Egil Gjelland

Egil Gjelland (born 12 November 1973 in Voss) is a Norwegian biathlete. He is olympic champion in the biathlon relay from the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.

Egil Gjelland grew up in Voss, the home of many world class biathletes, and started doing biathlon at the age of 15. He first entered the national team in 1996.

Gjelland's strength is in shooting. His greatest triumphs have come on Norway's relay team, where he was a regular feature for several years, thanks to his ability to keep his cool and deliver faultless shooting. In the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, he won the gold medal on the relay, together with Ole Einar Bjørndalen, Halvard Hanevold and Frode Andresen. In the Biathlon World Championship 2005 in Hochfilzen, Gjelland again helped win the relay, Norway's first relay-gold in the world championships for 38 years. He has so far won one race in the Biathlon World Cup, the pursuit in Östersund on 17 December 2004.

Egil Gjelland is a carpenter by trade. He married fellow biathlete Ann-Elen Skjelbreid in 2002. They have one daughter, Kristi (b. 2004). They live on her home farm, Skjelbreid, in Fusa in western Norway.

Accomplishments

* Winter Olympics: Gold medal on relay, 2002; Silver medal on relay 1998.
* World Championships: Gold medal on relay, 2005; three times silver medal on relay.
* Biathlon World Cup individual races: One gold medal (2004), two silver, four bronze
* Biathlon World Cup overall, best season: 7th place 2000/01

Links

* [http://data.biathlonworld.com/data/archives.aspx?IbuId=BTNOR11211197301 IBU Profile]
* [http://www.fusabiathlon.net Fansite for biathlets from Fusa]

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name = Footer Olympic Champions Biathlon Relay Men
title = Olympic Champions in Men's 4×7.5 km biathlon relay
list1 = 1968: Soviet Union Alexander Tikhonov, Nikolay Puzanov, Viktor Mamatov & Vladimir Gundartsev•1972: Soviet Union Alexander Tikhonov, Rinnat Safin, Ivan Biakov & Viktor Mamatov•1976: Soviet Union Aleksandr Yelizarov, Ivan Biakov & Nikolay K. Kruglov, Alexander Tikhonov•1980: Soviet Union Vladimir Alikin, Alexander Tikhonov, Vladimir Barnachov & Anatoly Alyabyev•1984: Soviet Union Dmitri Vassiliev, Yuri Kachkarov, Algimantas Šalna & Sergey Bulygin•1988: Soviet Union Dmitri Vassiliev, Sergey Tchepikov, Alexander Popov & Valery Medvedtsev•1992: Germany Ricco Groß, Jens Steinigen, Mark Kirchner & Fritz Fischer• 1994: Germany Ricco Groß, Frank Luck, Mark Kirchner & Sven Fischer * 1998: Germany Ricco Groß, Peter Sendel, Sven Fischer & Frank Luck•2002: Norway Halvard Hanevold, Frode Andresen, Egil Gjelland & Ole Einar Bjørndalen•2006: Germany Sven Fischer, Michael Greis, Ricco Groß & Michael Rösch