Simone Niggli-Luder

Simone Niggli-Luder

Simone Niggli-Luder in 2006
Medal record
Women's orienteering
Representing   Switzerland
World Championships
	2001 Tampere	Long
	2003 Rapperswil-Jona	Sprint
	2003 Rapperswil-Jona	Middle
	2003 Rapperswil-Jona	Long
	2003 Rapperswil-Jona	Relay
	2004 Västerås	Sprint
	2005 Aichi	Sprint
	2005 Aichi	Middle
	2005 Aichi	Long
	2005 Aichi	Relay
	2006 Aarhus	Middle
	2006 Aarhus	Long
	2007 Kiev	Sprint
	2007 Kiev	Middle
	2009 Miskolc	Long
	2010 Trondheim	Sprint
	2010 Trondheim	Long
	2012 Lausanne	Sprint
	2012 Lausanne	Long
	2012 Lausanne	Relay
	2013 Vuokatti	Sprint
	2013 Vuokatti	Middle
	2013 Vuokatti	Long
	2006 Aarhus	Sprint
	2010 Trondheim	Middle
	2001 Tampere	Sprint
	2006 Aarhus	Relay
	2007 Kiev	Long
	2009 Miskolc	Middle
	2009 Miskolc	Sprint
	2013 Vuokatti	Relay
World Games
	2005 Duisburg	Middle
	2005 Duisburg	Relay
World Cup
	2002	WC Overall
	2004	WC Overall
	2005	WC Overall
	2006	WC Overall
	2007	WC Overall
	2009	WC Overall
	2010	WC Overall
	2012	WC Overall
	2013	WC Overall
	2000	WC Overall
European Championships
	2002 Sümeg	Classic
	2004 Roskilde	Sprint
	2004 Roskilde	Long
	2006 Otepää	Sprint
	2006 Otepää	Long
	2010 Primorsko	Middle
	2010 Primorsko	Long
	2012 Falun	Sprint
	2012 Falun	Middle
	2012 Falun	Long
	2000 Truskavets	Short
	2002 Sümeg	Relay
	2006 Otepää	Relay
	2010 Primorsko	Sprint
	2010 Primorsko	Relay
Nordic Championships
	2007 Bornholm	Middle
	2007 Bornholm	Long
	2001 Mikkeli	Classic
	2005 Notodden	Sprint
	2005 Notodden	Middle
	2005 Notodden	Long
	2007 Bornholm	Relay
	2005 Notodden	Relay
Junior World Championships
	1997 Leopoldsburg	Classic
	1996 Govora	Relay
	1997 Leopoldsburg	Relay
	1998 Reims	Relay

Simone Niggli-Luder (born 9 January 1978) is a Swiss orienteering athlete who has twice won (in 2003 and 2005) all four women's competitions at the world championships.

Born as Simone Luder, she grew up in Burgdorf in the Canton of Bern. She studied biology at the University of Bern, where she graduated in 2003. That same year, she married Matthias Niggli, also a Swiss orienteering athlete. They currently live in Münsingen near Bern and in Ulricehamn, Sweden.

She began competing in orienteering early on, joining the Swiss club OLV Hindelbank; at the age of ten, she participated in her first competition. Since then, her palmarès has been impressive: she won a gold medal at the junior world championships in 1997, has been 20 times Swiss champion, won the Finnish championships once and the Swedish championships nine times, has won the world cup five times, and won seven gold medals at European championships and a total of 23 gold medals at world championships. In 2003, she won all four women's competitions of the world championships held at Rapperswil in Switzerland (sprint, middle, and long distance, and— together with Birgitte Wolf and Vroni König-Salmi— the relay). She managed to repeat this extraordinary feat two years later at the world championships in Aichi, Japan.

Simone Niggli-Luder and Marianne Andersen at World Orienteering Championships 2007

Simone Niggli-Luder and Frenchman Thierry Gueorgiou, middle distance gold medalists, World Orienteering Championships 2007

At the European Championships in 2006 in Otepää, Estonia, she won gold in the sprint and long distance competitions, and finished fifth in the middle distance competition. The Swiss team finished second in the relay, beaten only by the Finnish team. At the world championships 2007 in Kiev, Ukraine, she again won gold on the middle and sprint distances and finished third on the long distance, behind two Finnish athletes who shared first place.

Niggli-Luder took time off from competitive orienteering in 2008 to give birth to her first child and again in 2011, twins. She made a successful return to the international orienteering scene in 2009 by winning bronze medals in the middle and sprint distances at the World Orienteering Championships in Miskolc, Hungary, and the gold medal in the long distance. At the World Championships 2013 at Vuokatti, Finland, she won all three single competitions (sprint, middle, and long distance) and finished third in the team relay event (together with Sara Luescher and Judith Wyder).

In 2001, 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.

In September 2013, Niggli-Luder announced that she was retiring from elite orienteering at the end of the year, after the last World Cup race in New Zealand, where she will fight for a last World Cup victory before retirement She makes this retirement after 23 WOC gold medals and over 60 World Cup race wins.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Simone Niggli.

• Official home page of Simone Niggli-Luder and Matthias Niggli.
• Second official home page.