Solveig Pedersen is the cheerful woman from the south who ensured that Kristiansand, Oddersjaa, and Southern Norway had a top Norwegian skier on the team alongside Trude Dybendahl, Anette Bøe, Anita Moen, and all the other stars of that time. Now she is 58 years old, still in Kristiansand, still married to Gunnar after 36 years, and enjoys her role as a grandmother.

Head of Olympiatoppen South

Solveig Pedersen is also the department head for Olympiatoppen South and manages the support for top sports talents in Agder.

“We are one of seven regional offices for Olympiatoppen. For the first eight years, we were a competence center for sports here in the south, but since June 1, 2015, we have been the regional office of Olympiatoppen South.”

“We have many top athletes here in the district. In recent years, there has been good development in both cross-country skiing and biathlon. And we have teams like Vipers Kristiansand and ØIF Arendal in handball, good cyclists, and more,” says Solveig, who today has three children and three grandchildren.

“It is fantastic, and I love spending time with the family. But I still ski a lot. We have a family cabin in Gautestad in Setesdalen, just over an hour’s drive from here. We had snow from October 28 last winter,” she says to Langrenn.com.

Solveig Pedersen is very engaged in the development of sports talents in the south. She can talk for hours about this, and it is clear that she has found the right niche in her career.

Olympic and World Championships Medals

As an active cross-country skier, she also reached the top level, although the perfect hit in an individual championship is missing. However, she won an Olympic silver in the 4×5km relay in Albertville in 1992 and a World Championships bronze in the same event at the World Championships in Val di Fiemme in 1991. Individually, she has third place in a World Cup race in Germany in 1991, and she was eighth in the 5km at the 1992 Olympics.

Solveig skied the first leg on the 1992 silver team. Then Inger Helene Nybråten, Trude Dybendahl, and Elin Nilsen skied. They were only beaten by the Soviet Union/Russian team with Välbe, Smetanina, Lazutina, and Egorova. The last two were eventually caught doping.

Norway had the same four skiers in the World Championships relay the year before, then swapped roles for Elin Nilsen and Trude Dybendahl. At that time, the Soviet Union and Italy were ahead at the finish. Here, Solveig Pedersen achieved a strong fourth place in the 15km classic.

The Hard Core Keeps in Touch

“Through my job, I still have contact with several of those I skied with. Some have also become coaches over time, and I sometimes meet them at coaching seminars and similar events. And we are the hard core from the national team who still meet once a year. It rotates, and we see each other for four days every year. Last time we were at Anita Moen’s place in Trysil,” says Solveig Pedersen.

SOLVEIG PEDERSEN

• Born/Age: 06.09.1965/58 years
• Lives: Kristiansand
• Occupation: General Manager/Department Head at Olympiatoppen South
• Family: Spouse Gunnar Jakob Pedersen (65 years); Three children/in-laws and three grandchildren: Joachim Pedersen (35 years), married to Signe. They have a son: Mio (2 years); Celina Ribe (30 years), married to Ole Sebastian. They have two sons (3rd coming in Aug): Ludvig (4 years), Sivert Luka (2.5 years); Jonas Groven Pedersen (27 years), married to Amanda Ingeborg.
• Clubs as an Active Athlete: Oddersjaa SSK (cross-country skiing) (briefly in orienteering for the same club), KIF (Kristiansand IF, athletics)
• Retired: 1993

• My Best Memories from My Career: All the wonderful people I got to know and all the places I got to visit during training camps and competitions.
• Results-wise: Relay bronze in the senior National Championships relay at Vingrom with Oddersjaa SSK when I was only 14 years old (1980)
  My first individual senior National Championships medal (1986)
  Relay victory in the pre-World Championships in Oberstdorf (1986)
  Relay bronze in the World Championships in Val di Fiemme (1991)
  Relay silver in the Olympics in Albertville (1992)
• What I Miss from My Active Career: The feeling in my body when I was in top form. Indescribable!
• How I Follow Sports Today: Through my job at Olympiatoppen, we work closely with the specialized sports federations (SF), where we, in collaboration with the SF, support, challenge, and ensure the quality of coaches and athletes’ performance development work with the goal of top international performances. I particularly follow cross-country skiing and athletics on TV.
• My Hobbies Today: First and foremost, I love spending time with my grandchildren, children, and in-laws. It’s a fantastic gift to be a grandmother. I also love being at the cabin in Gautestad, where the snow comes early and leaves late. I’m still very fond of skiing when there is snow and running when it’s bare. The joy of training is still great and, on the agenda, almost daily. I have an interest in renovation (such as the complete renovation of our 53-year-old family cabin), recycling, and interior design.

Are you interested in traditional cross-country skiing? Click HERE and read more about it.