next race, then finished off the tournament with one final upset to earn himself a bronze medal.

Though Wild has only competed in 4 Olympic events in his career, and failed to medal in one of them, he dominated in both of his events in 2014, and another strong performance in 2022 earned him the title of best Olympic snowboarder of all time so far.