Siren Sundby

Siren Sundby (born December 2, 1982 in Lørenskog ) is a Norwegian sailor , Olympic champion and two-time world champion .

In 2003 the International Sailing Federation (ISAF) voted the engineering student “World Sailor of the Year” ( ISAF Rolex World Sailor of the Year Awards ). The award represents the highest honor a sailor can receive for their performance in the sailing world. Siren Sundby achieved its greatest successes in the Europe class , one -handed - dinghy that was the last time olympic at Sundbys victory of 2004. After switching to a new boat class in 2005 and not expecting a top place in this class at the next Olympic Games , she announced the end of her Olympic career in 2006, to the regret of the Norwegian Sailing Association, at the age of only 23. but then took part in the 2008 Games.

Sailing as a family tradition and first successes

Home waters of the sailor: Son on the Oslofjord

The sailor's home club is the Soon Yacht Club (Soon Seilforening) , located directly on the Oslofjord in Son, an old port town in the municipality of Vestby .

Siren Sundby grew up in a family with a long tradition of sailing . Her older brother Christoffer Sundby sailed as a competitive sport and achieved his best result by winning the gold medal at the 1997 sailing world championships in the Europe class. The brother, whom Siren Sundby describes as her great role model and who particularly motivated her to go sailing, gave her the first boat of her own, an optimist . The Optimist is a small and light dinghy for children and young people, which, in addition to recreational purposes, serves as an entry-level class for regattas . She started sailing in this boat at the age of six. At the age of ten she took part in her first sailing regatta in 1992 . In 1995 her first major international regatta followed, the Optimist World Championships of the International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA). A year later in 1996 she won the first major competition with the IODA Optimist European Championships and in 1997 she finished this youth competition again with first place.

Switch to the Europe class

First Olympic participation at the age of 17, 19th place at the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney in Rushcutters Bay

First European Championship gold medal in the sailing area off Palma de Mallorca 2003

After the success in the youth boat Siren Sundby got into the boat class Europe to, a single-handed - dinghy , between 1992 and 2004 Olympic women's boat class was admitted. In 1998 she took part in the sailing world championships in Travemünde in this boat and came here on 51st place. A year later she improved by 20 places at the World Cup in Melbourne . She achieved her first win in this class in 2000 at the Tuborg Spring Cup in Rungsted in Øresund . In the same year she finished the Kiel Week in 12th place, the World Championships in Salvador da Bahia in 10th and the European sailing championships on the Costa Cálida near Murcia in 13th place. In the fall of that year, at the age of 17, she took part in her first Olympics, the 2000 Summer Games in Sydney , and finished 19th in the Olympic Sailing Shore in Rushcutters Bay.

In 2001 Sundby pushed further forward and, for example, sailed at the 2001 World Championships in Vilamoura in seventh place. In 2002 she improved again and just missed the bronze medal in fourth at the European Championships in Nieuwpoort . At the subsequent World Championships in Ontario , she won her first World Championship medal in this boat class on Lake Ontario with the silver medal.

Breakthrough to the top

Her breakthrough to the top of the Europe class came in 2003. In addition to the logistic and organizational work, the sailor trained 100 hours a month during this time, and sailing had become a full-time job for her. In this and the following year she took part in thirteen international regattas, which are included in the ISAF rating scale , and won eleven of them, twice she came third. In 2003 she won the European Championships (not held in 2004), both World Championships in 2003/2004 and the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens . During these years the Finn Sari Multala developed into her toughest competitor, but she always lagged behind her.

At the European Championships in 2003 in Palma de Mallorca Siren Sundby won ahead of Sari Multala and Trine Julie Abrahamsen from Denmark. She won the 2003 World Championships in Cadiz ahead of Sari Multala and Meg Gaillard from the USA. The 2004 World Championships in Cagliari she finished again in first place, again ahead of Sari Multala; the bronze medal went to Petra Niemann from Berlin . The climax of her sporting career was then the victory in the Olympic sailing competitions in 2004 in the Olympic sailing center Agios Kosmas . In this regatta she relegated the Czech Lenka Šmídová to second and the Danish Signe Livbjerg to third, Sari Multala came in fifth.

Interim retirement

Siren Sundby was unable to build on the successes of 2003 and 2004. Since the European boat class was last Olympic in 2004 by decision of the ISAF, it switched to the 470 dinghy , an Olympic two-man racing dinghy with trapeze and spinnaker . In this boat she formed a team with Karianne Melleby. At the European sailing championships in Gdynia in 2005 , the crew finished 12th. Since her partner Karianne Melleby became pregnant in 2006, Sundby did not expect any chances of a top spot at the 2008 Olympics and ended her career at the age of 23.

