Bjerkeli made his first international appearance at the 1996 Junior World Championships in Asiago . There he won 32nd place over 10 km freestyle. The following year he was runner-up at the Norwegian Championships with the Isfjorden IL relay. He ran his first World Cup race in Milan in December 1998 , finishing 12th in the sprint and thus also getting his first World Cup points. In the same month he achieved his first top ten placements in the World Cup in sprint races in Engelberg and Kitzbühel with places seven and nine. In the 1999/2000 season he came in the points in all five World Cup participations in the sprint, including three times in the top ten. At the World Cup in Kitzbühel, he achieved his first podium finish in the World Cup with third place and finished sixth in the Sprint World Cup at the end of the season. In the following season he also achieved points in all sprint races in the World Cup, including three top ten results and thus achieved seventh place in the Sprint World Cup. At the beginning of the 2001/02 season he won his first World Cup victory with the relay in Kuopio . In the further course of the season he also won the sprint race in Salzburg and at the end of the season he finished 18th in the overall World Cup and fifth in the Sprint World Cup. At the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City , he was thirteenth in the sprint competition. In the following season he was in the top ten four times in sprint world cups. In March 2003 he won in Oslo and took sixth place in the Sprint World Cup . At the Nordic World Ski Championships 2003 in Val di Fiemme, the silver medal in the sprint competition. He also finished 30th over 50 km freestyle. Also in 2003 he was the Norwegian sprint champion. At the beginning of the 2003/04 season he came with third place together with Tor Arne Hetland in the team sprint again on the podium. At the World Cup in Toblach he won the team sprint together with Tor Arne Hetland. This was followed by third place in the sprint in Nové Město and another victory in Drammen . At the end of the season he reached 18th place in the overall World Cup and third place in the Sprint World Cup. At the start of the 2004/05 season he won the team sprint in Düsseldorf together with Tor Arne Hetland . In the individual sprint races, he could not repeat his strong performances from the years before. After the 2005/06 season he ended his active career.
Bjerkeli took part in 57 individual races in the World Cup and came on the podium 22 times in the top ten and five times.
Håvard Bjerkeli is married to the Norwegian cross-country skier Marit Roaldseth .
Norway
Salzburg
Kuopio
Toblach
Dusseldorf
Orsa