PROFILE
Jörgen Mårtensson Six continents and seventy countries Ten years ago the name Jörgen ‘Jögge’ Mårtensson, twice world elite champion, was on everyone’s lips. But how’s life for a famous elite orienteer after he retires? Sweden’s Mårtensson founded Park World Tour China and PWT Travel. He still travels all the time all over the world, just as he did during his O career. Just 18, Jörgen Mårtensson ran his very first world orienteering championships. He was the youngest participant at Kongsberg, Norway, and at the start of a 22 year career as a top orienteer. During his 20 years in the national squad, the Swede ran orienteering races in 62 different countries. After ten world championship medals – two gold, three silver, three relay silver, two relay bronze – the world champion of 1991 in Czech and 1995 in Germany came to the end of his career as an elite sportsman. Actually Jörgen qualified for the final of WOC in Scotland in 1999 but because of a foot injury in the qualification race he was a non-starter. “It was the right moment for me, at the age of forty, to retire from elite orienteering,” he said.
Orienteering and Ski racing in China After retiring, Jörgen took a new route. In 1998, before ending his competitive career, he had founded PWT China together with Gavert Waag (Sweden) and Donna Li (Beijing) The strategy was to spread the sport of orienteering in China – and this has been successful. “At that time orienteering didn’t mean anything in China. It was practically nothing,” explains Jörgen. In the period 1998 to 2006 he travelled to China 70 times and has invested a great deal of personal energy and hard cash into the project. Orienteering maps were made of many parks and also forests. Students caught “O fever” and everything began to develop positively. Especially exciting are the fantastic training possibilities at 2,500 – 3,500 metres above sea level in beautiful Yunnan Province. In Tibet you can run on the highest O-map in the world at 4,320 metres, testing your ability to exert yourself while using your brain. Cross-country ski racing found its way to China too. In 2003 the “Vasaloppet China” was launched (the Swedish Vasaloppet is one of the biggest ski races in the world). Now FIS (International Ski Federation) and World Cup races are held in China.
PWT Travel, orienteering travel and more With his colleague Jens Kristian Kopland he founded the travel company PWT Travel in 2001, to specialise in sport and active holidays worldwide. In particular there are holidays in conjunction with orienteering in summer and autumn, and cross-country skiing in winter. Some special projects have been the Park World Tour orienteering race series in conjunction with PWT tours. 38 THE AUSTRALIAN ORIENTEER MARCH 2007
The Mårtensson family at the Modum 2-Days 2005. Photo: Erik Borg
Each year there are some ten trips to major orienteering events and more trips, for example, to cross-country ski races.
Culture is part Culture, sport and good food unite participants on the social level. The tours, a weekend or up to three weeks, are led by guides from Scandinavia. Thanks to his long experience in travel arrangements and working internationally, Jörgen Mårtensson has valuable contacts and co-operators just about all over the world. “This makes it possible to offer special experiences, which would never happen otherwise to a normal tourist, for example a banquet in China.” The motto of PWT Travel is “High quality with good prices, a friendly atmosphere and distinctive experiences.” The tourists can be children or young-in-heart 70 year-olds. Most come from Scandinavia, “People realise that spending money on travel is a better investment than new designer furniture, for example…
Autumn in Brazil “…because the memories of travel like this are much more valuable than the most expensive furniture,” says travel leader Jörgen Mårtensson. At his office in Vikersund he puts a lot of effort into preparing the tours. However he does not go himself every time, “Otherwise I’d hardly ever be at home.” In the northern autumn last year he travelled to South America with a group of 140 people. “I was glad to visit some new countries. New lands with their different cultures are always a rich experience for me. And the multi-day O in Brazil was very special,” says Jörgen.
At home in Norway In 2001 Jörgen and his family moved from Sweden to Modum in Norway to the house in which his Norwegian wife Hege grew up. His four children Henrik, 13, twins Anna and Heidi, 11, and Erik, 5, take part in orienteering – no wonder with their father – but orienteering is not the chief sport; there are football, riding and other outdoor near home activities. An important detail on the map: the Mårtensson home is on the edge of an O-map. Of course.
Still involved in sport Jörgen keeps up his interest in sports. Although he lives in Norway, he is still loyal to his native Sweden and follows results on TV. However last autumn Jörgen had to cope with a muscle tear. His wish for the future is simply to be able to run up to two hours in the forest without any problems “to get the air through my head.” His aim is to take part in the public races at World Championships, “I can meet old friends from my orienteering career and we can relive memories of those times together,” dreams Jörgen. Translated from German by Ian Baker and draft English version checked personally by Jörgen Mårtensson.
