Ann-Elen Skjelbreid

Ann Elen Skjelbreid started her biathlon career at age 11, and won an age-group National Championships in 1985. She later moved to Trysil to study at the top sport high school for skiing. In 1991 she was Junior World Champion in the sprint, and in 1994 she qualified for the national team and competed at the Lillehammer Olympics. At Nagano in 1998 she won a bronze medal with the Norwegian relay team, and in Salt Lake City four years later she was a member of the Norwegian team that won the silver medal. On both occasions she skied the first leg, and her younger sister Liv Grete Skjelbreid-Poirée skied the anchor leg.

Ann Elen Skjelbreid’s only individual championship medal came in 1996, when she placed second in the sprint event at the World Championships, although she won six team and relay medals at the World Championships from 1994-98. Skjelbreid was Norwegian champion twice, in the 1995 sprint and the 2003 15 km. She also has a national title in cross-country skiing, as she skied on the gold winning relay team from Trysilgutten IL in 1995.

Skjelbreid married biathlete Egil Gjelland in the summer of 2002, and gave birth to a daughter in 2004, and she then ended her biathlon career after the 2005-06 season. Ann Elen and Egil took over the family farm from her parents in Eikelandsosen, where she worked as a teacher in the local elementary school.