Geir Helgemo

{{Short description|Norwegian bridge player}} {{update|date=February 2019}} {{use dmy dates|date=January 2015}} thumb|Geir Helgemo '''Geir Helgemo''' (born 14 February 1970)<ref name=SAWMG2014/> is a professional bridge player who was born in Norway but is now a citizen of Monaco. Through 2012 he had won three world championships in {{gcb|teams-of-four}} competition.<ref name=WBF/> As of August 2018 he ranked first among Open World Grand Masters and his regular partner Tor Helness ranked second.<ref>[http://www.worldbridge.org/open-classification.aspx "Open Classification"] (ranked table, page one). WBF Master Points Records. WBF. Retrieved 2013-06-17.</ref>

Helgemo was born in Vinstra, Norway.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}} For several years through 1994 he represented Norway on both its junior and open teams. The juniors won the 1990 European Championship and both teams finished second in the 1993 World Championships. From that time Helgemo played with Tor Helness on the open team, which was always strong and won another world silver medal in 2001.<ref name=WBF/><ref name=bermuda/> Norway finally won the world team championship in 2007, the biennial Bermuda Bowl, with a team of six including Helness–Helgemo as anchor pair.<ref name=bermuda2007/>

At the inaugural 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing, Tor Helness won the Open Individual gold medal and Geir Helgemo won the silver. Norway's open team won the bronze.<ref name=WBF/>

==Emigration to Monaco== From 2011 Helgemo and Helness were full-time members of a team led and funded by the Swiss real estate tycoon Pierre Zimmermann, under a contract expiring in 2016. The team, not yet playing full-time, finished third in the 2010 World Championship and subsequently competed in the European Bridge League open championship. In 2012, all six members of the team became citizens of Monaco.<ref name=jensen/> In 2017 Helgemo and Helness were both convicted of tax evasion."<ref name=neapolitan>[http://neapolitanclub.altervista.org/eng/helgemo-helness-appeal-court-reduces-the-sentences.html Helgemo & Helness: Appeal Court Reduces the Sentence]"</ref>

==Reporting False Scores - Suspension== Helgemo's team reported a false score (claiming a match was played when it was not to the benefit of both teams) in a match in Norway. All players involved were suspended by the Norwegian Bridge Federation. Three of the players involved, Terje Aa (ACBL # 9027661), Geir Helgemo (ACBL # 4036808) and Jørgen Molberg (ACBL # 8896631) were members of the American Contract Bridge League (ACBL) and were suspended by the ACBL.<ref>[http://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/about/0902-exhibits/2009_2_Washington_board_minutes.pdf ACBL Board of Directors, Minutes of Meeting in Washington DC, 2009.]</ref><ref>[http://web2.acbl.org/documentLibrary/about/0903-exhibits/2009_3_San_Diego_board_minutes.pdf ACBL Board of Directors, Minutes of Meeting in San Diego CA, 2009.]</ref>

==Use of prohibited drugs== On 1 March 2019, at which time Helgemo was the world's highest-ranked player, the World Bridge Federation (WBF) announced that he had been suspended for a year after testing positive for two banned substances in a sample he had provided at the World Bridge Series in Orlando in September 2018: clomifene and synthetic testosterone. The drugs were said to be "not performance enhancing" by Kari-Anne Opsal, the president of the Norwegian Bridge Federation. The WBF is recognised by the International Olympic Committee and therefore follows the World Anti-Doping Agency's rules on which drugs are permissible. The ban, backdated to begin when he accepted a provisional suspension, expired on 20 November 2019. A spokesperson for the Monaco Bridge Federation said: "We regret that a talent such as Geir Helgemo is sanctioned under an anti-doping regulation that is certainly adapted to physical sport but totally unsuitable for brain sport."<ref name=BBC>[https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/47420065 World number one bridge player handed one-year ban for doping] Retrieved 1 March 2019</ref>

==Books==  * ''Helgemo's World of Bridge: the maestro reveals his secrets'', Geo Tislevoll and Helgemo (High Wycombe: Five Aces, 2000), 102 pp. – biography; translated from Norwegian, {{OCLC|44934034}} * ''Bridge with Imagination'', David Bird and Helgemo (London: Finesse Bridge, 2000), 160 pp., {{OCLC|50842581}}

==Bridge accomplishments==

===Awards=== *Herman Trophy 1999 *IBPA Award (Personality of the Year) 1996 *Le Bridgeur Award (Best Played Hand of the Year) 1997 *Digital Fountain Award (Best Played Hand of the Year) 2003 *Romex Award (Best Bid Hand of the Year) 1999 *Precision Award (Best Defended Hand of the Year) 1991 *Sender Award (Best Defended Hand of the Year) 1998

