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What I wrote below is not meant to offend anyone. I am accustomed to email any Swede and ask for news and information about Pernilla. Then I use this information to enrich this page. Therefore all that you read is nothing but the different opinions of the people I asked.
More news can be found at the following links:
March 1989
Wiberg tore the anterior crucial ligament and some cartilage in her left knee in a NorAm race in Vermont.
In her first World Cup race in Vemdalen, Sweden, in March, 1990, she finished fifth. At the next race, Wiberg placed third in Are, Sweden. Both of those races were slaloms, and Wiberg actually entered the 1991 Worlds considered more of a slalom skier. At the 1991 Worlds in Saalbach, Austria, Pernilla solidified her place among the skiing elite by winning the gold in the giant slalom. One year later, Wiberg became the only 1991 alpine world champion to defend his or her title at the Albertville Olympics when she took the GS gold. In January 1993 she ruptured her Achilles tendon in a
slalom in Maribor, Slovenia.
Indeed, Pernilla had her best season in 93-94 when she finished second overall in the World Cup standings and second in the slalom. The highlight of the year came at the Lillehammer Olympics where she won gold in the combined.
The 93-94 season ended on a sour note when Pernilla crashed in a training run and suffered a knee injury that kept her out of the World Cup finals in Vail.
Autumn 1996
I said I was going to try to win the World Cup overall, and I think it was a little too much for me", Wiberg said before the 96-97 campaign.
June 1997
She was voted the second best alpine skier in the 1996/97 season (even if we all know she's the best) by the international skiingjournalists.
1) Alphand 149 points, 2) Wiberg 127, 3) Deborah Compagnoni 79, 4) Michael von Gruenigen 65,
5) Bruno Kernen 34, 6) Thomas Sykora 20, 7) Fritz Strobl 16, 8) Kristian Ghedina 15, 9) Lasse Kjus 14,
10) Katja Seizinger, 13.
October 12th 1997
Pernilla, who is going to be one to watch both for the downhill world cup and for some medals in Nagano, injures herself while training on Sölden's glacier.
In a hospital in Innsbruck, after visiting her (fortunately no surgery was necessary), doctors checked two broken knee's legments (it's the right knee). She will have to miss the very first races in the ski world cup (the first one is going to be in Tignes).
"Wiberg will be out six weeks", Daniel Mornet of Rossignol Ski Co. said.
The world cup season begins in France in a week, but fortunately the first race will be followed by over three weeks of rest before the races in Park City in on November 20th.
November 1997
Pernilla Wiberg will come back to the alpine world cup in the middle of December in Val d'Isčre. Within two weeks she will begin practising again. She was visited for a week in Germany in Bad Wiessee.
Her goal is to win the Downhill and Super-G overall and gold in Nagano, but what is really important, is that she still feels like competing.
The Swedish star held a preconference on to talk about the rehabilitation: "... the injury rehabilitation was fast and went well ...", she said. The reporter said she even could participate at Park City but that was a little too soon.
"I will stay here two more weeks the injury is coming out fine", she said.
She practices balance and strength all days and swims regularly. Between the practice she gets a massage and a therapy with electric shocks. "I know it takes six weeks and I just have to put up with it.".
January 1998
Pernilla cracks two ribs during a competition. After breaking her knee legments she had almost completely recovered when this new accident occurs. Therefore she is thinking of retiring indeed.
Heinz Peter Platter hopes her mental strength, that led her to face these situations (do you remember her broken tendon in 1993?), will help her in such a bad moment. Anyway she feels so sad that HP Platter does not feel like phoning her because she starts crying every time he does. What worries her is the unbearable pain she feels.
The doctors who visited her say she will be able to take part to the winter olympic games in Nagano.
January 1998
Pernilla has started training in Sweden now that the pain is fading away. She said she should like to win the downhill world cup and a medal in Nagano during the winter olympics: that would be really cool but I think she has already won, since she made up her mind not to leave competitions. If injures and bad luck cannot prevent her from training, competing and winning this means that no one can do that but her: she is the only one who is provided with such a solid mental strength.
Season 1998
I am going to try to explain some things about Pillan and her relationship with the Swedes.
One could say that Pernilla is having a crisis. We all know about her knee and how she in the second slalom was first after the first manche but crashed out in the second. In the very same
race which Nowén won. In the third race of the season she fell and cracked two ribs.
But that was not all. She has also split up from her boyfriend, the Norweigan skier Bödvar
(for the second time?) and she is very sad about that. She has said that, that is one of the
reasons she can not focus 100%, besides her ribs hurt very much too.
Fortunately, there are no problems between Pernilla and the other ladies in the Swedish ski team
(Ylva Nowén, Pernilla, Linda Ydeskog, Martina Fortkord, Anna Ottosson, Erika Hansson).
Pernilla about Ylva Nowén: "I'm happy for her progress. We have a very good team spirit and all
the girls are best friends. Ylva and I are competitiors and rivals during two minutes each competition day - every
other time we are best friends."
Pernilla does not like Swedish media, newspapers in particular. Swedish journalists have
always wanted Swedish stars to sing their tunes. It all started with Stenmark who was avaliable.
He had always time for interviews and he let them film him when he trained. Allmost all stars have
been like that: Stefan Edberg (tennis), Ingemar Johansson (boxing) and so on.
There are only three exceptions: Björn Borg, Tomas Brolin and Pernilla Wiberg.
So the press dislikes these three people and writes all sorts of things about them, which in
most cases are not true. This has led to the fact that for a couple of years Pernilla refused
to talk to any Swedish person who worked for TV or a newspaper.
That might be the reason why some journalists write unpleasant things about her.
Moreover, since Pernilla did not comment the articles, the Swede in general believed that they
were true. So pernilla is not that much loved in Sweden as one could imagine, which is a very
sad thing.
As regards giving up competing, she said in an interview that she is thinking about it, and some
Swedish man do not mind very much. She has not decided yet wheater to remain or not, but she will probably
announce her decission after the olympics, which she will take part in.
April 7th 1998
The Swedish state demands that she pays taxes for the years she lived in Sweden: from 1992 to
1995. They want her to pay 900.000 US$. That's about 6.000.000 Kr (1.620.000.000 Italian liras),
a rather "big" piece of cake.
June 1998
She'll aim for the coming season with really high goals. She didn't say wether this is going to be her last season but she keeps stating that she takes one season at a time. Injuries (by the way, her knee looks like it's OK), private life, inspiration and so on will decide her future. She found her way back to her old boyfriend, Norwegian coach Bödvar Bjerke. Hmm...
September 2nd 1998
A very lucky friend of mine saw Pernilla skiing in Passo dello Stelvio (Italy): she was training for the ski world cup. He said it looked like she was in a great shape.
September 1998
The latest news on Pernilla Wiberg is that she currently is on training camps with the Norwegian national team. She wasn't allowed to have her boyfriend with her all the time in the Swedish team (which no one has) so she chosed to stay with the Norwegians since Mr. Bjerke is both Pernilla's boyfriend and assistant coach to the Norwegian ladies. She's still competing for Sweden though. Her goals are high for the season. Third place in each and every alpine discipline in the World Cup and at least one gold medal in the World Championships. Pretty high, huh?
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