IOF Athlete of December: Ulrik Nordberg

The last Athlete of the Month for 2015 is Ski Orienteer Ulrik Nordberg from Sweden. The young athlete has had a fantastic opening to this season, and despite difficult snow conditions he is training hard to continue doing well in the competitions ahead.

Name: Ulrik Nordberg
Country: Sweden
Club: Umeå OK
Date of Birth: August 22nd 1993
Discipline: Ski orienteering
Career Highlights: World Cup triumph Sprint November 2015, EOC bronze Sprint 2014, JWOC gold Sprint 2013, JWOC silver long 2013, JWOC bronze middle 2012.

IOF World Ranking: 9th
Homepage:http://orienterare.weebly.com

Ulrik Nordberg didn’t get in to his first choice of school when applying for gymnasium, the Swedish equivalent of High School. But that particular 2009 setback ended up being not so bad at all for his career.

Nordberg was born in Stockholm and grew up in Söderfors, 125 kilometer north of the Swedish capital. He is the second youngest of four cousins. His mother Karin Nordberg has been very active in sport, and his father Lars Olov Nordberg is also active in sport. Ulrik grew up with orienteering and cross country skiing.

Got the feeling

Already in his second start in ski orienteering he showed incredible talent. Ulrik came third in the Swedish Ski Orienteering Championships in the class Men 15 in 2008.

The venue for the championships was a big reason for Ulrik taking part, as it was organised in Sundsvall which was not so far from home. He hadn’t really got hooked on SkiO before the race, but that race and the medal he won were a big inspiration for the young boy, who represented the club Tierps OK at that time.

Ended up in snow district

Some months later he had to decide where to go to gymnasium, or High School. Just like the winner of the Men 15 class in the Ski-O Championships in 2008, Emil Svensk, he applied for the orienteering gymnasium in Sandviken, not so far from home in Söderfors.

- I wanted to go for both orienteering and ski orienteering and thought the gymnasium in Sandviken would be a fine place for doing the combination.

One year older than Ulrik, Tove Alexandersson took the Sandviken route choice, and she’s now one of the best in the world in both orienteering and ski orienteering.

Emil Svensk also got into Sandviken. He chose orienteering, and went on to win the middle distance at the JWOC in orienteering in 2013.

Headed north

Ulrik didn’t get a place in Sandviken, but he got a place at the sports gymnasium in Älsbyn, in the Northern part of Sweden where his parents are originally from. His mother Karin is from Luleå and his father Lars Olov from Piteå. The family also moved north, back to the roots in the country in 2009, settling down in Luleå.

– I think my parents wanted a bit more snow, Ulrik says.

Älsbyn became a choice that suited the big talent well. Teacher and trainer Sture Norén provided many technical, challenging and good trainings.

– Even if I hoped for Sandviken when I applied for the sports gymnasium, it was good to end up in Älvsbyn.

He spent four years at the Ski-O gymnasium.

He has become better and better and has developed his talent step by step. In 2009 he won the Swedish Youth Championships in Boden. Emil Svensk was one of the athletes that he beat.

When Ulrik started at high school in Älvsbyn he hadn’t decided on a main sport, but the natural choice was ski orienteering. Small injuries made it easier to train for the winter variant of orienteering.

The cold part of the year has become the most important for Ulrik, but he is still running a lot of orienteering.

Full time sport

In his last year as a junior he won gold at the sprint at JWOC in Madona in Latvia.

– I had had the gold as a goal for a couple of year. At the sprint in Latvia everything went perfect. My best performance ever. It was also so good to win and get the proof of my level.

The gap to Dag Lofthus from Norway who came in second place was 35seconds, which is a significant gap.

Before last season he was sick for six weeks and needed a lot of the winter to find his way back into shape. He took part in the World Championships in Norway and was 17th on both the Sprint and the Long Distance, and 18th on the Middle Distance.

Number two over all

This winter he has achieved a new level.

Ulrik was first, seventh and second in the first three individual races at the World Cup start of this year’s season. In the sprint relay he won together with his team mate Tove Alexandersson.

The individual victory was taken at the sprint. He likes all distances, but there is something special about the shortest discipline.

– You have to be fast on the skis and take fast decisions and avoid all mistakes, he says.

Nordberg has a lot of skills that make him such a good athlete.

– My best skills? I don’t have to look much at the map before I understand it. I’m in it just after the first looks. I don’t have to look to map all the time either. I can memorise it well.

– How much can you remember?

– About three legs is possible, but just to be sure I often watch the map as I go along.

He also has some advantages in skiing.

– I like to go downhill in steep and small tracks.

Half the age

Ulrik is number two overall after the opening round of the World Cup. The leader is Eduard Khrennikov. The Russian won his first overall triumph in the World Cup when Ulrik was just six and a half years old. The 43 year old Russian is 20 years, three months and three days older than Ulrik.

– Eduard shows the importance of experience in ski orienteering.

– Will you still be in the top business when you’re at Khrennikov’s age?

– I’m pretty sure I will not be fighting to be one of the very best when I get to Khrennikov’s age, he smiles. – But I am also sure I will not stop training, even when I have quit the high level.

After the opening round of the World Cup Eduard Khrennikov has 145 points. Two Swedes follow, first Nordberg with 140 points and then Erik Rost with 125.

This winter the World Cup and European Championship are the main competitions. Of course Ulrik wants to be in the fight for the first positions at the European Championship in Austria. For next winter he has the same goal, but for the World Championship in Krasnoyarsk in Siberia.

The first of the upcoming big races is the World Cup in Germany, which takes place January 21 to 27. The European Championships and the last races in the World Cup will take place in Austria at the end of February and the beginning of March.

He’s just training

The snow conditions have been very poor this winter, but there is some natural snow and some man-made snow up in Umeå. There has been very little snow across the whole of Sweden, and races have had to be cancelled.

– It hasn’t been good with so little snow. It’s not nice, but you have to take it like it is and just do the training. There’s not much to do about it. I am managing to get in plenty of cross country ski training, but it’s a bit more challenging to get in the orienteering training.

So far this winter Ulrik has taken part in nine events, six in Finland where the World Cup started, and three in his home country.

He moved to Umeå last year, where he has found a new club and new people to train with.

– I am training with cross country skiers who are faster than me. It’s a goal to become physically stronger.

The main progress

Since August he has been a full time athlete.

– How does being a professional ski orienteer work financially?

– I worked a lot last spring and summer, so I can do it full time now. I also get help from my parents and sponsors.

His daily life is programmed for doing well in sport.

– Now I can direct all my focus on improving, and the training necessary to reach my goals. I also have time for rest.

Can have days off

During this training year Ulrik will achieve about 600 training hours. A training week can mean anything from 10 to 25 hours. In the training periods he normally takes one day a week without training. During the competition part of the year this can rise from one to two days. He has become more open to do so after he had some weeks with sickness during the autumn 2014. He listens more to his body.

– I can take an extra rest day if I feel that’s the smartest thing to do.

Ulrik knows what to do!

Ulrik Nordberg has taken his career step by step, from being one of the best juniors to fighting in the top with the seniors. Already in 2014 – in his first senior year – he took a medal at the European Championships. Now he has won one individual race in the World Cup, and is number two overall.

[Text: Erik Borg. Photo: Malin Björqvist. See the original article at http://orienteering.org/athlete-of-the-month-december-2015/. Published with permission from the International Orienteering Federation]

Andreu Blanes: "I'll continue improving season after season"

Andreu Blanes' seventh place in the WOC Sprint final, last Summer, is the best result ever for a Spanish athlete in the World Orienteering Championships. He is our invited today and talks about an extraordinary achievement that he wants to see as “one more step” towards “a true dream”. This and much more to read in the first Interview of the year on the Portuguese Orienteering Blog.

This is the last minute of 2015, you are looking back to the past season and there's a moment that comes to your mind immediately. Which one it is?

Andreu Blanes (A. B.) - Not one but two moments come to my mind when looking back to the past year. The first is, undoubtedly, the WOC sprint. I had trained hard and I knew I could do well, but I didn't know how well it could be. That moment I knew that I'm able to fight for a WOC medal and the whole year's work has served to take another step towards a true dream. The second moment is the Spanish Championship, in April, where I lost the chance of running the WOC's forest distances and I made a big mistake in the Sprint that almost make me stop and let the season in white (I was dragging an injury in the adductor since January). But I decided to play all my cards in Scotland and fight for a good result in the Sprint, taking advantage of the fact that I wouldn't run in the forest.

Has it been the best season of your career so far?

A. B. - Taking into account the results only, I should say yes, it was my best season so far. But if I look to the improvement I did, I would like to think that it was just one more step and I'll continue improving season after season. Maybe the jump has been bigger last year, but the goal is to continue looking forward to getting even better and going as far as possible.

What is missing to turn your seventh place into a WOC podium position, making your dream come true?

A. B. - The only thing missing is time and work. This year, as I said, I could confirm that I'm on the right track. It gives me a lot of confidence and motivation and I will continue struggling in this same direction.

