Calculating Death Risk Makes Swedish Actuary Gold-Medal Curler

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Olympic curler Anette Norberg says weighing the risk of death and disease for Folksam Group gives her an advantage that may result in her second gold medal at the Winter Games this month.

“Curling is a bit like chess on ice,” said Norberg, the captain of Sweden’s four-member women’s curling team and an actuary with Folksam, which insures half the people in her country. “It is about logical, strategic thinking, which you learn through this kind of work.”

Norberg, 43, is one of at least three financial-services professionals competing for a podium spot at the Winter Games in Vancouver. She’ll be joined by Swiss freestyle skier Thomas Lambert, who works at Raiffeisen Switzerland, and blind Canadian skier Chris Williamson, a Royal Bank of Canada teller competing in the Paralympic Games.

Financial services workers are a rarity among the 2,700 athletes scheduled to compete during the 17-day event in Vancouver and Whistler starting Feb. 12. Another 600 athletes will compete in the Paralympic Games in March.

Norberg is the only member of her team who worked while training for the 21st Winter Olympics. The mother of two, who also assesses financial risk at her Stockholm-based firm, wouldn’t have it any other way.

“I like my job and I have a hard time letting go of it,” she said. “I need the mix of curling and work.”

Disease Risk

Norberg normally works full-time as department head of Folksam’s Aktuarie Liv unit, though since October she’s been taking two afternoons off each week to train. Actuaries calculate the risk of disease and death among different age groups, using statistical data to determine how much clients should pay for life insurance. The Swede, who lives just east of Stockholm in Saltsjoe-Boo, practices curling four to five times a week, and does physical training three times weekly.

In curling, teams slide 19.1-kilogram (42.1-pound) rocks down a 42-meter (138-foot) ice sheet, similar to shuffleboard. Curlers guide the rocks by brushing the ice with brooms.

Norberg started curling because her parents played in the Swedish coastal town of Haernoesand, a 430-kilometer (267-mile) drive north of Stockholm. Norberg said she enjoyed mathematics at school and studied the topic at Uppsala University near Stockholm. She fell into the insurance industry “much by chance” because it let her work with people and numbers.

On the ice, Norberg led the Swedish team to gold at the Olympics in Turin, Italy, in 2006, beating Switzerland in the final.

More Competition

“Competition has increased a lot in the past four years, so it’ll be much harder this time,” Norberg said. “Our big challenge is to get to the finals -- there are 10 good teams and you have to be among the top four to get there.”

Swiss freestyle skier Lambert is also making a return to the Winter Olympics, aiming to improve on his 14th-place finish in aerials at Turin.

His sport involves skiing down a ramp, launching into the air, performing a series of acrobatic moves, and making a graceful landing. His big move for the Games is a jump called the “Rudy Randy Full,” a triple somersault with five twists.

“If I do it really nice and land it properly and nicely, I can get a lot of points,” Lambert, 25, said. “This jump can make a difference.”

Olympic Sponsorship

Lambert has practiced the trick since last summer while working at Raiffeisenbank Thalwil, a branch of the St. Gallen, Switzerland-based cooperative bank. He joined the bank in May 2008 after getting a bachelor’s degree from the University of Zurich with majors in economics and finance.

“It’s hard to earn enough money to do sports such as freestyle skiing in Switzerland,” he said.

Lambert also has a two-year sponsorship from his employer, which helps pay the bills when he skis full-time between November and April. For the rest of the year, Lambert works part-time at the bank, assisting the branch manager with forecasts, developing mortgage products and marketing.

“There’s a few challenges because I work about 25 hours a week on average and I also try to train for 20 to 25 hours a week,” Lambert said.

He initially found it hard separating the job from sport. Hours after finishing work, he’d sometimes be standing on top of a practice ramp at a training facility while mentally drafting e-mails to bank clients.

“I had to learn to forget my work for the moment and concentrate on aerials,” said Lambert, who lives in Mettmenstetten near Zurich.

Broken Jaw

Lambert, who broke his jaw landing his first jump during his last trip to the Olympics, is aiming for a top-eight finish in Vancouver.

“Everything better is bonus,” he said. “When you’re in the finals, anything can happen.”

Canada’s Williamson, a downhill skier who’s been blind since he was six, is aiming for podium finishes in five events at the Paralympics.

“I’ve got pretty high expectations,” said Williamson, who has no sight in his right eye and 6 percent in his left due to an eye disease. “I want to win five medals, and I’d prefer them to be gold.”

This marks his third trip to the Paralympics. The Markham, Ontario, athlete won gold in the slalom in Salt Lake City in 2002, and four years later won silver and bronze in Turin. He’s confident after coming off a season where he earned his 50th World Cup win of his career.

Ski Guide

Williamson skis with a guide, relying on radios to communicate as they race down a course at speeds as fast as 120 kilometers an hour (75 miles an hour).

When he’s not competing, he works for Royal Bank, Canada’s largest lender and an Olympic sponsor. He’s been with the Toronto-based bank for almost six years.

“Royal Bank helps a lot with just being able to give me time to do my sport and time with my family,” the 37-year-old married father of two said. “But it’s a juggling act; you’ve got to prioritize.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Doug Alexander in Toronto at dalexander3@bloomberg.net; Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at +46- nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net