Red Bull.com

Cross-country skier Petter Northug took home a whole array of medals from the Vancouver Winter Olympics in 2010, building on is already sizeable trophy stash.

Before he joined the World Cup tour, he competed in several Continental Cup meetings, and was a regular in the Scandinavian Cup. During his Scandinavian Cup career (2004-6) he scored seven podium finishes, came second three times and won four times. Three of those victories were in 15km races, and one a pursuit.

Northug has six gold medals from junior World Championships. His first two gold medals came in 2004–5 in the pursuit and the 10km freestyle in Rovaniemi, then in 2005–6 in Kranj he won gold in the 10km classic, the pursuit, the sprint, and the relay. He also has two silver medals (one in the sprint, and one in the relay, both in 2004–5). His victories made him the first athlete ever to win five individual gold medals at the FIS Junior Nordic World Ski Championships. During 2005–6 he also took part in the Norwegian National Championships, and won the double pursuit race, beating Frode Estil by 1.9 seconds, and became the first junior to ever win a Norwegian National Championship.

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 missed out on the 2006 Winter Olympics, much to his disappointment, but he made up for this in February 2010, at the Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, where he secured gold in both the 50km classic and the team sprint (with Øystein Pettersen), silver in the 4 x 10km relay (with Johnsrud Sundby, Odd-Björn Hjelmeset and Lars Berger), and bronze in the sprint classic.

Catch up with Petter.