PHOTO: Bildbyrån + SVT
It has been over 30 years since Ingemar Stenmark ended his skiing career.
Now he has found a new venture, in a completely different sport.
Stenmark is now open to participate in the WC next summer.
Ingemar Stenmark is one of Sweden’s greatest athletes of all time. Västerbottingen performed great deeds in alpine skiing, in the slalom and giant slalom disciplines, and is a celebrated athlete.
Stenmark’s life
The merit list is long for Stenmark. The list includes five Olympic medals, of which two are gold, and seven WC medals, of which three are gold. In the World Cup, Stenmark has a whopping 86 wins and a total of 155 podium places(!).
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For a long time, Ingemar held the record for the number of World Cup victories, before the alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin took over the record last season. She now has 90 victories in the World Cup.
Stenmark is today 67 years old and lives his life together with Tarja Stenmarkwith whom he has the daughter Iza together with. The former alpine skier also has a daughter Nathalie since a previous relationship.
The new venture
As a 67-year-old, Stenmark has now started a new sports venture, and it is something completely different from skiing. Namely, Ingemar practices pole vaulting!
– I pole vaulted when I was little, around the age of 13, and I have always been passionate about that sport. I’ve thought I’d try it at some point, but never got the chance. Now someone said to me, why don’t you try it? So then I got to try it and thought it was great fun, says Stenmark to SVT.
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What the skiing legend likes about the sport is that it is technically difficult and constantly a challenge. And it may become relevant to compete.
– It’s the veteran WC in Gothenburg this summer and he who advised me to try, he wanted me to jump on it. It’s not impossible, but it’s not what I’m thinking about right now. I’m not really that competitive. It’s more of a fun thing and good training as well, says Stenmark to the channel’s website.
READ MORE: Ingemar Stenmark now reveals why we will never see him on TV again – the icon’s honest words about the nob
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