Tove Alexandersson (born 7 September 1992) is a

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 ...

foot orienteer, ski orienteer, skyrunner,

trail runner Trail running is a type of running that takes place on outdoor trails, often in mountainous terrain, and often includes significant ascents and descents. It is similar to both mountain and fell running (also known as hill running). Unlike ro ...

ski mountaineer Ski mountaineering (abbreviated to skimo) is a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis. There are two major categories of equipment ...

and skysnow runner. Alexandersson has won gold medals at world championships in five different sports plus a silver medal in a sixth sport, and has won a total of 21 gold medals at the

World Orienteering Championships The World Orienteering Championships (often abbreviated as WOC) is an international orienteering competition which has been organized by the International Orienteering Federation (IOF) since 1966. The World Orienteering Championships is considere ...

, making her the second most successful orienteer in history by number of gold medals at World Championships, behind

Simone Niggli-Luder Simone Niggli-Luder (born 9 January 1978) is a Swiss orienteering athlete who has twice won (in 2003 and 2005) all four women's competitions at the world championships. She is widely seen as one of the greatest orienteers of all time. Personal ...

. Alexandersson holds the record for the number of gold medals in a row at the

, winning 11 in a row between 2018 and 2022. In addition to her success in orienteering, Alexandersson has excelled in multiple other sports. Alexandersson has won 10 gold medals at the

World Ski Orienteering Championships The World Ski Orienteering Championships (Ski-WOC) is the official event to award the titles of World Champions in ski orienteering. The World Championships is organized every odd year. The programme includes Sprint, Middle and Long Distance comp ...

, and in 2018, she won the Sky Marathon event at the

Skyrunning World Championships The Skyrunning World Championships are skyrunning competitions held for the first time in 2010 and organised by the International Skyrunning Federation. The second edition was held in 2014 and thereafter the championships have taken place on a b ...

, in her second skyrunning race ever. In 2021, she won the combined discipline at the World Championships of Ski Mountaineering, and in 2023 she won a silver medal in the up and down discipline at the

World Mountain and Trail Running Championships The world is the totality of entities, the whole of reality, or everything that exists. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the world as unique, while others talk of a "plu ...

. In 2024 Alexandersson won all three events in the SkySnow World Championships in her first such event ever. She competes for

Stora Tuna OK Stora Tuna OK is a Sweden, Swedish orienteering club in Borlänge. It was the orienteering section of Stora Tuna IK until 2009. Tove Alexandersson, Julia Jakob, Annichen Kringstad, Magdalena Olsson, Emil Svensk and Marie Olaussen are all orient ...

in orienteering and Alfta-Ösa OK in ski orienteering.

Orienteering

WOC Middle Distance Tove Alexandresson 3

Junior World Championships

Alexandersson became Middle Distance Junior World Champion in orienteering in 2009. She was 16 years old at the time, running against competitors up to four years older than her. She maintained her Middle Distance title in both 2010 and 2012, with two further gold medals in the sprint and in the relay, two silvers, and one bronze in the long distance.

World Orienteering Championships

After her success as a junior prodigy Alexandersson took several years to achieve her gold medal, receiving only silvers and bronzes in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 despite being one of the favourites. She made her breakthrough in 2016, a season which saw her take #1 in the world ranking as well as dominate in the

Orienteering World Cup The Orienteering World Cup is a series of orienteering competitions organized annually by the International Orienteering Federation. Two unofficial cups were organized in 1983 and 1984. The official World Cup was held first in 1986, and then every ...

and the

, where she won both individual forest titles. In 2017 she continued to dominate at the 2017 World Orienteering Championships in Estonia, where she won all forest classes (Middle, Long and Relay). In the 2018 WOC she won the silver medal in sprint and the gold medal in mixed sprint relay. In the 2019 WOC she won the gold medals in the long and middle distances and also participated in the winning Swedish relay team together with

Lina Strand Lina Strand (born 23 December 1988) is a Swedish orienteering competitor, born in Gothenburg. She won a bronze medal in the relay at the 2012 European Orienteering Championships in Falun. She competed at the 2012 World Orienteering Championships ...

and

Karolin Ohlsson Karolin Ohlsson (born 29 August 1991) is a Swedish orienteering competitor who competes internationally. She became world champion in the sprint relay in 2018. Personal life Ohlsson was born in Stockholm, and works as a silversmith in Stockholm ...

. In the 2021 WOC she won gold in all five events and became the first person to win five gold medals in a single championship. Alexandersson set a record for the number of gold medals in World Orienteering Championships in a row won, winning eleven in a row for four years between 2018 and 2022, before finally coming sixth place in the sprint at the 2022 World Orienteering Championships following several errors. By winning gold medals both in the sprint and in the knock-out sprint at the

2024 World Orienteering Championships The 2024 World Orienteering Championships was held from 12 to 16 July 2024 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The championships consisted of 5 days of races, plus a warm-up event one day prior to the start of the competition. Schedule Medal summary M ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, she has won 21 gold medals in the world orienteering championships. She also won the Venla Relay in 2018 together with Julia Gross, Anna Mårsell and Magdalena Olsson.

World Championship results

Orienteering World Cup

Alexandersson won the Orienteering World Cup nine times in a row from 2014 to 2023 (there was no World Cup in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

European Orienteering Championships

Ski orienteering

She won a gold medal in the sprint distance at the 2011

in Sweden. In 2015, she once again won the women's World Ski Orienteering Championships sprint distance event. Alexandersson is one of the few orienteers who participates in both ski orienteering and the more popular

foot orienteering Foot orienteering (usually referred to as simply Orienteering or FootO for short) is the oldest formal orienteering sport, and the one with the most "starts" per year. Usually, a FootO is a timed race in which participants start at staggered in ...

. Alexandersson has been dominant in ski orienteering in recent years; at the championships in

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

in 2017 she won three gold medals. In December 2018, Alexandersson became the first athlete to be ranked #1 in three separate disciplines by the

International Orienteering Federation The International Orienteering Federation (IOF) is the international governing body of the sport of orienteering. The IOF head office is located in Karlstad Municipality, Karlstad, Sweden. The IOF governs four orienteering disciplines: foot orie ...

(Ski-O, Foot-O Middle and Long and Foot-O Sprint).

Skyrunning, Trail running and SkySnow

In 2017 Alexandersson took a surprise victory in the 29 kilometer Limone Extreme SkyRace with a margin of 12 minutes ahead of established

skyrunning Skyrunning is a sport of mountain running above where the minimum average incline is 6% over the total distance and at least 5% has an incline of 30% or more. The climbing difficulty does not exceed II grade UIAA. Poles, crampons, and hands may ...

specialists, and despite taking several downhill running falls that required medical attention to arms, hands and legs. In September 2018 Alexandersson won a gold medal in the Sky discipline of the biennial

held on the Ring of Steall Skyrace course at

Kinlochleven Kinlochleven () () is a coastal village located in Lochaber, in the Scottish Highlands and lies at the eastern end of Loch Leven. To the north lie the Mamores ridge; to the south lie the mountains flanking Glen Coe. The village was formed fro ...

in Scotland. She won by more than seven minutes, setting a new course record by 19 minutes on the demanding and technical course with about of climb. Said Alexandersson: "I did not have a big expectation of this race because I am new to skyraces but it was a nice day for me. It was a fantastic course and it feels amazing to be world champion." In October 2018 Tove Alexandersson triumphed for the second year in a row in the Limone Extreme SkyRace, this time by a margin of nine minutes. This was Alexandersson's third skyrunning race ever, and she remained undefeated. In July 2020 Alexandersson won the Salomon 27K

Fjällmaraton Fjällmaraton (literally ''Mountain Marathon'' in Swedish) is a Racing, long distance race, considered one of the hardest and most important one-day mountain marathons in Sweden. The total route has a length of with a cumulative elevation gain of 2 ...

race in Sweden with a new course record. A few days later she won the 43K Fjällmaraton race, again with a new course record. In October Alexandersson won the Skyrace des Matheysins in France. A week later Alexandersson missed victory in a skyrunning race for the first time ever. In the four-day stage race Golden Trail Championship in the

Azores The Azores ( , , ; , ), officially the Autonomous Region of the Azores (), is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal (along with Madeira). It is an archipelago composed of nine volcanic islands in the Macaronesia region of the North Atl ...

she had a huge lead after the first day, but performed increasingly less well over the next three days to finish fourth overall. In October 2021 Alexandersson won the ''KM de Chando'' in Switzerland, where the runners ascend 2,000 vertical meters to the top of

Illhorn The Illhorn is a mountain of the Swiss Pennine Alps, overlooking Chandolin in the canton of Valais. With a height of 2,717 metres above sea level, it is the highest point of the Illgraben valley. Illgraben debris flows The Illgraben catchment e ...

