Eva Korpela

Eva Korpela
Association	Sweden
birthday	October 31, 1958
Career
Debut in the World Cup	1983 or 1984
status	resigned
Medal table
World Cup medals 1 × 3 × 3 × Swedish championship 2 × ? × ? ×
Biathlon world championships bronze 1985 Egg am Etzel singles gold 1986 Falun singles bronze 1986 Falun sprint silver 1986 Falun Season silver 1987 Lahti Season silver 1988 Chamonix sprint bronze 1988 Chamonix Season Swedish Championships (biathlon) gold 1987 Season gold 1988 Season
World Cup balance
Overall World Cup	1. 1985/86 , 1986/87 2. 1984/85

Eva Korpela née Lundgren (born October 31, 1958 ) is a former Swedish biathlete .

In the early years of women's biathlon, the Swede was one of the leading athletes in this sport. Korpela was one of the few biathletes who could keep up with the dominant athletes from Norway and the Soviet Union in the 1980s. She was initially a cross-country skier and only switched to biathlon at the age of 24. By profession she was a police officer and had the necessary experience as a shooter.

After a second place in the overall World Cup in the 1984/85 season , she was the first non-Norwegian winner in the overall World Cup in the following 1985/86 season . She was able to repeat this success a year later , making her the first athlete to win the overall World Cup more than once.

The Swede was also successful at the women's world championships, which were still little noticed in the 1980s. In 1985 she won her first world championship medal with the bronze medal in the individual in the Swiss municipality of Egg am Etzel . A year later, Korpela was able to achieve a medal in all three races. With the gold medal in the individual, the only world title of her career, the silver medal with the Swedish relay and the bronze medal in the sprint, she achieved a complete set of medals at the 1986 World Championships in Falun .

In sprint and individual Korpela did not achieve a medal a year later, but won the silver medal with the Swedish relay as in the previous year. In 1988 Korpela had to admit defeat with a shooting error in the sprint of the faultless German Petra Schaaf . The Swede missed her second world championship title in this race, but achieved the third silver medal of her career with second place. With the relay, Korpela won a medal for the third time in a row, this time the bronze medal. In 1987 and 1988 she was also the Swedish champion over the 3 × 5 km with the Sollefteå SK relay, which included Lis Frost and Marie-Helene Westin .

For several years after Korpela's career ended, there were no Swedish biathletes who could keep up with the world's best. It was only with the rise of Magdalena Forsberg in the second half of the 1990s that there was another top Swedish athlete, who was much more successful than Korpela.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ http://www.sporthistoria.se/autograf/Sport/skidskytte_sverige_main.htm
2. ↑ Magnus Johansson: Ny storhetstid för skidskyttet ( Swedish ) Västerbottens Folkblad. February 7, 2008. Retrieved August 18, 2010.
3. ↑ Svenska mästare genom tiderna ( Swedish ) Längd.se. September 27, 2007. Retrieved August 18, 2010.