How disappointed you were of not being included in the Orienteering Achievement of the Year 2015's final poll?

A. B. - It wasn't a disappointment at all. The finalists' results were better than mine. Maybe if you come from South (Spain and Portugal), it's very difficult to reach the medals because no one has done it before, but I take it as that “it wasn't the moment yet.”

To talk about Olli Ojanaho – the Orienteering Achievement's male winner -, Tim Robertson, Simona Aebersold or Sara Hagström is talking about youngsters looking for conquer the World of Orientering soon. I would like to know your opinion.

A. B. - I see young people coming forward, but they are perhaps not as close to the “old” as a few years ago, where people like Bergman, Kyburz, Boström, Leandersson and others were fighting for medals in the early years (all born in the 90's). But this is not normal and you have to go step by step. My generation (91) is fighting and we have several WOC and EOC top 10 results. I was very pleased to see Lucas Basset leaving just two seconds to the gold in the Middle Distance; he beat me in the JWOC when I was second and is now winning WOC medals, which means that we were pretty good juniors, but we had to wait a few years until make the leap to the elite. Perhaps it was the reason why I gave my vote to Lucas. It's difficult to compare achievements in different classes, but Olli and Tim are athletes that soon will be fighting for medals in WOC.

Have you already start the preparation of the new season? How are you designing the winter period?

A. B. - This season has started well, soft, the WOC is very late and a really long season is waiting us, but it's time to start what really matters and face it seriously. I'll see you in the Portugal O' Meeting, that's for sure; it is a “must” every year and I'll be there this time too.

What are your personal goals for 2016?

A. B. - I want to keep improving step by step this season. Last year was perhaps the “appearance” and I hope 2016 will be the “confirmation” year.

In the beginning of a new year, I ask you to make a wish for all orienteers around the world.

A. B. - I wish you to stay healthy, that's what really matters. If you have good health, you'll find happiness at any forest.

Joaquim Margarido

The International Map Year 2015 - 2016

What would Orienteering be like without maps? Or, on a wider scale, what would our ever more complex civilisation be without maps and a proper use of geographic information? Worldwide celebration of maps and their unique role in our world, the International Map Year is in progress. Why don't we, orienteers, join the initiative?

The inaugural launch of International Map Year (IMY) took place the 1st January 2015, with a formal high-profile event during the ICA International Cartographic Conference hold in Rio de Janeiro in August 2015. It will continue until the end of 2016. Supported by the United Nations, IMY is an intensive international, interdisciplinary, scientific, and social strategy to focus on the importance of maps and geographic information in the world today. It is intended that all the International Cartographic Association's members (about 80 member nations worldwide) will participate in order to give each citizen a broader knowledge of maps – how they are produced and used for many purposes in society.

The specific purposes of IMY are to: Make maps more visible to citizens and school children in a

global context; give all students an opportunity to learn more about cartography and about its associated geospatial sciences – geodesy, photogrammetry, remote sensing and surveying; show how maps and atlases can be used in society; encourage all to experience how information technology can be used in acquiring and handling geographic information, and how it is possible to produce one’s own maps; display and show different types of maps and map production; show the technical development of mapping and atlas production; demonstrate the necessity of a sustainable development of geographic information infrastructures.

New book, The World of Maps

One of the most important educational resources delivered by the IMY Working Group of ICA, and intended to be used worldwide to raise awareness of maps and mapping in the context of IMY, is a specially prepared on-line book called The World of Maps. This specialist textbook on cartography and geographic information, is being published in English, French and Spanish. It describes how maps are created and used, presenting the importance of accurate and retrievable geographic information, and providing possibilities to download such resources. Written voluntarily by an international range of contributors, The World of Maps is available on the ICA website for free download at http://mapyear.org/the-world-of-maps-book/. It presents a set of individual chapters covering a variety of cartographic topics and issues, and forms a coherent introduction, reference volume and work-book for those who are interested in investigating the nature of contemporary mapping.

In some countries, there are already established ‘map days’ or ‘GIS days’, either annual events or occasional celebrations, sometimes led by commercial companies, sometimes promoted by learned societies. Wellington (New Zealand), Pretoria (South Africa), Zvyozdny Gorodok (Russia) or Minneapolis (United States of America) are some of the places adherent to the initiative. Also the Barbara Petchenik Competition 2015, a biennial map drawing competition for children, the 1st Brazilian Cartographic Olympiad or Planetary Maps Exhibitions integrate the IMY's program. Demonstrations of map production and of the use of maps, local mapping programs for planning and maintenance of infrastructure (these may involve local services, such as firefighters and police), exhibition of historical maps – mainly local ones, cartographic activities for children, demonstrations of GPS, orienteering and geocaching and map use exercises are some activities that may be implemented when organizing a Map Day. For more details visit www.mapyear.org.

