Helena Ekholm (née Helena Jonsson) (born September 6, 1984 in Helgum) is a former

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

biathlete The biathlon is a winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting. It is treated as a race, with contestants skiing through a cross-country trail whose distance is divided into shooting rounds. The shooting rounds are not time ...

. She was born in Helgum,

Sollefteå Municipality Sollefteå Municipality ( sv, Sollefteå kommun) is a Swedish municipality in Västernorrland County. Its seat is located in Sollefteå. The former ''City of Sollefteå'' (instituted in 1917) was amalgamated with the surrounding entities in 1974 ...

. She is the 2009 world champion in pursuit and the 2011 world champion in individual. She also won the Women's Overall World Cup in the 2008–09 season.

Career

Jonsson debuted in 2005 in

Östersund Östersund (; sma, Staare) is an urban area (city) in Jämtland in the middle of Sweden. It is the seat of Östersund Municipality and the capital of Jämtland County. Östersund is located at the shores of Sweden's fifth-largest lake, Storsjön, ...

in the relay, coming in 15th. In the following World Cup in

Hochfilzen Hochfilzen is a town and municipality in the Kitzbühel district of the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is located in the Pillersee valley 5 km east of Fieberbrunn. Population was 1,147 in 2016. It is a popular winter sports resort, especially f ...

she participated in her first individual, coming in 41st. In early 2006 she participated in the Biathlon World Championships Mixed Relay event in 2006 in

Pokljuka The Pokljuka Plateau () is a forested karst plateau at an elevation of around , located in the Julian Alps in northwestern Slovenia. The plateau is known for its forests, mountain pastures (Javornik, Lipanca, Uskovnica, Zajamniki, etc.), and w ...

, coming in sixth. The 2006-07 Biathlon World Cup began very successfully for her. In the World Cup 3 in Hochfilzen, she came in fourth in the Individual, eighth in the Sprint, and was on the relay team which came in fifth. In the

Biathlon World Championships 2007 The 41st Biathlon World Championships were held in 2007 for the fourth time in Antholz/Anterselva, Italy from February 2 to February 11. Schedule Medal winners Men Women Mixed Medal summary References External links Official websi ...

in Antholz she continued her upward trend and placed fourth in the Sprint. As a high point she led the Swedish team to a gold medal in the mixed-relay. She celebrated her first World Cup victory in the 2006-07 Biathlon World Cup, the mass start in the final round at

Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk ( rus, Ха́нты-Манси́йск, Khánty-Mansíysk, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a city and the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Russia. It stan ...

. In the 2008–2009 season she won four more races, including the opening in

where she won the individual race. In the 2009 World Championships in Pyeongchang Jonsson came from 5th place after the opening sprint to win the Pursuit. Due to her marriage to fellow former biathlete

David Ekholm David Ekholm (born 16 January 1979) is a Swedish biathlete. He competed in three events at the 2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Tor ...

, she changed her surname to Ekholm in the summer of 2010.

Biathlon World Cup placings

(Retired 19 March 2012)

References

External links

Official site

Statistics from the International Biathlon Union

Portrait and information about Helena Jonsson
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ekholm, Helena 1984 births Living people People from Sollefteå Municipality Swedish female biathletes Olympic biathletes of Sweden Biathletes at the 2010 Winter Olympics Mid Sweden University alumni Biathlon World Championships medalists