July 8, 2008 – Petter Northug was born in January 6, 1986 in Mosvik in Nord-Trondelag, Norway. His home cross-country ski club is Strindheim IL, based in Trondheim. Northug has won six gold medals at the Junior World Championships.

He won his first two gold medals were in the pursuit and 10km freestyle at the 2005 JWCS in Rovaniemi. At the 2006 JWCS in Kranj he won gold in 10km classic, pursuit, sprint and relay. He is first athlete ever who won five individual gold medals on FIS Junior Nordic World Ski Championships. During 2005/06 he took part in the Norwegian National Championships and became the first junior to won at a the Norwegian National Championship.

The season 2004/05 was Northug’s first in World Cup. He participated in the sprint in Drammen and finished in 35th place. During the 2005/06 season he shared his races equally between the World Cup and the Scandinavian Cup. He claimed his first World Cup victory in 2006. In a pursuit race in Falun he beat 2005/06 World Cup winner Tobias Angerer. Northug finished the 2005/06 World Cup on 14th place overall, in the distance races he ranked 14th overall and in the sprint he was 24th overall.

In the 2007/08 World Cup season he won three podiums. In the most important challenge of the season, the Tour de Ski, he ranked 8th overall. Northug finished the World Cup Overall in 12th place, 23rd in the distance races on and 14th in the sprints.

Northug is generally considered a future star of the cross-country skiing and Alpina is proud that he is going to race in Alpina cross-country ski boots next season.

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