Pirjo Muranen

Pirjo Muranen, born Pirjo Manninen on 8 March 1981 in Rovaniemi, is a retired Finnish cross-country skier who competed at the top of the sport through the 2000s. Her best known result is a bronze medal in the 4 x 5 km relay at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver. At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships she collected five medals: three golds, in the individual sprint in 2001 and in the 4 x 5 km relay in 2007 and 2009, a silver in the team sprint in 2005 with Riitta-Liisa Lassila, and a bronze in the individual sprint in 2009. She also won sixteen further races of up to 15 km between 2000 and 2002. Her younger brother Hannu is a Nordic combined skier, and at the 2007 championships in Sapporo the two became the first brother and sister to win gold medals at the same championships. Muranen retired in April 2011 and has since worked for the Finnish public broadcaster Yle as a cross-country skiing pundit and studio commentator.