Kristin Størmer Steira

Kristin Størmer Steira (born 30 April 1981) is a retired Norwegian cross-country skier. She competed from 2002 to 2015, and became known in Norwegian media as "the eternal fourth", due to her many finishes in fourth place.

At the FIS Nordic World Ski Championships, she has seven medals with two gold (4 x 5 km: 2005, 2011), two silvers (7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit: 2009, 30 km: 2007), and three bronzes (7.5 km + 7,5 km double pursuit: 2005, 2007; 4 x 5 km: 2007).

Steira finished fourth in three individual events (10 km, 7.5 km + 7.5 km double pursuit, 30 km) at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin. She has four individual career victories at various levels from 2002 to 2006. In 2009 Steira extended her interests to track athletics and announced her ambition to compete in the 5000 metres at the 2010 European Athletics Championships after achieving a time of 16.02 in Norway. She never did.

In the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, she came eighth in the 10 km pursuit. More agonisingly, she achieved her fourth fourth-place Olympic finish in the 15 km pursuit, losing out on a medal by 0.1 seconds in a photo finish with Justyna Kowalczyk. This, along with her many fourth places previously, led to Norwegian media jokingly labelling her as "the eternal fourth". On February 25, 2010, Steira became an Olympic champion in the 4 x 5 km relay, racing in the third leg after Vibeke Skofterud and Therese Johaug and before Marit Bjørgen.

She qualified for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, where she became 23rd in 15 kilometre skiathlon. In the last event, 30 km mass start freestyle, she finally won the bronze, her only individual medal of the Winter Olympics.

On 20 April 2015, Steira announced her retirement from professional skiing.

Steira lives in Drøbak, near Oslo, in Norway. She married Canadian skier Devon Kershaw, her boyfriend since December 2012, on 25 July 2015.