Espen Bredesen

Espen Bredesen
Espen Bredesen as commentator Oslo 2010
nation	Norway
birthday	2nd February 1968
place of birth	Oslo ,  Norway
size	176 cm
Weight	60 kg
Career
society	Oppsal IF
Pers. Best	210 m ( Planica 1997)
status	resigned
End of career	1999
Medal table
Olympic medals 1 × 1 × 0 × World Cup medals 2 × 0 × 0 × SFWM medals 0 × 1 × 0 × National medals 9 × 1 × 1 ×
winter Olympics gold 1994 Lillehammer Normal hill silver 1994 Lillehammer Large hill  Nordic World Ski Championships gold 1993 Falun team gold 1993 Falun Large hill  Ski flying world championships silver 1994 Planica singles  Norwegian championships gold 1991 Rognan Normal hill gold 1991 Rognan Large hill gold 1992 Molde Normal hill gold 1993 Lillehammer Normal hill gold 1993 Lillehammer Large hill gold 1994 Vegårshei Large hill bronze 1995 Oslo Normal hill gold 1996 Meldal Large hill gold 1997 Mo i Rana Normal hill silver 1997 Mo i Rana Large hill gold 1998 Meldal Normal hill
Ski jumping world cup / A class jumping
Debut in the World Cup	December 16, 1989
World Cup victories (individual)	08 ( details )
Overall World Cup	01. ( 1993/94 )
Ski flying world cup	02. ( 1993/94 )
Jump World Cup	13. ( 1995/96 )
Four Hills Tournament	01. ( 1993/94 )
Podium placements 1. 2. 3.  Single jump 8th 8th 4th  Ski flying 0 1 0  Team jumping 0 1 0
Ski jumping Grand Prix
Overall Grand Prix	02. ( 1997 )
last change: February 22, 2019

Espen Bredesen (born February 2, 1968 in Oslo ) is a former Norwegian ski jumper . He is one of the five athletes (next to him Thomas Morgenstern , Matti Nykänen , Kamil Stoch and Jens Weißflog ) who have won the four most important competitions in ski jumping ( Olympia , World Championship , Overall World Cup and Four Hills Tournament ).

Career

He started ski jumping at the age of ten. He made his debut in the World Cup on December 16, 1989 in Sapporo . After two moderately successful years, he achieved his first place in the top ten two years later with eighth place on the normal hill. At the 1992 Winter Olympics he only achieved 57th place on the normal hill and 59th on the large hill and was ridiculed by the Norwegian press, who compared him to Eddie the Eagle .

At the Nordic World Ski Championships in 1993 in Falun , Sweden , he first became world champion in the individual jumping on the large hill, and two days later, surprisingly, with the Norwegian team. Around three weeks later, he also won his first World Cup victory in Lillehammer. This earned him the Morgenbladet Foundation gold medal in his home country .

In the 1993/94 season he won the overall World Cup and the Four Hills Tournament . In total, he achieved eight World Cup victories in his career. He reached the peak of his career at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer in front of a home crowd. On the normal hill he won the gold medal in front of his compatriot Lasse Ottesen , on the large hill he won silver. On March 20, 1994 he was also vice world champion in ski flying behind the Czech Jaroslav Sakala . With 209 and 210 meters he also set new ski flying world records in the meantime. For these achievements he was honored with the Holmenkollen Medal in the same year .

The next few years were rather disappointing for Bredesen, which was partly due to a slowly healing neck injury that he sustained during training in the summer of 1994. In the 1994/95 season he reached only fifteenth in the overall World Cup, 13th in 1995/96 and 16th in 1996/97. His last victory was on February 5, 1995 in Falun.

Espen Bredesen is also five-time Norwegian national champion on the normal hill (1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 1998) and four-time champion on the large hill (1991, 1993, 1994, 1996).

His last competition was on December 19, 1999 in Zakopane, Poland . The birth of his daughter Aurora that same year also contributed to the decision to end his ski jumping career.

In 1997 he married his wife Vibeke, with whom he now lives in Kvål south of Trondheim .

successes

World Cup victories in individual

No.	date	place	Type
1.	March 11, 1993	Lillehammer	Large hill
2.	March 14, 1993	Oslo	Large hill
3.	March 28, 1993	Planica	Large hill
4th	December 11, 1993	Planica	Normal hill
5.	January 1, 1994	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Large hill
6th	January 6, 1994	Bischofshofen	Large hill
7th	January 15, 1994	Liberec	Normal hill
8th.	5th February 1995	Falun	Large hill

statistics

World Cup placements

season	space	Points
1992/93	005.	0151
1993/94	001.	1203
1994/95	015th	0356
1995/96	013.	0592
1996/97	016.	0384
1997/98	043.	0065
1998/99	101.	0001

Hill records

place	country	Expanse	set up on	Record up
Falun	Sweden	125.5 m ( HS : 134 m)	February 21, 1993	March 11, 1998
Lillehammer	Norway	117.0 m ( HS : 138 m)	March 11, 1993	March 11, 1993
Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Germany	111.0 m ( HS : 140 m)	January 1, 1994	January 1, 1995
Bischofshofen	Austria	130.5 m ( HS : 140 m)	5th January 1994	February 23, 1999
Liberec	Czech Republic	121.5 m ( HS : 134 m)	January 15, 1994	January 15, 1994
Liberec	Czech Republic	125.5 m ( HS : 134 m)	January 15, 1994	January 11, 2004
Lillehammer	Norway	135.5 m ( HS : 138 m)	February 20, 1994	November 28, 1998
Lillehammer	Norway	104.5 m ( HS : 100 m)	February 25, 1994	December 3, 2011
Planica	Slovenia	209.0 m ( HS : 205 m)	March 18, 1994	March 22, 1997
Engelberg	Switzerland	125.5 m ( HS : 137 m)	January 15, 1995	January 15, 1995
Planica	Slovenia	210.0 m ( HS : 205 m)	March 22, 1997	March 22, 1997

Web links

• Espen Bredesen in the database of the International Ski Federation (English)
• Espen Bredesen in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )