Sixth Grade
Worksheets
Ole Einar Bjorndalen
What do you get when you combine the sports of cross-country skiing and competition shooting? You get a sport called the biathlon. What happens when you give a Norwegian named Ole Einar Bjorndalen a pair of skis and a rifle? You get one of the best biathletes who ever lived.
The biathlon got its start in Ole's home country of Norway in 1861. The soldiers spent a lot of time on skis. It was important for them to be able to ski and shoot at the same time. The training became very popular in other countries. Soon people other than soldiers took it up. Now people from all over the world compete in the biathlon. There are World Cup events. Teams compete at the Winter Olympics.
Ole was born on January 27, 1974, in Norway. By the age of nineteen, he was already a great biathlete. In 1993, he became the first biathlete to win all three gold medals at the Junior World Championships. Since then he has won many, many championships. He has won five Olympic gold medals, fourteen World Championship gold medals, and has ninety-one World Cup wins.
