Ekholm, Helena

Helena grew up in the small village of Helgum, located on the border of Solleftea . There, on the illuminated ski run, she took her first skiing steps. As soon as she was three years old, she began skiing with her mother or grandfather Gene. In the spring of 1988 , Helena first took part in skiing in Sollefteo . Later, when Helena was already about 10 years old, another grandfather, Yngw, taught her to shoot from an air gun . So, having a large number of relatives on the mother’s side who go skiing, and many relatives on the father’s side, who are good shooters, in 1999 Helena decided to go in for biathlon ^[1] .

Married, her husband is a Swedish biathlete, David Ekholm . After the wedding in July 2010 , Helena changed her maiden name to her husband's last name ^[2] . On July 7, 2013, the couple had a daughter, Moa ^[3] , and in June 2016, their son Sam.

Student of the Östersund branch of the Swedish State University Mittuniversitetet. He studies economics and law. Helena's mother is called Eve, father's name is Hans. Helena has younger sisters Jenny, a professional Swedish biathlete, and Malin, as well as brother Mattias.

In her free time from biathlon and studies, she is interested in interior design, reads, travels and spends time with family and friends.

He considers persistence, discipline, devotion to his work and endurance ^[1] to be his main advantages.

He has been participating in biathlon competitions since 2003. Initially, these were junior championships, where Helena did not achieve much success. Since the 2005/06 season he has been performing in adult competitions. In the first season, two 16th places in the sprint and the pursuit race at the stage in Pokljuka became the highest achievement of Unsson. The 2006/07 season was much more successful: as part of the Swedish national team, Junsson, who fled in the first stage, won a gold medal at the world championships in Anterselva (Italy) in the mixed relay. In the last race of the season at the stage in Khanty-Mansiysk, almost perfect shooting in the race from the general start allowed Unsson to climb the podium for the first time in his career and immediately to first place. In addition, in the 2006/07 season, Unsson was among the top eight more 5 times. In the 2007/08 season , Helena had 7 such hits in the eight, once she took the second prize in the sprint race at the stage in Ruhpolding . In the overall standings, the Swedish athlete took 9th place.

Junsson began the 2008/09 season by winning the individual home race in Ostersund , then in Pyeongchang she became the world champion in the pursuit, a bronze medalist in the mass start and a silver medalist in the mixed relay.

At the World Championships in Khanty-Mansiysk, she expectedly took bronze in the pursuit, and also won the gold medal in the individual race, being the only one to shoot without a miss.

March 10, 2012 Ekholm announced her intention to end her professional career at the end of the 2011/2012 season ^[4] .

Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cups

Personal credit

• Personal website (Swedish)