Judith Wyder | |
Birth Date: | 25 June 1988 |
Nationality: | Swiss |
Sport: | Orienteering |
Show-Medals: | yes |
Judith Wyder (born 25 June 1988) is a Swiss orienteering and ski orienteering competitor and runner. Her achievements include gold medals at the World Orienteering Championships and the European Orienteering Championships, both individually and with the Swiss relay team.
As a junior, Wyder won World Championship medals in both orienteering[1] and ski orienteering.
She won a bronze medal in the middle distance at the 2011 World Orienteering Championships in Chambéry, a gold medal in the relay at the 2012 World Orienteering Championships in Lausanne and a bronze medal in the relay at the 2013 World Orienteering Championships in Vuokatti.
Wyder had a very strong start to the 2014 season, becoming the dominant Swiss female orienteer after the retirement of Simone Niggli. She dominated the European Orienteering Championships in Portugal where she won gold in both the sprint and in the long distance. She also won the World Cup sprint race ahead of WOC in Italy – a very technical sprint in Imatra, Finland. After that she achieved three gold medals and a bronze medal in the 2014 World Orienteering Championships in Asiago-Lavarone showing her incredible talent.[2]
In 2017, she took a break from competing in Orienteering in order to have her first child.[3]
In 2018, Wyder won a bronze medal in the sprint distance[4] and a silver medal in the sprint relay[5] at the 2018 World Orienteering Championship in Riga.
Wyder began to focus on trail running and skyrunning in 2019. She set a new course record at the DoloMyths Run,[6] finished second at Sierre-Zinal[7] and won the Ring of Steall Skyrace, also in a course record.[8] She then won the Annapurna Trail Marathon which gave her the overall women's victory in the Golden Trail World Series.[9]
Following the 2019 season, pregnant with her second child, Wyder suffered a stroke on Christmas Day following severe headaches. Wyder returned to training following the birth of her second child in June 2020, but has a permanent spot on her right eye where she is unable to see, which has affected her map-reading for orienteering, and has memory problems which were not previously present.[10]
She won silver (individual and team) in the Trail Short during the IAU Trail World Championships 2023.[11]