===Major wins===

*Bermuda Bowl (1) 2007 *Rosenblum Cup (1) 2006 *World Junior Pairs (1) 1995 *World Transnational Open Teams Championship (1) 2009, 2015 *North American Bridge Championships (12) **Reisinger (4) 1998, 1999, 2012, 2013 **Vanderbilt (1) 2010 **Spingold (2) 2011, 2012 **Open Board-a-Match Teams (1) 1999 **Jacoby Open Swiss Teams (2) 1997, 2005 **Blue Ribbon Pairs (1) 2003 **Open Pairs I (1) 1998 *European Championships (4) **Open Teams (2) 2008, 2012, 2024 **Junior Teams (1) 1990 *Nordic Championships (3) **Open Teams (1) 2003 **Junior Teams (1) 1989 **School Teams (1) 1987 *Norwegian Championships (34) **Open Pairs (7) 1993, 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2007 **Club Teams (8) 1997, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2014, 2022 **Premier League (12) 1990, 1991, 1992, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2014, 2015, 2022 **Swiss Pairs (1) 2022 **Mixed Pairs (3) 1995, 2001, 2014 **Mixed Teams (1) 2006 **Junior Pairs (1) 1993

===Other notable wins=== *Cap Volmac World Top Invitational Pairs (2) 1994, 1996 *Cap Gemini Ernst & Young World Top Invitational Pairs (1) 2002 *Macallan Invitational Pairs (2) 1998, 1999 *Politiken World Pairs (1) 1997 *Hecht Cup (1) 2006 *Generali World Masters Individual (1) 1996 *Cavendish Invitational Teams (1) 2010

===Major runners-up=== *Bermuda Bowl (4) 1993, 2001, 2013, 2023 *Rosenblum Cup (1) 2014 *The Vanderbilt Trophy (1) 2016 *World Mixed Teams (1) 2022 *World Junior Teams (1) 1993 *North American Bridge Championships (5) **Master Mixed Teams (1) 1998 **Blue Ribbon Pairs (1) 1997 **Life Master Pairs (2) 1996, 1997 **Open Pairs I (1) 1997 *European Championships (2) **Open Teams (2) 2001, 2014

===Other notable 2nd places=== *Buffett Cup (1) 2006 *World Mind Sports Games Individual (1) 2008 *Cavendish Invitational Pairs (1) 2010

==References== {{Reflist |25em |refs= <ref name=SAWMG2014> [http://worldmindgames2014.sportresult.com/Hide/en/-60/Participant/ParticipantInfo/3bf21a56-d79a-4460-b131-a25c28a0490c "HELGEMO Geir"]. ''Athlete Information''. SportAccord World Mind Games. December 2014. Retrieved 2015-01-12.</ref>

<ref name=WBF> {{WBFpeople|980|Geir HELGEMO}} ('''WBF'''). Retrieved 2013-06-17.</ref> <ref name=bermuda2007> [http://www.worldbridge.org/teamchampRPperson.aspx?qtournid=607 "38th World Team Championships, Results & Participants"]. WBF. Retrieved 2013-06-17.</ref> <ref name=bermuda> [http://www.worldbridge.org/world-team-championships.aspx "World Team Championships"]. WBF. Retrieved 2013-06-17.</ref>

<ref name=jensen> [http://bridgetopics.com/news/2010/dec/helgeness-and-fantunes-immigrate-monaco "Helgeness and Fantunes Immigrate to Monaco"] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812212056/http://bridgetopics.com/news/2010/dec/helgeness-and-fantunes-immigrate-monaco |date=12 August 2011 }}. Bridge Topics (''bridgetopics.com''). 14 December 2010. Originally published in Norwegian: Alf Helge Jensen, "[http://www.bin.no/?vis=nyhet&id=8458 Helgeness skal spille for Monaco]", ''Bridge i Norge'' (ed. Boye Brogeland), 13 December 2010. Retrieved 2011-08-23.</ref>

}}

==External links== *{{WBFpeople}} *[http://www.bridgebum.com/le_bridgeur.php The 1997 Le Bridgeur Best Play of the Year]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helgemo, Geir}} Category:1970 births Category:Norwegian contract bridge players Category:Monegasque contract bridge players Category:Bermuda Bowl players Category:Contract bridge writers Category:Norwegian emigrants to Monaco Category:People from Nord-Fron Municipality Category:Living people Category:Norwegian sportspeople in doping cases Category:Sportspeople from Innlandet