Minna Kauppi

Minna Kauppi at the 2010 World Championships

Minna-Mari Kauppi (born November 25, 1982 in Asikkala , Päijät-Häme ) is a Finnish orienteer and nine-time world champion. Kauppi starts for the Asikkalan Raikas club , but lives in Jyväskylä .

Minna Kauppi is one of the most successful orienteers of her time with eight gold and three silver and bronze medals each (as of the 2011 World Cup). Since 2004 she has won at least one medal at each of the annual world championships.

Kauppi's talent for orienteering was recognized early on. In 2001 and 2002 the Finnish hope was each junior world champion in the middle distance. A year later she played her first world championships in Rapperswil . With eighth place in the sprint and eleventh place in the middle distance, she made a respectable debut. In 2004 Minna Kauppi just missed the podium at the European Championships as fourth over the middle distance, at the World Championships in Sweden in the same year she was fifth and sixth and won silver with the Finnish relay. In the following year, her strength in the middle distance was finally shown with successes in medals: She won the Nordic championship on the route and won bronze at the world championships behind Simone Niggli-Luder from Switzerland and the Swede Jenny Johansson and thus her first individual medal at an international championship .

In 2006 she finally achieved her breakthrough: In Otepää she became European champion over the middle distance and with the relay, with which she also became world champion for the first time a little later. She defended the relay world championship in 2007 with Paula Haapakoski and Heli Jukkola . At the same time she won gold with Heli Jukkola in the long distance, in the sprint she only had to admit defeat to Simone Niggli-Luder . In 2008 Kauppi won two bronze medals at the European Championships in Ventspils, at the World Championships in Olomouc , Czech Republic , as in the previous year, she won gold and a silver medal twice, including a gold medal with the relay, in which she started with Katri Lindeqvist and Merja Rantanen and the third Season title as a result meant for Finland.

For the first time, Minna Kauppi did not win an international title in 2009. In Hungary she was third on the long distance at the World Championships behind Niggli-Luder and Marianne Andersen from Norway and third in the relay, which tore the Finnish women's winning streak after three years. In 2010 the Finnish women's trio Anni-Maija Fincke , Merja Rantanen and Kauppi won the title again. Kauppi was also able to defeat her long-term opponent Niggli-Luder over the middle distance in 2010. In 2011, she just missed a medal on her parade route, the middle distance. With Fincke and Rantanen, she managed to defend her title with the relay.

In 2012 she became vice European champion in Sweden in the middle distance behind Niggli-Luder and with the relay. In the long distance she was third behind Niggli-Luder and the Russian Tatjana Rjabkina . At the World Championships two months later in Lausanne, Kauppi won the middle distance race ahead of the Swede Tove Alexandersson , on the long distance it was enough behind Niggli-Luder for second place. The Finnish women's relay with Kauppi, on the other hand, went without a medal in Switzerland for the first time since 2005. Two fourth places and the silver medal in the relay hit Kauppi the following year at the home world championships in Vuokatti .

With her team Asikkalan Raikas Kauppi won the 2007 Venla Orientation Run as the final runner . In addition, she won a total of twelve World Cup races by the end of the 2012 season: six in the middle distance, four in the long distance and two in the sprint.

Placements

Legend: WM = World Championships ; EM = European Championships ; WG = World Games ; GWC = Overall World Cup

competition	discipline	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014
WM	sprint		8th.			5.	2.	2.	13.	4th
	medium		11.	5.	3.	4th	4th	1.	4th	1.	4th	1.	4th	24.
	Long			6th			1.	7th	3.	5.	dsq.	2.	4th
	Season			2.	4th	1.	1.	1.	3.	1.	1.	5.	2.	5.
EM	sprint			13.		3.		4th		12.
	medium			4th		1.		3.		5.		2.
	Long			5.		3.						3.
	Season			4th		1.		3.				2.
GWC		49.		21st	19th	3.	3.	2.	4th	4th	2.	2.	24.
FM	sprint		2.		1.	3.			1.	1.			1.
	medium			1.	1.	1.		1.		1.	1.	1.	1.
	Long		2.				1.			1.	2.	1.
	Ultra			2.		1.			1.
	night		1.			1.	1.
	Season			3.	3.	1.		2.				2.

Others

The Finnish Post published a stamp with Minna Kauppi as a motif on March 26, 2010. Kauppi has an older brother (Jussi-Pekka) and an older sister (Riina). She was in a relationship with the Finnish orienteer Pasi Ikonen .

Web links

Commons : Minna Kauppi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Homepage of Minna Kauppi
• Minna Kauppi World of O Runners