Bardonecchia, 17 February, XX Olympic Winter Games. Women's snowboard: Tanja FRIEDEN of Switzerland celebrates victory at the finish of the cross event final. Credit : Getty Images/Agence Zoom

Born: 6 February 1976

Birthplace: Bern (Switzerland)

Nationality: Switzerland

Sport: Skiing

ATTENDANCE AT THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Turin 2006

AWARDS

Olympic medals:

Gold: 1

Victory at the penultimate mogul

Tanja Frieden was born to a Swiss father and Norwegian mother. Parallel to her career as a teacher, she began to débute le snowboard in 1989, and made her debut at the World Cup in 1997 in the snowboard Alpine events. Runner-up in the border cross European Championships in 2000, her first win was in the World Cup in M2003.

Tanja Frieden obtained her place in the Swiss team for the Turin Olympic Games on 27 January 2006, thanks to her results from the previous two competitions before the Games. Tanja arrived on form for the Olympic competitions.

17 February saw the debut of the snowboard cross event in the resort of Bardonecchia. Tanja came fourth in the qualifying heats,. She went through to the second round with no difficulties. In the semi-final, she was neck-and-neck with the other competitors up to the last bends, but managed to finish second, securing a place in the final that afternoon.

In the final, the Swiss competitor was almost assured a place on the podium from the half-way point. The two Canadians, Dominique Maltais (who ended up with the bronze) and Maelle Ricker, badly misjudged the start of the race. At that point, the title seemed set to go to the American Lindsey Jacobellis, ahead by far. But at the penultimate mogul, the American caught her board with her hand to rebalance herself in the air, so she said later. Then followed a hazardous landing which made her lose her speed and allowed Tanja Frieden to overtake her in the last few metres. Crossing the finish line, Tanja took the gold and gave Switzerland the first of its three gold medals of these Turin Winter Games in the discipline of surf des neigessnowboard.

This incident was just desserts for Tanja,. Indeed, in 2003, at the « Winter X-Games », it was she who fell at the last mogul, giving a narrow victory to … Lindsey Jacobellis.

At 30, Tanja Frieden became the first Olympic champion in the history of the women's snowboard cross event. This Olympic title is also a charming story, as the day before her gold medal, Tanja's partner, the American Seth Wescott, also won the snowboard cross event at the Turin Olympic Games.