She told the Aftenposten newspaper in July 2006: “ Once you have won Olympic gold, you have no interest in finishing 5th. “Rather, she wants to take a long vacation with her parents in Son, then devote herself intensively to her studies and support her friend Christopher Gundersen , the 2004 Norwegian world champion in the Europe class, with the preparations for the Olympic Games in Beijing . Espen Guttormsen, sporting director of the Norwegian Sailing Association (Norges Seilforbund) , regretted her decision: “ It is a pity that she is not going on, but I can understand her. She found other values ​​in her life. "

Further in Yngling and studies

Contrary to her announcement, Siren Sundby returned to sailing, took part in the 2008 Olympic Games and, in a lecture in January 2009, did not rule out her participation in the 2012 Olympic Games in London .

In the Yngling Siren Sundby and her crew took 10th place at the 2008 World Championships in the sailing area of Miami

She continued her sporting career in the Yngling , a sailing yacht that can be driven by two people, but for which a three-person crew is required for international competitions. The ISAF first approved the boat class in Athens in 2004 as the Olympic women's keelboat class. In this boat, in which she formed a crew with Lise Birgitte Fredriksen and Alexandra Koefoed, Siren Sundby took part in a major international regatta for the first time in September 2006 after a long break from competition. At the Yngling European Championships in Warnemünde , the team came in seventh place. The Yngling World Championships in Miami in February 2008 finished the crew in tenth place and the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing in the Qingdao International Sailing Center in ninth place.

Even if Siren Sundby is very active in sport again, she wants to finish her studies in 2010 if possible. She studies engineering at Denmark's Technical University (Danmarks Tekniske Universitet) based in Lyngby near Copenhagen . The focus of your studies is on the field of industrial design (Civil Engineering Design & Innovation). When asked about her future wishes, the sailor stated that she could envision a future job as a project manager in the bioenergy or wind energy sector .

Overview

EM = European Sailing Championships (only places one to three), WM = World Sailing Championships (only places one to three), OLY = Summer Olympic Games (all placements).

• 1996: Gold: European Youth Championship boat class: Optimist
• 1997: Gold: European Youth Optimist
• 2000: 19th place: OLY Europe
• 2002: Silver: WM Europe
• 2003: Gold: EM Europe
• 2003: Gold: WM Europe
• 2004: Gold: WM Europe
• 2004: Gold: OLY Europe
• 2008: 9th place: OLY Yngling (together with Lise Birgitte Fredriksen and Alexandra Koefoed)

Web links

• ISAF Biography Siren Sundby (accessed March 23, 2009)
• Soon Seilforening (SF) Yachtclub Soon (Norwegian, accessed March 23, 2009)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ISAF Rolex World Sailor, Past winners (accessed March 23, 2009)
2. ^ ISAF, Sailors, Siren Sundby (English, accessed March 23, 2009; Yachtclub Soon and Stadt Son are not a typo)
3. ↑ International Europe Class Union (IECU) ( Memento of the original dated August 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Results world men (accessed March 18, 2009) 
4. ↑ ^{a b} ISAF Rolex World Sailor, Siren Sundby  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English, accessed March 23, 2009)  
5. ↑ IODA, European Champions ( Memento of the original from October 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (List, accessed March 23, 2009) 
6. ↑ ^{a b c} Sports-Reference, Olympics Siren Sundby (accessed March 23, 2009)
7. ↑ ^{a b} Sport Complete Sailing - World and European Championships Women, Class Europe (accessed March 23, 2009)
8. ↑ International Europe Class Union ( Memento of the original from December 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. News, June 2004/2, page 5 (accessed March 23, 2009) 
9. ↑ 470 Open Women's European Championship  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Gdynia, June 2005, results (accessed March 23, 2009)  
10. ↑ Nina Berglund: Sundby sails into the sunset ( Memento of the original from June 4, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Aftenposten , July 20, 2006 (English, accessed March 23, 2009; quotations translated from English) 
11. ↑ Isoon.no  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Dagens l Siren Sundby mot OL 2012? , January 26, 2009 (Norwegian, accessed March 23, 2009)  
12. ↑ International Yngling Association ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 2008 Yngling Women's World Championship Miami, USA, results (accessed March 23, 2009) 
13. ↑ LinkedIn Siren Sundby, Student at Danmarks Tekniske Universitet (English, accessed March 23, 2009)
14. ↑ NBC Olympics, Beijing 2008 Siren Sundby, Bio (accessed March 23, 2009)
15. ↑ TekniksUkeblad Truls Tunmo: Siren Sundby fra seil til designstudier , September 22, 2006 (Norwegian, accessed March 23, 2009)