Pärson, Anja

Anja Pärson, (born April 25, 1981, Umeå, Sweden), Swedish skier who in 2007 became the first person to win world championship races in each of the five disciplines of Alpine ski racing.

Pärson was coached by her father at the same ski club in tiny Tärnaby, Sweden, that had produced Ingemar Stenmark, who during his career (1973–89) won more races than any other skier in history. Pärson idolized Stenmark and from a young age was compared to him, as well as to Pernilla Wiberg, whose nine Olympic and world championship medals in the 1990s had made her Sweden’s most successful woman skier. By 2007, however, Pärson had surpassed Wiberg by amassing a combined 16 medals in the Olympics and the world championships.

Pärson flashed hints of Wiberg-like greatness in 1998 at age 17 when she won her first World Cup race, the slalom, at Mammoth Mountain, California. In 2000 she secured the gold in the slalom and the giant slalom (GS) at the world juniors championships. The following year she made an auspicious debut at the world championships in Austria, beginning her assault on the five disciplines with a gold in the slalom and a bronze in the GS.

Pärson competed in her first Olympics at the 2002 Salt Lake City (Utah) Winter Games, where she took the silver medal in the GS and the bronze in the slalom. She triumphed in the GS at the 2003 world championships, held in Saint Moritz, Switzerland, before embarking on a two-year run of World Cup overall titles in 2003–04 and 2004–05. At the 2005 world championships in Bormio, Italy, Pärson won in a third discipline, the supergiant slalom (super G), while adding another gold in the GS.

Pärson entered the 2006 Olympics in Turin, Italy, with high expectations but had somewhat disappointing finishes in her first events, earning bronze medals in the combined and the downhill. She came back to take the gold in the slalom, however, and afterward performed a sprawling belly-flop slide that she called “the walrus”; it became her signature victory celebration. At the 2007 world championships in Åre, Sweden, Pärson—despite having had knee surgery after the 2005–06 season—claimed the gold in the super G for the second time in her career. Next, she won the combined, which gave her victories in four of the five disciplines. Two days later, capping off an amazing streak, she won the downhill to complete her historic sweep. Four other skiers previously had won in four of the five disciplines, but Pärson stood alone with her world championship triumphs in the slalom, GS, super G, combined, and downhill. She finished the 2008 season in sixth place in the overall World Cup standings, having reached the victory podium in just 5 of her 35 starts. At the Vancouver 2010 Olympics, Pärson won a bronze medal in the super combined. She retired from competitive skiing following the 2012 World Cup with 42 career World Cup race wins to her name.