Biathlon champion Helena Jonsson wins prestigious Swedish award
By DPA, IANSTuesday, December 1, 2009
STOCKHOLM - Biathlon champion Helena Jonsson was Tuesday elected winner of the Svenska Dagbladet gold medal, one of Sweden’s most prestigious sports awards.
Jonsson was cited for winning the biathlon world championship gold in the women’s pursuit in South Korea with “icy precision at an exceptionally critical stage,” the jury said.
She also won two other medals at the biathlon worlds as well as the women’s overall World Cup title.
The 25-year-old Jonsson said winning the award was “great fun,” and that her main goal this season - which opens Wednesday in Ostersund, Sweden - were the Vancouver Winter Olympics in February.
In an interview with Svenska Dagbladet prior to the announcement she said her win in the World Cup “topped everything,” adding that “whoever wins the cup has been the best during the whole season.”
Jonsson is the first biathlete to win the Swedish sports award created in 1925.
Last year, Jonas Jacobsson, who won three shooting medals at the 2008 Paralympic Games, was elected winner of the award.
Three athletes have won the award twice: Olympic and world champion downhill skier Anja Paerson, tennis legend Bjorn Borg and alpine skier Ingemar Stenmark.
Other contenders for the 2009 award included swimmer Sara Sjostrom, golfer Anna Nordqvist, wrestler Sofia Mattsson, football star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, and tennis star Robin Soderling.
