Simone Niggli-Luder
Simone Niggli-Luder (b. January 9, 1978) is a Swiss orienteering athlete who has won twice (in 2003 and 2005) all four competitions at the world championships.
Born as Simone Luder, she grew up in Burgdorf in the Canton of Berne. She studied biology at the University of Berne, where she was graduated in 2003. That same year, she married Matthias Niggli, also a Swiss orienteering athlete. They live currently in Münsingen near Berne and in Ulricehamn, Sweden.
She began competing in Orienteering early on, joining the Swiss club OLV Hindelbank; at the age of ten, she participated at her first competition. Since then, her palmarès has been impressive: she won a gold medal at the junior world championships in 1997, has been 14 times Swiss champion, won the Finnish championships once and the Swedish championships five times, has won the world cup twice, and won five gold medals at European champioships and a total of ten gold medals at world championships. In 2003, she won all four competitions of the world championships held at Rapperswil in Switzerland (short, middle, and long distance, and the relay). She managed to repeat this extraordinary feat two years later at the world championships in Aichi, Japan. She's also the current numer one of the world rating.
In 2002, she spent one year in Finland, running for the Finnish club Turun Suunnistajat, and won the Finnish championship. Since July 2003, she starts for the Swedish club Ulricehamns OK.
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