Runner presentation Olli-Markus Taivainen
November 25, 2009 by Anatolijs Tarasovs
Six times World Orienteering Champion in a single year, both in ski- and foot-orienteering. He started his amazing year with the ski-JWOC in Sweden, where he left no chances for anyone else by taking 4 gold medals in all 4 disciplines. He then continued to fly on his skis in Japan at the World Championships, where he took a full set of medals from all three races, where he stepped on the start line: bronze in the long, silver in the sprint and an amazing gold in the middle.
With the melting snow and the skiing season coming to an end, he changed his skis to orienteering shoes in order to get ready for his last JWOC. As opposed to ski-JWOCs, where he had already won several medals in the previous years, he had none from the foot-JWOCs. The 16th attempt finally turned to be lucky for him, and in the hilly and technically demanding middle distance in San Martino in Italy, he outclassed the strong field of competitors and won the gold (map), the sixth gold of the year!
Nominated for
Winning eight World Championships medals, in both ski- and foot-orienteering. 6 of them gold. Undisputed king of the ski-JWOC in Sweden with 4 victories out of 4 races. Ski-WOC gold, silver and bronze in Japan. And finally the Junior World Champion this summer in the middle distance in Italy.
Skier and Runner
Olli-Markus Taivainen is one of those rare orienteers, who is able to combine both ski- and foot- orienteering on the highest level. He made his debut on the international level in 2005, when he arrived to Switzerland to represent Finland at the ski-JWOC in Switzerland. There he also got his first medal – bronze from the relay. Later that year he once again returned to Switzerland, but this time for the summer JWOC. With 4 JWOCs ahead of him he took an amazing 6th place in the middle distance in Tenero.
17 World Championships Medals
Since his Swiss debut in both types of orienteering in 2005 he has taken part in all JWOCs, which makes it a round ten, winning altogether 14 medals, half of them gold. And although he never left any of the ski-JWOCs without a medal, until this year he struggled to get one in the summer JWOCs with 4th, 5th and 6th places as his best results. This year he also made his debut in the senior ski-orienteering team of Finland, which turned to be absolutely incredible. He only took part in the inidividual races in Japan and in all three of them he got a medal with gold in the middle as the highlight of the amazing Japanese week.
Event sponsor: OOcup
OOCup is a popular Slovenian event which is famous for its interesting karst orienteering and great nature. OOCup 2010 is organized from July 24th until July 28th.
- Among the Lucky voters, 2 transferable starts for the complete OOCup 2010 will be drawn.
- See OOCup website for more information about the event
