Martin Johnsrud Sundby (born 26 September 1984) is a former Norwegian cross-country skier who competed between 2003 and 2021. He is a two time Olympic champion at the

2018 Winter Olympics The 2018 Winter Olympics (), officially the XXIII Olympic Winter Games (; ) and also known as PyeongChang 2018 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held between 9 and 25 February 2018 in Pyeongchang County, South Ko ...

in the team sprint and relay and was also a silver and bronze medalist in the 30 km skiathlon in 2014 and 2018. Sundby is a 4-time world champion, winning his sole individual gold medal at the 15 km at the 2019 Nordic World Ski Championships in Seefeld. In 2014, he became the first Norwegian to win the Tour de Ski, a feat he repeated in 2016. He also won the overall world cup in 2014, 2016 and 2017.

Career

Sundby got his international breakthrough when he won his first individual victory on 30 November 2008 in

Kuusamo Kuusamo (; ; ; ) is a List of cities and towns in Finland, town and municipalities of Finland, municipality in Finland. It is located in Koillismaa, the northeastern part of the Northern Ostrobothnia regions of Finland, region. The municipality h ...

Finland Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, ...

. The victory was regarded as a major surprise, despite Sundby delivering several solid displays in earlier races. At lower levels, Sundby has won a junior sprint event in 2003, a 30 km Scandinavian Cup race in 2007, and a 10 km FIS race in 2007. He later won the team sprint event at the test event in

Liberec Liberec (; ) is a city in the Czech Republic. It has about 108,000 inhabitants, making it the fifth largest city in the country. It lies on the Lusatian Neisse River, in a basin surrounded by mountains. The city centre is well preserved and is pr ...

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on 17 February 2008. Sundby and compatriot

Therese Johaug Therese Johaug (born 25 June 1988) is a Norwegian former cross-country skier from the village of Dalsbygda in Os Municipality. In World Ski Championships she won ten individual gold medals along with four gold medals in relays, and she is a ...

became the first Norwegians to win the Tour de Ski when they won the men's and women' competitions in the 2013–14 edition of the race. Sundby subsequently won the overall and distance competitions in the 2013–14 FIS Cross-Country World Cup. He also won the 2016 Tour de Ski. In addition to his Tour de Ski victories, Sundby won the inaugural Ski Tour Canada, despite starting behind Sergey Ustiugov and Petter Northug on the final stage.

Doping violation

In January 2015 Norwegian Ski Federation "was informed that Johnsrud Sundby had crossed the legal limit, the so called 'decision limit', in regard to the use of" albutamol trademarked as Ventolin; the federation should have acted then, is the opinion of Fredrik Aukland,

NRK The Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (), commonly known by its initialism NRK, is a Norwegian state-run, government-influenced radio and television public broadcasting company. The NRK broadcasts three national TV channels and thirteen nat ...

's expert on crosscountry skiing. On 20 July 2016 Johnsrud Sundby was banned from competition for two months by the

Court of Arbitration for Sport The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS; , TAS) is an international body established in 1984 to settle disputes related to sport through arbitration. Its headquarters are in Lausanne, Switzerland, and its courts are located in New York City, Sy ...

(CAS) for an anti-doping rule violation.Court of Arbitration for Sport
20.07.16 – CROSS COUNTRY SKIING – CAS decision concerning Martin Johnsrud Sundby
, 20 July 2016 His use of

asthma Asthma is a common long-term inflammatory disease of the airways of the lungs. It is characterized by variable and recurring symptoms, reversible airflow obstruction, and easily triggered bronchospasms. Symptoms include episodes of wh ...

medication

salbutamol Salbutamol, also known as albuterol and sold under the brand name Ventolin among others, is a medication that opens up the medium and large airways in the lungs. It is a short-acting β2 adrenergic receptor agonist that causes relaxation of ...

, resulted in test levels of urine sample, exceeding the very high 1000 ng/ml limits set in the anti-doping rules by 35% for two samples collected in competition, on 13 December 2014 and 8 January 2015. The facts of the case were undisputed and the decision focused on the meaning of the term "inhaled salbutamol", specifically whether the 1600 μg per day limit referred to the "labelled dose" or the "delivered dose". The CAS panel decided that the intended meaning was the former, but criticised the drafting of the rule. For this and other reasons, including that Johnsrud Sundby declared salbutamol at the time of the test, the panel found his degree of fault light and opted for a short sanction. As the tests were taken in competition, the two results were automatically stripped. This led to Johnsrud Sundby losing the 2015 Tour de Ski title and the overall world cup title for the 2014–15 season. Apart from the subsequent stages of the 2015 Tour de Ski, no other results were affected. His short suspension took place in summer months outside the competitive skiing season. At a 21 October 2016 national convention of Norwegian Ski Federation (NSF), some of the local representatives had a critical view on the federation having compensated Johnsrud Sundby for his loss of prize money due to his breaking the rules against doping.

Cross-country skiing results

All results are sourced from the International Ski Federation (FIS).

Olympic Games

* 5 medals – (2 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze)

World Championships

* 9 medals – (4 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze)

World Cup

Season titles

* 6 titles – (3 overall, 3 distance)

Season standings

Individual podiums

* 30 victories (19 , 11 ) * 74 podiums (43 , 31 )

Team podiums

* 14 victories (13 , 1 ) * 18 podiums (17 , 1 )

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sundby, Martin Johnsrud 1984 births Living people Skiers from Oslo Norwegian male cross-country skiers Cross-country skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics Cross-country skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic cross-country skiers for Norway Olympic gold medalists for Norway Olympic silver medalists for Norway Olympic bronze medalists for Norway Olympic medalists in cross-country skiing Doping cases in cross-country skiing Norwegian sportspeople in doping cases FIS Nordic World Ski Championships medalists in cross-country skiing FIS Cross-Country World Cup champions Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2018 Winter Olympics Tour de Ski winners Tour de Ski skiers 21st-century Norwegian sportsmen