Kari Traa

Kari Traa (born January 28, 1974 in Voss, Norway) is a Norwegian freestyle skier. She won the Olympic title in the moguls event at the 2002 Winter Olympics, finished second at the 2006 games, and finished third at the 1998 games.

She is four times World Champion, from 2001 (moguls + parallel moguls) and 2003 (moguls + parallel moguls), and has also three silver medals (both moguls and parallel moguls in 1999, and moguls in 2005). [http://www.hickoksports.com/history/worldfsski.shtml "World Freestyle Skiing Champions"] – "hickoksports.com" (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)] She has a total of 37 World Cup victories.

Traa attracted attention when she posed almost nude in a series of pictures in the sports magazine "Ultrasport" in 2001.Picture series: [http://www.ultrasport.no/cgi-bin/mediaction/imaker?id=1936/ Kari Traa] – "Ultrasport" (2001) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)] She started a company in 2002, selling sports clothes, and has later won awards for successfully launching her collections.Interview: [http://pub.tv2.no/nettavisen/side2/kjendis/article886439.ece "Endelig tid til kjæresten"] (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)] Her autobiography "Kari" was issued in 2006.Kari Traa, Sarah Sørheim, Lasse Berre, "Kari", Damm 2006. ISBN 9788204118745] After finishing her active career she has been engaged in recruitement of young ski talents and participated as arranger of world cup events. She is also engaged in the festival "Ekstremsportveko" (Extreme Sports Week) held at her home community Voss, regarded as one of the world's largest extreme sports festivals.

Kari Traa was elected "Most sexy woman in Norway" in 2002 by the magazine "MANN". [http://www.dagbladet.no/nyheter/2002/08/23/346861.html "Nest mest sexy"] "Dagbladet" – Fredag 23.08.2002 (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)] "Her og Nå" and "TV 2 Nettavisen" elected her as "Most sexy woman" in both 2003 and 2004. [http://www.midtsiden.no/midtsiden2/nyheter/visart.asp?mode=2115 "Mest sexy"] – www.midtsiden.no : 20:07:04 (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)] In 2007 she was second on a similar list compiled by the TV-program «God Kveld, Norge!». [http://www.side2.no/mote/article1350184.ece "Norges mest sexy kvinne"] (Norwegian) (Retrieved on December 27, 2007)]

Kari Traa missed the cut for the final round and finished 14th in Albertville - the first official Olympic mogul competition. Kari did not compete when the Games came to Lillehammer, Norway in 1994. She injured her knee after wiping out on a training run just three weeks before the Olympics. After the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan - Kari finally had an Olympic medal to wear when she won bronze. The medal now hangs inside her favorite restaurant in her hometown of Voss. "Freestyle skiing is still pretty small in my country. Everyone knows all the cross-country skiers because that sport is so popular. But in the last two years I've been winning a lot so more people know of me," says Kari. Fact|date=February 2007

Kari believes blondes have more fun and that's one of the reasons for her success.Fact|date=February 2007 "I'm always having fun when I'm on the course - even when I don't win the race. That's the best way to start in this sport. Go slow at first just over small jumps and play around. I'm still having fun - but now I'm going faster and over bigger jumps." She is also considered one of the "hottest" female athletes. Fact|date=February 2007

References

External links

* [http://www.karitraa.com/karitraa/Default.aspx Official website]