. In June 2023 Alexandersson took a silver medal in the 2023 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships World Championship in the Up and Downhill Mountain class. In March 2024 Alexandersson participated in the first World Championships of the running discipline SkySnow which consists of running on snow at high altitude wearing micro

crampons A crampon is a traction device attached to footwear to improve mobility on snow and ice during ice climbing. Besides ice climbing, crampons are also used for secure travel on snow and ice, such as crossing glaciers, snowfields and icefields, as ...

. She had never competed in this sport but nevertheless won all three gold medals up for grabs: Vertical, Classic and Combined.

Ski mountaineering

In November 2019 Alexandersson stated that she would limit her ski orienteering competitions during the upcoming winter, in order to practice

ski mountaineering Ski mountaineering (abbreviated to skimo) is a skiing discipline that involves climbing mountains either on skis or carrying them, depending on the steepness of the ascent, and then descending on skis. There are two major categories of equipment ...

. She said that she intended to participate in five world cup competitions plus the upcoming

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

. Her best result that year was a fifth-place finish, but the European championships was cancelled due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In February 2021, into her second season of Ski mountaineering, Alexandersson won her first World Cup race, following four second-place finishes. In March 2021, Alexandersson participated in the World Championships in La Massana, Andorra, becoming the combined world champion, and placing second in the individual event, third in the vertical event, fourth in the sprint event and fifth in the team relay representing Sweden. Alexandersson would have won the ISMF World Cup Ski Mountaineering overall title in 2021, had she not missed the prize-giving ceremony following the sprint race, held at the world cup final in

Madonna di Campiglio Madonna di Campiglio () is a village and a ski resort in northeast Italy. It is a ''frazione'' of the ''comune'' of Pinzolo. The village lies in the Val Rendena at an elevation of above sea level, and has approximately 1,000 inhabitants. Th ...

. She had finished fifth in the race and, due to a misunderstanding, she was under the impression that only the top three athletes were to attend the ceremony. The mistake resulted in Alexandersson's disqualification and as a consequence the overall title was instead awarded to French competitor

Axelle Mollaret Axelle Mollaret (born 3 September 1992 in Annecy, Haute-Savoie) is a French skyrunner and ski mountaineer. Biography She is physiotherapist. She has been member of the Ski Mountaineering French national selection since 2013. In 2015 she wo ...

, while Alexandersson had to settle for second place. In 2024 Alexandersson won the individual race in the

European Championships of Ski Mountaineering European, or Europeans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe and other We ...

. The following year Alexandersson won the individual race in the World Championships of Ski Mountaineering, and a silver medal in the vertical race.

Awards

Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal

Tove Alexandersson was awarded the

Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal The Svenska Dagbladet Gold Medal (, but usually simply called ''Bragdguldet'', "The Feat Gold") is an annual award "for the most significant Sweden, Swedish sports achievement of the year". It has been awarded by a jury led by the Swedish morning ...

in early December 2019.

Jerring Award

During Svenska idrottsgalan in January 2020, she received the

Jerring Award The Jerring Award ( or "Radiosportens Jerringpris") is a prize established by Radiosporten (the sport section of Sveriges Radio) and voted by its radio audience who choose the best performing Swedish athlete or team of the year. The prize is named ...

. She was also awarded "Swedish Sportswoman of the Year 2019".

H. M. The King's Medal

Alexandersson received the H. M. The King's Medal ''for outstanding contributions to orienteering, ski orienteering and skyrunning'' in 2022.

Notes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Alexandersson, Tove 1992 births Living people Swedish female orienteers Swedish foot orienteers Swedish ski-orienteers World Orienteering Championships medalists World Games silver medalists for Sweden Swedish sky runners Skyrunning World Championships winners Swedish female long-distance runners World Games medalists in orienteering Sportspeople from Borlänge 21st-century Swedish sportswomen Junior World Orienteering Championships medalists Medalists at the 2013 World Games