Kari Traa

Kari Traa

Traa in Bjerkreim 2008
Personal information
Born	January 28, 1974 (1974-01-28) (age 43) Voss, Norway
Height	168 cm (5 ft 6 in)
Weight	65 kg (143 lb)
Medal record Women's freestyle skiing Representing  Norway Olympic Games 2002 Salt Lake City Moguls 2006 Turin Moguls 1998 Nagano Moguls World Championships 2001 Whistler Moguls 2001 Whistler Dual moguls 2003 Deer Valley Moguls 2003 Deer Valley Dual moguls 1999 Meiringen-Hasliberg Moguls 1999 Meiringen-Hasliberg Dual moguls 2005 Ruka Dual moguls

Kari Traa (born January 28, 1974) is a Norwegian former Olympic freestyle skier. She won the Olympic title in the moguls event at the 2002 Winter Olympics, finished second at the 2006 games, and finished third at the 1998 games.

She is four times World Champion, from 2001 (moguls + parallel moguls) and 2003 (moguls + parallel moguls), and has also three silver medals (both moguls and parallel moguls in 1999, and moguls in 2005). She has a total of 37 World Cup victories.

Kari Traa missed the cut for the final round and finished 14th in the 1992 Winter Olympics at Albertville - the first official Olympic mogul competition. Kari did not compete when the Games came to Lillehammer, Norway in 1994. She injured her knee after wiping out on a training run just three weeks before the Olympics. After the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan - Kari finally had an Olympic medal when she won bronze. In subsequent Winter Olympics she gained a gold medal (2002) and silver (2006).

Traa attracted attention when she posed almost nude in a series of pictures in the sports magazine Ultrasport in 2001. She started a company in 2002, selling sports clothes, and has later won awards for successfully launching her collections. Her autobiography Kari was issued in 2006. After finishing her active career she has been engaged in recruitement of young ski talents and participated as arranger of world cup events. She is also engaged in the festival Ekstremsportveko (Extreme Sports Week) held at her home community Voss, regarded as one of the world's largest extreme sports festivals.

Kari Traa was elected "Sexiest woman in Norway" in 2002 by the magazine MANN.Her og Nå and TV 2 Nettavisen elected her as "Most sexy woman" in both 2003 and 2004. In 2007 she was second on a similar list compiled by the TV-program God kveld, Norge!.

She was also mentioned as a sponsor for Ylvis, the Norwegian comedy duo, in a segment in their TV show Tonight with Ylvis where they tried to become "big" in Swahiliwood. She was called by the boys and asked to co-fund a movie production which Bård and Vegard were in, that had run out of money. She co-funded it with a local car-repair shop in Norway and was mentioned in the movie's dialogue.

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