Marit Bjørgen’s doppelgänger cheers her on
Photo courtesy of Jaffrey Bagge Which one is the real one? Bagge is flattered by comparisons to Marit Bjørgen, who won the gold medal in crosscountry skiathlon at the Sochi Olympics.
Seattle woman is a dead ringer for Norway’s gold medal-winning skier–and her new biggest fan
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TV2
Jaffrey Bagge (30) lives in Seattle, Washington, which is Bergen’s sister city. She works as a marketing director at her parents’ catering company and never goes skiing.
When a Norwegian friend a while ago showed her pictures of Olympic star Marit Bjoergen (33), telling her they had a resemblance, she agreed that the similarities were present. “When I saw the photos of her, there were some that I really thought looked like me! It’s a compliment to be compared with Bjoergen. She is an amazingly talented athlete, and I think she is really pretty, so it’s flattering to see the resemblance too,” Bagge said to TV 2.
Bagge think it’s especially fun to be compared with Bjoergen because she herself has Norwegian ancestry. Her great-great grandfather had a farm south of Bergen—a place Bagge hopes to visit. He immigrated in the early 1900s to Minnesota and started a new farm where her father was raised. Her father grew up surrounded by other immigrants from Norway and Sweden, so Bagge too was raised aware of her heritage. Her grandmother was Scandinavian too.
This spring she and her husband, who also has Norwegian ancestry, plan to travel to Oslo to celebrate Syttende Mai.
But before that, she’ll be watching her doppelgänger compete in the Olympics. “I’m so excited to watch her ski! I think she will win even more gold medals this year than in Vancouver. All my friends are going to watch her as well and root for my “look alike.”
This article originally appeared in the Feb. 21, 2014 issue of the Norwegian American Weekly. To subscribe, visit SUBSCRIBE or call us at (800) 305-0271.