[Photo: mapyear.org]

Joaquim Margarido

Two or three things I know about it...

1. “The turn of the New Year is a good moment to reflect back but also to look ahead”. The words are from Simone Niggli, in a new message left on her webpage, in the last day of the last year. In a really nice article, Simone states that “orienteering is continuing to be close to my heart”, two years after resigning from the Swiss national. At six months to the Junior World Championships's opening, in which she plays the role of Event Director, Simone set a first goal for the big event: “I am looking forward to the many interesting spectators who will support the young athletes from all over the world”, she says. And assures: “Great orienteering action delivered live in the finish arenas with the speaker Per Forsberg commentating”. Besides this big commitment, the champion's current life consists of many different engagements: Family life, two part-time jobs, dealing with sponsors and time for herself: “I still love to run outside, and last but not least, I very much like to continue competing in orienteering events with map and compass.” Everything to read at http://www.simoneniggli.ch//home/page.aspx?archive_id=11390.

2. Another great article issued in 2015's last hours and signed for Minna Kauppi takes account of a new “chapter” in the athlete's life after having “put my o-shoes, compasses and training clothes aside and decided to find new adventures, goals and dreams in the other world, (…) where every day is not defined by trainings and recovery.” Struggling against her own body during the last years, Minna confesses: “ I almost stopped playing in the spring already”, adding that “it has never been my goal to be second”. “Chapter 2” is about “the other life” that, soon, will determine her days and hours – Minna will start working, for the first time ever, already this Monday. “I can just say that I didn’t really choose small challenges this time either. Humble, a bit scared, but happy, I will start the chapter two in my life next year!” In the post-scriptum, a guarantee: “I’ll be running o-competitions for sure, so we’ll definitely meet some day.” Take your time checking the full article at http://www.minnakauppi.com/en/node/339.

3. 2016 is coming with another great movie signed by Puresive Films. “Train Hard Win Easy – The Hubmann Brothers” is a “sequel”, a short movie produced two years after the filming of “Go Hard or Go Home”, again with the two world orienteering championships medallists, Martin Hubmann and Daniel Hubmann. At Puresive Films' page on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/puresivefilms/ -, Simon Rüegg and Lukas Schubnell commented: “Already two years ago, after the filming of 'Go Hard Or Go Home', the Hubmann brothers asked us if we could do again a little project. Now, after two years, we thought it would be time to make again an epic movie. Spontaneously and without much planning we headed out on a beautiful autumn day.” We take ours the wishes of Simon & Lukas: “Enjoy the beautiful landscape during an 'easy' training session and be amazed how fast, how nimble and how fleet-footed they run through the forests.” See the movie at https://youtu.be/tZ7LCzFr3TQ.

Joaquim Margarido

2015 in Review: The 20 most popular!

1. Thierry Gueorgiou: “Nothing beats experience!”

2. Olli Ojanaho: “My biggest goal is to take the next step closer to the best athletes”

3. Hanny Alston: “2006 was not a fluke”

4. Thierry Gueorgiou: “The Long Distance felt more like a redemption than anything else”

5. Anne Margrethe Hausken Nordberg:“It's nice to see that I can still be part of the game”

6. Alasdair McLeod: “This is a very big year to Scotland”

7. António Martínez: “Halden is a very professional club”

8. Sara Hagström: “Elite Orienteering world's challenges are here and I'm really motivated”

9. Lucas Basset: “The feelings are impossible to describe”

10. Mikhail Vinogradov, Part I: “Love is the best inspiration!”

11. Edgars Bertuks: “To be in Portugal is like a new beginning”

12. Minna Kauppi: “I feel hungry for Orienteering”

13. Catherine Taylor: “It still feels like I can be better”

14. Olav Lundanes: “I’ll fight for the gold in the Middle Distance and Long Distance”

15. Mikhail Vinogradov, Part II: “The weak organizational level is one of the biggest problems in modern Orienteering”

16. Aaro Asikainen: “Thierry is still the king!”

17. Annika Billstam: “I never expected a gold medal at the WOC”

18. Ida Bobach: “I don't feel saturated with medals at all”

19. Catherine Taylor: “I’m trying not to aim too high, or want too much”

20. Gustav Bergman: “I am focusing a lot on WOC”

Joaquim Margarido