Petter Northug

At 38 years old, Petter Northug has this physical status:

The 2005/06 season was Northug's first in the World Cup, although he competed in one race the season before, a sprint in Drammen, he came 35th. During the 2005/06 season he shared his time equally between the World Cup and the Scandinavian Cup, although in early May 2006 it was announced that Northug would be in the senior national team for the 2006/07 season. Northug also claimed his first World Cup victory in the 2005/06 season, in a pursuit race in Falun, beating 2005/06 World Cup winner Tobias Angerer, who came second, and 2004/05 overall champion Axel Teichmann was third. Then in the last race of the year, a pursuit in Sapporo he claimed another podium place, coming second. He lost to Mathias Fredriksson by 3.8 seconds. He also came seventh, tenth, and twelfth in sprint races, and fifteenth in the 50 km freestyle in Holmenkollen. Northug finished the 2005/06 World Cup season in 14th place overall. He also finished 14th in the distance standings, and 24th in the sprint.

After Norway's disappointing display at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the Norwegian press questioned why Northug was not taken to the Games. Northug himself admitted he was disappointed after not getting selected, especially as he had won the double pursuit in the National Championships earlier in the year. The day after the 2006 Olympics Team was announced, Northug was on the team winning the Norwegian Championships in 3x10 kilometer relay. As he crossed the finish line, he shouted "And I am not going to the Olympics?".

Northug won his first gold medal at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships in Sapporo as a member of the 4 x 10 km relay in 2007. Northug completed the last leg of the relay, beating Sweden and Russia on the sprint for the finish line. He was also in a good position to compete for the silver in the 30 kilometer duathlon, but he fell in the last part of the race and was disappointed to finish fifth.

He was far more successful at the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2009 in Liberec, where he earned three golds in the 15 km + 15 km double pursuit, 4 x 10 km relay and 50 km freestyle mass start. In all three events he sprinted away from the rest of the pack to win the race.

Northug was the runner up to the overall World Cup in the 2008/2009 season, losing to the Swiss Dario Cologna after leading before the final races.

Northug finished in an extremely disappointing 41st place in the first Cross Country event during the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. A day later, Northug responded with a bronze medal in the Sprint Event. This success was short-lived however, as he broke his pole in the end of the 30 km pursuit, where he was one of the biggest favourites to win. He then won his first Olympic gold, in the Team Sprint, alongside Øystein Pettersen.

Days later he was skiing the anchor leg in the 4 x 10 km relay. When he took over from Lars Berger who was skiing the 3rd leg, he was 37.5 seconds behind the lead group. Despite this he managed to catch and overtake France and the Czech Republic to win Norway a silver medal. Northug then won his first individual medal at the Olympics when he won gold at the Men's 50 kilometre classic. Less than two weeks later, he won the 50 kilometre freestyle event at the Holmenkollen, becoming the first skier to win the 50 km at the Winter Olympics, World Championships, and Holmenkollen since Sweden's Gunde Svan reached that triple crown in 1988.

In September 2010 details of Northug's sponsorship contract with soft drink manufacturer Red Bull were publicized by Norwegian broadcaster TV 2, which did not divulge its sources, revealing the most profitable sponsorship agreement with an individual athlete in Norwegian history. For four years, until after the 2014 Winter Olympics, Northug was slated to receive a minimum of NOK 1 million annually with a prospect of getting twice that amount if his performances equalled those of his recent previous seasons.

Northug did not start the 2010–2011 season well, missing the first three weeks of the World Cup due to illness. His Tour de Ski campaign was also marred by relatively poor results in the opening stages. However, he climbed the rankings and finished 2nd after winning the prestigious penultimate stage (20 km classic mass start) in Val di Fiemme. In doing so, he also took all the intermediate bonus sprints, which had never previously been done by the winner of the race. In the Holmenkollen World Ski Championship Northug raced in five disciplines, taking 3 gold and 2 silver medals. During the 2011 World Championship, he gained widespread international attention when he controversially crossed the finish-line sideways after decisively beating his opponents on the last leg of the 4x10 kilometre relay. The gesture was regarded by media as disrespectful, most notably towards his most fierce rival, Marcus Hellner. At the end of the season Northug also won the Season Finale in Sweden, beating his compatriot Finn Haagen Krogh.

In the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships 2013, Northug won the 15 km freestyle for the first time at a World Championships, completing his collection of World Championship gold medals. He again beat the Swedes on the sprint of the 4x10 km relay, securing Norway's 7th World Championship gold medal in a row in the relay. Northug also won a silver in the individual sprint. He was less successful on the team sprint, where he and his teammate, Pål Golberg, went out in the semifinal. Despite being a favorite before the 50 km, Northug finished 21st. He gave the winner, Johan Olsson, his jersey after the race as a gesture of respect.

Northug had an impressive ending to the 2012–13 season. He won the 15 km individual classic in Lahti by over half a minute before being victorious in the famous classic sprint in Drammen. In the Season Finale in Sweden, Northug won first two stages, the prestigious classic sprint in Stockholm and freestyle prologue in Falun, then finished fourth in the penultimate stage, 15k classic mass start, and closed the season by winning the whole mini-tour. Before Lahti, Northug was in the third place in the World Cup, 226 points behind the lead; by the time it finished, he stood in first, 180 points ahead of second place.

The 2013-14 season saw Northug struggle with an illness which severely impacted his performance. Particularly frustrating for him was his inability to fight for medals in the skiathlon and individual sprint of the Sochi Olympics. His relatively lackluster performance in the 50 km event, which saw him finish a distant 18th in a race he had definitively won four years earlier, meant he left a major world event without a single medal for the first time in eight years.

Northug looked to be in better physical shape in the 2014/2015 season, and proved to be Sundby's strongest competition during that season's Tour de Ski. Despite leading before the final climb up the Alpe Cermis, he lost to Sundby, who won his second TdS title in a row. In July 2016, Sundby lost that title to Northug after Sundby's anti-doping rule violation, thereby giving Northug his first Tour de Ski win.

At the 2015 World Championships in Falun, Northug secured his 10th WC gold medal by narrowly beating Canada's Alex Harvey in a bunch sprint to the finish line in the men's classic sprint event. He then proceeded to contribute to Norway's victory in both the team sprint and 4x10km relay. The final race of these World Championships, i.e. the 50 km classic, saw Northug notch a notable victory. The race was held in difficult conditions due to heavy snowfall; sitting at third in the last climb before the finish, Northug, in a remarkable display of double poling, managed to overtake his remaining two opponents to win the race. As of 2015, Northug had won 20 Olympic and World Championship medals (15 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze).

He announced his retirement from cross-country skiing on 12 December 2018.

Career after competitive skiing

As late as 13 August 2020 he was doing occasional work as a celebrity at summer camp for teenage skiers.

In August 2020 Uno-X said that their sponsorship deal with Northug would be canceled in the near future, due to [the company's view that] Northug "must concentrate about other things".

In November 2020 he released a Christmas song, "Petters Jul".

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