Thierry Gueorgiou

Thierry Gueorgiou is a French orienteer born on 30 March 1979 in Saint-Etienne, widely regarded as the king of the middle distance in foot orienteering. He holds the record for gold medals won at the World Orienteering Championships by a male athlete, with 14 titles between 2003 and 2017, and he won the middle distance event eight times. He took golds in the sprint, middle and long distances, and also won the 2006 European trail orienteering title. He ran for the French club NO St-Etienne and the Finnish club Kalevan Rasti, with which he won the Jukola relay five times. He retired from international competition after the 2017 World Championships in Estonia and went on to coach the Swedish and later the Finnish national teams.