Egil Gjelland (born 12.11.1973)

Egil comes from Voss, an area in western Norway which has fostered many biathletes (e.g. Odd Lirhus, Eirik Kvalfoss, Gisle Fenne, Gro-Marit Istad-Kristiansen) and represents Voss Skiskyttarlag. He started doing biathlon as a 14-15-year old. He had been doing nordic combined previously. Coach Olav Istad says that he early on showed a great willingness to train, set clear goals for himself, and soon distinguished himself for keeping a cool head in pressured situations. This quality has made him a steady relay-racer. Egil's strength has been on the shooting range and he has been lacking some speed in the skiing, therefore the individual event (20 km) has been his best event. He reached 90% hits in the prone position and 84% standing. As time has passed he has also increased his skiing-speed and has done well in the sprints.

Best results as a junior:

Senior results

Won the Norwegian championship in the relay in his first-year as a senior in 1994. He also took a silver medal in the team event.
Took part in the European cup in 1995, nr. 36 overall.
In his third year as a senior, 1995/96, he made the recruitment national team, where Knut Skjelbreid, now his father-in-law, was his coach!
Made his world championships debut in 1996, with a 4th place both in the relay and the team event, and 36th place in the 20 km.
Made the national team in 1996, but in the 1996/97 season, Egil had trouble with illness and injuries. Among other things, he broke his arm in 1996.
World championships gold in the team event in 1998.
Egil has participated in two olympics: Nagano 1998 and Salt Lake City 2002.

World cup-career

Made his world cup-debut in 1996, 30th overall, with a 7th and a 9th place his best results that season.
First made it to the podium in the world cup in 1998 when he came second in the 20 km in Pokljuka (3.3.1998). Since then he as got one more second place, two third places (2001) and several fourth places.
He has held a stable level, and has finished in the top 25 in 74 world cup races.
His best world cup season was 2001 when he finished 7th overall. In 2002 he finished 13th.

Relay-honours

Egil has been a steady relay-racer all his career, and for a long time he was a regular on the first leg on the Norwegian team.
He started his relay-triumphs with a gold medal in the Norwegian championships as a junior in 1992, since then he has won the Norwegian championships as a senior (1994) and twice Norwegian championships bronze medals (2000 and 2002).
He has two silver medals and one bronze from the world championships relays. He also has a gold medal from the summer-world championships (1997).
And the greatest moment of his career must be the olympic relay gold medal in 2002. In Nagano 1998 he won a relay silver medal.