Pål Trulsen

Pål Trulsen (born April 19, 1962 in Drøbak, Norway) is a Norwegian curler from Hosle in Bærum, and was the 2002 Olympic curling men's champion. Trulsen participated in both the 1980 and 1981 World Junior Championships, finishing both tournaments with 2-7 and 4-5 records respectively. However, after participating in the 1981 and 1982 European championships, he was back at the juniors in 1983 where he won the silver medal, losing to Canada's John Base in the final. It took Trulsen 9 more years to get back on the world stage, at the 1992 Winter Olympics, where curling was a demonstration sport. At this event he won a silver medal, losing to Switzerland's Urs Dick in the final. After four World Championship tournaments in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2000 in which he did not receive any medals, Trulsen won the bronze at the 2001 Ford World Curling Championship. A year later, Trulsen became world famous as he won the gold medal at the olympics defeating Canada's Kevin Martin in the final. After reaching the top, Trulsen would later decline, winning silver at the 2002 Ford World Curling Championship, bronze at the 2003 Ford World Curling Championship and a fourth place finish at the 2004 Ford World Curling Championship. He finished in fourth place once again at the 2005 Ford World Men's Curling Championship, losing to Canada's Randy Ferbey in a 3-4 game. Trulsen would finally win another tournament, when he won the 2005 European Championships against Peja Lindholm of Sweden. However, he failed to advance from the preliminaries in the 2006 Winter Olympics after a combination of variable play and bad luck.

Prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics, it was reported that Trulsen is considering retiring from curling. [http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/sports/curling/stories/index.shtml?/story/olympics/national/2006/01/07/Sports/trulsenretire060105.html] He finally did retire in January 2007.

His team mates (as of 2005) include:
*Lars Vågberg (third)
*Flemming Davanger (second)
*Bent Ånund Ramsfjell (lead)
*Torger Nergård (alternate)

Awards

*Colin Campbell Award: 2002