“Always good at orienteering but never good at running”

“Always good at orienteering but never good at running”

Our Athlete of April is an Orienteering World Champion, who, as he himself puts it “was always good at orienteering but never good at running”. Last time he competed in foot orienteering was at the age of sixteen, since the courses started then to get longer and playing football started to take a lot of his time. So how come he is a multiple World Champion now?

The answer came to him in the form of Trail Orienteering: “TrailO incorporates the basic elements of orienteering, map reading and terrain interpretation, but without the running part. It’s also one of few sports where everybody can compete against each other on equal terms, regardless of sex, age or physical ability”, he says. And he knows what he is talking about: besides being a competitor, he is also a member of the IOF Trail Orienteering Commission, and an experienced TrailO organiser. This year, he says, “a realistic goal for is to get at least one Championship medal.”

Read about Martin Fredholm’s story from a junior foot orienteer and football player to the top of the Trail Orienteering World – and indeed, to the IOF Trail Orienteering Commission, in Athlete of the Month.